Everything you need to know about Qtile¶

Getting started¶

Installing Qtile¶

Distro Guides¶

Below are the preferred installation methods for specific distros. If you are running something else, please see Installing From Source.

Installing on Arch Linux¶

Qtile is available on the AUR as:

qtile stable branch(release) of qtile.
qtile-python3-git development branch of qtile.

Using an AUR Helper¶

The preferred way to install Qtile is with an AUR helper. For example, if you use yaourt:

# for release
yaourt -S qtile
# or for develop
yaourt -S qtile-python3-git

Using pacman¶

sudo pacman -S python pango python-cairocffi python-xcffib

Also you need one qtile package from the AUR:

Installing AUR packages without helper¶

To install these packages, download the .tar.gz’s from the AUR and run the following commands for each:

tar -xvzf <packagename>-<vernum>.tar.gz
cd <packagename>-<vernum>
makepkg -s
sudo pacman -U <packagename>

Please see the Arch Wiki for more information on installing packages from the AUR:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AUR#Installing_packages

Installing on Fedora¶

Stable versions of Qtile are currently packaged for current versions of Fedora. To install this package, run:

dnf -y install qtile

Installing on Funtoo¶

Latest versions of Qtile are available on Funtoo with Python 2.7, 3.3, and 3.4 implementations. To install it, run:

emerge -av x11-wm/qtile

You can also install the development version from GitHub:

echo "x11-wm/qtile-9999 **" >> /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords
emerge -av qtile

Customize¶

You can customize your installation with the following useflags:

dbus
widget-google-calendar
widget-imap
widget-keyboardkbdd
widget-launchbar
widget-mpd
widget-mpris
widget-wlan

The dbus useflag is enabled by default. Disable it only if you know what it is and know you don’t use/need it.

All widget-* useflags are disabled by default because these widgets require additional dependencies while not everyone will use them. Enable only widgets you need to avoid extra dependencies thanks to these useflags.

Visit Funtoo Qtile documentation for more details on Qtile installation on Funtoo.

Installing on Ubuntu¶

There are no packages for currently released versions of qtile. However, on wily and above (and debian unstable), the dependencies are available via:

sudo apt-get install python3-xcffib python3-cairocffi

And with those, qtile can be built via a normal python setup.py install.

PPA on Launchpad¶

Packages for old versions are available for 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot), 12.04 (Precise Pangolin), 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal), 13.04 (Raring Ringtail), 13.10 (Saucy Salamander), 14.04 (Trusty Tahr), and 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn).

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:tycho-s/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install qtile

Installing From Source¶

First, you need to install all of Qtile’s dependencies (although some are optional/not needed depending on your Python version, as noted below).

xcffib¶

Qtile uses xcffib as an XCB binding, which has its own instructions for building from source. However, if you’d like to skip building it, you can install its dependencies, you will need libxcb and libffi with the associated headers (libxcb-render0-dev and libffi-dev on Ubuntu), and install it via PyPI:

pip install xcffib

cairocffi¶

Qtile uses cairocffi with XCB support via xcffib. You’ll need libcairo2, the underlying library used by the binding. You should be sure before you install cairocffi that xcffib has been installed, otherwise the needed cairo-xcb bindings will not be built. Once you’ve got the dependencies installed, you can use the latest version on PyPI:

pip install cairocffi

pangocairo¶

You’ll also need libpangocairo, which on Ubuntu can be installed via sudo apt-get install libpangocairo-1.0-0. Qtile uses this to provide text rendering (and binds directly to it via cffi with a small in-tree binding).

asyncio/trollius¶

Qtile uses the asyncio module as introduced in PEP 3156 for its event loop. Based on your Python version, there are different ways to install this:

Python >=3.4: The asyncio module comes as part of the standard library, so there is nothing more to install.
Python 3.3: This has all the infastructure needed to implement PEP 3156, but the asyncio module must be installed from the Tulip project. This is done by calling:
```
pip install asyncio
```
Alternatively, you can install trollius (see next point).
Python 2 and <=3.2 (and 3.3 without asyncio): You will need to install trollius, which backports the asyncio module functionality to work without the infastructure introduced in PEP 3156. You can install this from PyPI:
```
pip install trollius
```

dbus/gobject¶

Until someone comes along and writes an asyncio-based dbus library, qtile will depend on python-dbus to interact with dbus. This means that if you want to use things like notification daemon or mpris widgets, you’ll need to install python-gobject and python-dbus. Qtile will run fine without these, although it will emit a warning that some things won’t work.

Qtile¶

With the dependencies in place, you can now install qtile:

git clone git://github.com/qtile/qtile.git
cd qtile
sudo python setup.py install

Stable versions of Qtile can be installed from PyPI:

pip install qtile

As long as the necessary libraries are in place, this can be done at any point, however, it is recommended that you first install xcffib to ensure the cairo-xcb bindings are built (see above).

Configuration¶

Qtile is configured in Python. A script (~/.config/qtile/config.py by default) is evaluated, and a small set of configuration variables are pulled from its global namespace.

Configuration lookup order¶

Qtile looks in the following places for a configuration file, in order:

The location specified by the -c argument.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/qtile/config.py, if it is set
~/.config/qtile/config.py
It reads the module libqtile.resources.default_config, included by default with every Qtile installation.

Default Configuration¶

The default configuration is invoked when qtile cannot find a configuration file. In addition, if qtile is restarted via qsh, qtile will load the default configuration if the config file it finds has some kind of error in it. The documentation below describes the configuration lookup process, as well as what the key bindings are in the default config.

The default config is not intended to be sutiable for all users; it’s mostly just there so qtile does /something/ when fired up, and so that it doesn’t crash and cause you to lose all your work if you reload a bad config.

Key Bindings¶

The mod key for the default config is mod4, which is typically bound to the “Super” keys, which are things like the windows key and the mac command key. The basic operation is:

mod + k or mod + j: switch windows on the current stack
mod + <space>: put focus on the other pane of the stack (when in stack layout)
mod + <tab>: switch layouts
mod + w: close window
mod + <ctrl> + r: restart qtile with new config
mod + <group name>: switch to that group
mod + <shift> + <group name>: send a window to that group
mod + <enter>: start xterm
mod + r: start a little prompt in the bar so users can run arbitrary commands

The default config defines one screen and 8 groups, one for each letter in asdfuiop. It has a basic bottom bar that includes a group box, the current window name, a little text reminder that you’re using the default config, a system tray, and a clock.

The default configuration has several more advanced key combinations, but the above should be enough for basic usage of qtile.

Mouse Bindings¶

By default, holding your mod key and clicking (and holding) a window will allow you to drag it around as a floating window.

Configuration variables¶

A Qtile configuration consists of a file with a bunch of variables in it, which qtile imports and then runs as a python file to derive its final configuration. The documentation below describes the most common configuration variables; more advanced configuration can be found in the qtile-examples repository, which includes a number of real-world configurations that demonstrate how you can tune Qtile to your liking. (Feel free to issue a pull request to add your own configuration to the mix!)

Groups¶

A group is a container for a bunch of windows, analogous to workspaces in other window managers. Each client window managed by the window manager belongs to exactly one group. The groups config file variable should be initialized to a list of DGroup objects.

DGroup objects provide several options for group configuration. Groups can be configured to show and hide themselves when they’re not empty, spawn applications for them when they start, automatically acquire certain groups, and various other options.

class libqtile.config.Match(title=None, wm_class=None, role=None, wm_type=None, wm_instance_class=None, net_wm_pid=None)[source]¶

Match for dynamic groups It can match by title, class or role.

__init__(title=None, wm_class=None, role=None, wm_type=None, wm_instance_class=None, net_wm_pid=None)[source]¶

Match supports both regular expression objects (i.e. the result of re.compile()) or strings (match as a “include” match). If a window matches any of the things in any of the lists, it is considered a match.

Parameters:

title – things to match against the title (WM_NAME)
wm_class – things to match against the second string in WM_CLASS atom
role – things to match against the WM_ROLE atom
wm_type – things to match against the WM_TYPE atom
wm_instance_class – things to match against the first string in WM_CLASS atom
net_wm_pid – things to match against the _NET_WM_PID atom (only int allowed in this rule)

class libqtile.config.Group(name, matches=None, exclusive=False, spawn=None, layout=None, layouts=None, persist=True, init=True, layout_opts=None, screen_affinity=None, position=9223372036854775807)[source]¶

Represents a “dynamic” group. These groups can spawn apps, only allow certain Matched windows to be on them, hide when they’re not in use, etc.

__init__(name, matches=None, exclusive=False, spawn=None, layout=None, layouts=None, persist=True, init=True, layout_opts=None, screen_affinity=None, position=9223372036854775807)[source]¶

Parameters:

name (string) – the name of this group
matches (default None) – list of Match objects whose windows will be assigned to this group
exclusive (boolean) – when other apps are started in this group, should we allow them here or not?
spawn (string or list of strings) – this will be exec() d when the group is created, you can pass either a program name or a list of programs to exec()
layout (string) – the default layout for this group (e.g. ‘max’ or ‘stack’)
layouts (list) – the group layouts list overriding global layouts
persist (boolean) – should this group stay alive with no member windows?
init (boolean) – is this group alive when qtile starts?
position (int) – group position

libqtile.dgroups.simple_key_binder(mod, keynames=None)[source]¶: Bind keys to mod+group position or to the keys specified as second argument.

Example¶

from libqtile.config import Group, Match
groups = [
    Group("a"),
    Group("b"),
    Group("c", matches=[Match(wm_class=["Firefox"])]),
]

# allow mod3+1 through mod3+0 to bind to groups; if you bind your groups
# by hand in your config, you don't need to do this.
from libqtile.dgroups import simple_key_binder
dgroups_key_binder = simple_key_binder("mod3")

Keys¶

The keys variable defines Qtile’s key bindings. Individual key bindings are defined with libqtile.config.Key as demonstrated in the following example. Note that you may specify more than one callback functions.

from libqtile.config import Key

keys = [
   # Pressing "Meta + Shift + a".
   Key(["mod4", "shift"], "a", callback, ...),

   # Pressing "Control + p".
   Key(["control"], "p", callback, ...),

   # Pressing "Meta + Tab".
   Key(["mod4", "mod1"], "Tab", callback, ...),
]

The above may also be written more concisely with the help of the EzKey helper class. The following example is functionally equivalent to the above:

from libqtile.config import EzKey as Key

keys = [
   Key("M-S-a", callback, ...),
   Key("C-p",   callback, ...),
   Key("M-A-<Tab>", callback, ...),
]

The EzKey modifier keys (i.e. MASC) can be overwritten through the EzKey.modifier_keys dictionary. The defaults are:

modifier_keys = {
   'M': 'mod4',
   'A': 'mod1',
   'S': 'shift',
   'C': 'control',
}

The command.lazy object¶

command.lazy is a special helper object to specify a command for later execution. This object acts like the root of the object graph, which means that we can specify a key binding command with the same syntax used to call the command through a script or through qsh.

Example¶

from libqtile.config import Key
from libqtile.command import lazy

keys = [
    Key(
        ["mod1"], "k",
        lazy.layout.down()
    ),
    Key(
        ["mod1"], "j",
        lazy.layout.up()
    )
]

On most systems mod1 is the Alt key - you can see which modifiers, which are enclosed in a list, map to which keys on your system by running the xmodmap command. This example binds Alt-k to the “down” command on the current layout. This command is standard on all the included layouts, and switches to the next window (where “next” is defined differently in different layouts). The matching “up” command switches to the previous window.

Modifiers include: “shift”, “lock”, “control”, “mod1”, “mod2”, “mod3”, “mod4”, and “mod5”. They can be used in combination by appending more than one modifier to the list:

Key(
    ["mod1", "control"], "k",
    lazy.layout.shuffle_down()
)

Lazy functions¶

This is overview of the commonly used functions for the key bindings.

General functions¶

function	description
`lazy.spawn("application"))`	Run the `application`
`lazy.spawncmd())`	Open command prompt on the bar. See prompt widget.
`lazy.restart())`	Restart Qtile and reload its config. It won’t close your windows
`lazy.shutdown())`	Close the whole Qtile

Group functions¶

function	description
`lazy.next_layout())`	Use next layout on the actual group
`lazy.prev_layout())`	Use previous layout on the actual group
`lazy.screen.next_group())`	Move to the group on the right
`lazy.screen.prev_group())`	Move to the group on the left
`lazy.screen.togglegroup())`	Move to the last visited group
`lazy.group["group_name"].toscreen())`	Move to the group called `group_name`
`lazy.layout.increase_ratio()`	Incrase the space for master window at the expense of slave windows
`lazy.layout.decrease_ratio()`	Decrease the space for master window in the advantage of slave windows

Window functions¶

function	description
`lazy.window.kill())`	Close the focused window
`lazy.layout.next())`	Switch window focus to other pane(s) of stack
`lazy.window.togroup("group_name")`	Move focused window to the group called `group_name`
`lazy.window.toggle_floating()`	Put the focused window to/from floating mode
`lazy.window.toggle_fullscreen()`	Put the focused window to/from fullscreen mode

Special keys¶

These are most commonly used special keys. For complete list please see the code. You can create bindings on them just like for the regular keys. For example Key(["mod1"], "F4", lazy.window.kill()).

Return

BackSpace

Tab

space

Home, End

Left, Up, Right, Down

F1, F2, F3, ...

XF86AudioRaiseVolume

XF86AudioLowerVolume

XF86AudioMute

XF86AudioNext

XF86AudioPrev

XF86MonBrightnessUp

XF86MonBrightnessDown

Layouts¶

A layout is an algorithm for laying out windows in a group on your screen. Since Qtile is a tiling window manager, this usually means that we try to use space as efficiently as possible, and give the user ample commands that can be bound to keys to interact with layouts.

The layouts variable defines the list of layouts you will use with Qtile. The first layout in the list is the default. If you define more than one layout, you will probably also want to define key bindings to let you switch to the next and previous layouts.

See Built-in Layouts for a listing of available layouts.

Example¶

from libqtile import layout
layouts = [
    layout.Max(),
    layout.Stack(stacks=2)
]

Mouse¶

The mouse config file variable defines a set of global mouse actions, and is a list of Click and Drag objects, which define what to do when a window is clicked or dragged.

Example¶

from libqtile.config import Click, Drag
mouse = [
    Drag([mod], "Button1", lazy.window.set_position_floating(),
        start=lazy.window.get_position()),
    Drag([mod], "Button3", lazy.window.set_size_floating(),
        start=lazy.window.get_size()),
    Click([mod], "Button2", lazy.window.bring_to_front())
]

The above example can also be written more concisely with the help of the EzClick and EzDrag helpers:

from libqtile.config import EzClick as EzClick, EzDrag as Drag

mouse = [
    Drag("M-1", lazy.window.set_position_floating(),
        start=lazy.window.get_position()),
    Drag("M-3", lazy.window.set_size_floating(),
        start=lazy.window.get_size()),
    Click("M-2", lazy.window.bring_to_front())
]

Screens¶

The screens configuration variable is where the physical screens, their associated bars, and the widgets contained within the bars are defined.

See Built-in Widgets for a listing of available widgets.

Example¶

Tying together screens, bars and widgets, we get something like this:

from libqtile.config import Screen
from libqtile import bar, widget

screens = [
    Screen(
        bottom=bar.Bar([
            widget.GroupBox(),
            widget.WindowName()
            ], 30),
        ),
    Screen(
        bottom=bar.Bar([
            widget.GroupBox(),
            widget.WindowName()
            ], 30),
        )
    ]

Bars support background colors and gradients, e.g. bar.Bar(..., background="#000000") will give you a black back ground (the default), while bar.Bar(..., background=["#000000", "#FFFFFF"]) will give you a background that fades from black to white.

Third-party bars¶

There might be some reasons to use third-party bars. For instance you can come from another window manager and you have already configured dzen2, xmobar, or something else. They definitely can be used with Qtile too. In fact, any additional configurations aren’t needed. Just run the bar and qtile will adapt.

Hooks¶

Qtile provides a mechanism for subscribing to certain events in libqtile.hook. To subscribe to a hook in your configuration, simply decorate a function with the hook you wish to subscribe to.

See Built-in Hooks for a listing of available hooks.

Examples¶

Automatic floating dialogs¶

Let’s say we wanted to automatically float all dialog windows (this code is not actually necessary; Qtile floats all dialogs by default). We would subscribe to the client_new hook to tell us when a new window has opened and, if the type is “dialog”, as can set the window to float. In our configuration file it would look something like this:

from libqtile import hook

@hook.subscribe.client_new
def floating_dialogs(window):
    dialog = window.window.get_wm_type() == 'dialog'
    transient = window.window.get_wm_transient_for()
    if dialog or transient:
        window.floating = True

A list of available hooks can be found in the Built-in Hooks reference.

Autostart¶

If you want to run commands or spawn some applications when Qtile starts, you’ll want to look at the startup and startup_once hooks. startup is emitted every time Qtile starts (including restarts), whereas startup_once is only emitted on the very first startup.

Let’s create a file ~/.config/qtile/autostart.sh that will set our desktop wallpaper and start a few programs when Qtile first runs.

#!/bin/sh
feh --bg-scale ~/images/wallpaper.jpg &
pidgin &
dropbox start &

We can then subscribe to startup_once to run this script:

import os
import subprocess

@hook.subscribe.startup_once
def autostart():
    home = os.path.expanduser('~')
    subprocess.call([home + '/.config/qtile/autostart.sh'])

In addition to the above variables, there are several other boolean configuration variables that control specific aspects of Qtile’s behavior:

variable	default	description
follow_mouse_focus	False	Controls whether or not focus follows the mouse around as it moves across windows in a layout.
bring_front_click	False	When clicked, should the window be brought to the front or not. (This sets the X Stack Mode to Above.)
cursor_warp	False	If true, the cursor follows the focus as directed by the keyboard, warping to the center of the focused window.
auto_fullscreen	True	If a window requests to be fullscreen, it is automatically fullscreened. Set this to false if you only want windows to be fullscreen if you ask them to be.

Testing your configuration¶

The best way to test changes to your configuration is with the provided Xephyr script. This will run Qtile with your config.py inside a nested X server and prevent your running instance of Qtile from crashing if something goes wrong.

See Hacking Qtile for more information on using Xephyr.

Starting Qtile¶

There are several ways to start Qtile. The most common way is via an entry in your X session manager’s menu. The default Qtile behavior can be invoked by creating a qtile.desktop file in /usr/share/xsessions.

A second way to start Qtile is a custom X session. This way allows you to invoke Qtile with custom arguments, and also allows you to do any setup you want (e.g. special keyboard bindings like mapping caps lock to control, setting your desktop background, etc.) before Qtile starts. If you’re using an X session manager, you still may need to create a custom.desktop file similar to the qtile.desktop file above, but with Exec=/etc/X11/xsession. Then, create your own ~/.xsession. There are several examples of user defined xsession s in the qtile-examples repository.

Finally, if you’re a gnome user, you can start integrate Qtile into Gnome’s session manager and use gnome as usual:

Running Inside Gnome¶

Add the following snippet to your Qtile configuration. As per this page, it registers Qtile with gnome-session. Without it, a “Something has gone wrong!” message shows up a short while after logging in. dbus-send must be on your $PATH.

import subprocess
import os

@hook.subscribe.startup
def dbus_register():
    x = os.environ['DESKTOP_AUTOSTART_ID']
    subprocess.Popen(['dbus-send',
                      '--session',
                      '--print-reply=string',
                      '--dest=org.gnome.SessionManager',
                      '/org/gnome/SessionManager',
                      'org.gnome.SessionManager.RegisterClient',
                      'string:qtile',
                      'string:' + x])

This adds a new entry “Qtile GNOME” to GDM’s login screen.

$ cat /usr/share/xsessions/qtile_gnome.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Qtile GNOME
Comment=Tiling window manager
TryExec=/usr/bin/gnome-session
Exec=gnome-session --session=qtile
Type=XSession

The custom session for gnome-session.

$ cat /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/qtile.session
[GNOME Session]
Name=Qtile session
RequiredComponents=qtile;gnome-settings-daemon;

So that Qtile starts automatically on login.

$ cat /usr/share/applications/qtile.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Qtile
Exec=qtile
NoDisplay=true
X-GNOME-WMName=Qtile
X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=WindowManager
X-GNOME-Provides=windowmanager
X-GNOME-Autostart-Notify=false

The above does not start gnome-panel. Getting gnome-panel to work requires some extra Qtile configuration, mainly making the top and bottom panels static on panel startup and leaving a gap at the top (and bottom) for the panel window.

You might want to add keybindings to log out of the GNOME session.

Key([mod, 'control'], 'l', lazy.spawn('gnome-screensaver-command -l')),
Key([mod, 'control'], 'q', lazy.spawn('gnome-session-quit --logout --no-prompt')),
Key([mod, 'shift', 'control'], 'q', lazy.spawn('gnome-session-quit --power-off')),

The above apps need to be in your path (though they are typically installed in /usr/bin, so they probably are if they’re installed at all).

Commands and scripting¶

Commands API¶

Qtile’s command API is based on a graph of objects, where each object has a set of associated commands. The graph and object commands are used in a number of different places:

Commands can be bound to keys in the Qtile configuration file.
Commands can be called through qsh, the Qtile shell.
Commands can be called from a script to interact with Qtile from Python.

If the explanation below seems a bit complex, please take a moment to explore the API using the qsh command shell. Command lists and detailed documentation can be accessed from its built-in help command.

Object Graph¶

The objects in Qtile’s object graph come in seven flavours, matching the seven basic components of the window manager: layouts, windows, groups, bars, widgets, screens, and a special root node. Objects are addressed by a path specification that starts at the root, and follows the edges of the graph. This is what the graph looks like:

Each arrow can be read as “holds a reference to”. So, we can see that a widget object holds a reference to objects of type bar, screen and group. Lets start with some simple examples of how the addressing works. Which particular objects we hold reference to depends on the context - for instance, widgets hold a reference to the screen that they appear on, and the bar they are attached to.

Lets look at an example, starting at the root node. The following script runs the status command on the root node, which, in this case, is represented by the Client object:

from libqtile.command import Client
c = Client()
print c.status()

From the graph, we can see that the root node holds a reference to group nodes. We can access the “info” command on the current group like so:

c.group.info()

To access a specific group, regardless of whether or not it is current, we use the Python containment syntax. This command sends group “b” to screen 1:

c.group["b"].to_screen(1)

The current group, layout, screen and window can be accessed by simply leaving the key specifier out. The key specifier is mandatory for widget and bar nodes.

We can now drill down deeper in the graph. To access the screen currently displaying group “b”, we can do this:

c.group["b"].screen.info()

Be aware, however, that group “b” might not currently be displayed. In that case, it has no associated screen, the path resolves to a non-existent node, and we get an exception:

libqtile.command.CommandError: No object screen in path 'group['b'].screen'

The graph is not a tree, since it can contain cycles. This path (redundantly) specifies the group belonging to the screen that belongs to group “b”:

c.group["b"].screen.group()

Keys¶

The key specifier for the various object types are as follows:

Object	Key	Optional?	Example
bar	“top”, “bottom”	No	c.screen.bar[“bottom”]
group	Name string	Yes	c.group[“one”] c.group
layout	Integer offset	Yes	c.layout[2] c.layout
screen	Integer offset	Yes	c.screen[1] c.screen
widget	Widget name	No	c.widget[“textbox”]
window	Integer window ID	Yes	c.window[123456] c.window

Scripting¶

Client-Server Scripting Model¶

Qtile has a client-server control model - the main Qtile instance listens on a named pipe, over which marshalled command calls and response data is passed. This allows Qtile to be controlled fully from external scripts. Remote interaction occurs through an instance of the libqtile.command.Client class. This class establishes a connection to the currently running instance of Qtile, and sources the user’s configuration file to figure out which commands should be exposed. Commands then appear as methods with the appropriate signature on the Client object. The object hierarchy is described in the Commands API section of this manual. Full command documentation is available through the Qtile Shell.

Example¶

Below is a very minimal example script that inspects the current qtile instance, and returns the integer offset of the current screen.

from libqtile.command import Client
c = Client()
print c.screen.info()["index"]

qsh¶

The Qtile command shell is a command-line shell interface that provides access to the full complement of Qtile command functions. The shell features command name completion, and full command documentation can be accessed from the shell itself. The shell uses GNU Readline when it’s available, so the interface can be configured to, for example, obey VI keybindings with an appropriate .inputrc file. See the GNU Readline documentation for more information.

Navigating the Object Graph¶

The shell presents a filesystem-like interface to the object graph - the builtin “cd” and “ls” commmands act like their familiar shell counterparts:

> ls
layout/  widget/  screen/  bar/     window/  group/

> cd bar

bar> ls
bottom/

bar> cd bottom

bar['bottom']> ls
screen/

bar['bottom']> cd ../..

> ls
layout/  widget/  screen/  bar/     window/  group/

Note that the shell provides a “short-hand” for specifying node keys (as opposed to children). The following is a valid shell path:

> cd group/4/window/31457314

The command prompt will, however, always display the Python node path that should be used in scripts and key bindings:

group['4'].window[31457314]>

Documentation¶

The shell help provides the canonical documentation for the Qtile API:

> cd layout/1

layout[1]> help
help command   -- Help for a specific command.

Builtins:
=========
cd    exit  help  ls    q     quit

Commands for this object:
=========================
add           commands      current       delete        doc           down          get
info          items         next          previous      rotate        shuffle_down  shuffle_up
toggle_split  up

layout[1]> help previous
previous()
Focus previous stack.

Getting involved¶

Contributing¶

Reporting bugs¶

Perhaps the easiest way to contribute to Qtile is to report any bugs you run into on the github issue tracker.

Useful bug reports are ones that get bugs fixed. A useful bug report normally has two qualities:

Reproducible. If your bug is not reproducible it will never get fixed. You should clearly mention the steps to reproduce the bug. Do not assume or skip any reproducing step. Described the issue, step-by-step, so that it is easy to reproduce and fix.
Specific. Do not write a essay about the problem. Be Specific and to the point. Try to summarize the problem in minimum words yet in effective way. Do not combine multiple problems even they seem to be similar. Write different reports for each problem.

Writing code¶

To get started writing code for Qtile, check out our guide to Hacking on Qtile.

Git workflow¶

Our workflow is based on Vincent Driessen’s successful git branching model:

The master branch is our current release
The develop branch is what all pull requests should be based against
Feature branches are where new features, both major and minor, should be developed.

git-flow is a git plugin that helps facilitate this branching strategy. It’s not required, but can help make things a bit easier to manage. There is also a good write up on using git-flow.

We also request that git commit messages follow the standard format.

Submit a pull request¶

You’ve done your hacking and are ready to submit your patch to Qtile. Great! Now it’s time to submit a pull request to our issue tracker on Github.

Important

Pull requests are not considered complete until they include all of the following:

Code that conforms to PEP8.
Unit tests that pass locally and in our CI environment.
Documentation updates on an as needed basis.

Feel free to add your contribution (no matter how small) to the appropriate place in the CHANGELOG as well!

Hacking on Qtile¶

Requirements¶

Any reasonably recent version of these should work, so you can probably just install them from your package manager.

Nose
Xephyr
xeyes and xclock

On ubuntu, this can be done with sudo apt-get install python-nose xserver-xephyr x11-apps.

Building cffi module¶

Qtile ships with a small in-tree pangocairo binding built using cffi, pangocffi.py, and also binds to xcursor with cffi. The bindings are not built at run time and will have to be generated manually when the code is downloaded or when any changes are made to the cffi library. This can be done by calling:

python libqtile/ffi_build.py

Using Xephyr and the test suite¶

Qtile has a very extensive test suite, using the Xephyr nested X server. When tests are run, a nested X server with a nested instance of Qtile is fired up, and then tests interact with the Qtile instance through the client API. The fact that we can do this is a great demonstration of just how completely scriptable Qtile is. In fact, Qtile is designed expressly to be scriptable enough to allow unit testing in a nested environment.

The Qtile repo includes a tiny helper script to let you quickly pull up a nested instance of Qtile in Xephyr, using your current configuration. Run it from the top-level of the repository, like this:

./scripts/xephyr

In practice, the development cycle looks something like this:

make minor code change
run appropriate test: nosetests --tests=test_module
GOTO 1, until hackage is complete
run entire test suite: nosetests
commit

Second X Session¶

Some users prefer to test Qtile in a second, completely separate X session: Just switch to a new tty and run startx normally to use the ~/.xinitrc X startup script.

It’s likely though that you want to use a different, customized startup script for testing purposes, for example ~/.config/qtile/xinitrc. You can do so by launching X with:

startx ~/.config/qtile/xinitrc

startx deals with multiple X sessions automatically. If you want to use xinit instead, you need to first copy /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc to ~/.xserverrc; when launching it, you have to specify a new session number:

xinit ~/.config/qtile/xinitrc -- :1

Examples of custom X startup scripts are available in qtile-examples.

Capturing an `xtrace`¶

Occasionally, a bug will be low level enough to require an xtrace of Qtile’s conversations with the X server. To capture one of these, create an xinitrc or similar file with:

exec xtrace qtile >> ~/.qtile.log

This will put the xtrace output in Qtile’s logfile as well. You can then demonstrate the bug, and paste the contents of this file into the bug report.

Coding style¶

While not all of our code follows PEP8, we do try to adhere to it where possible. All new code should be PEP8 compliant.

The make lint command will run a linter with our configuration over libqtile to ensure your patch complies with reasonable formatting constraints. We also request that git commit messages follow the standard format.

Deprecation policy¶

When a widget API is changed, you should deprecate the change using libqtile.widget.base.deprecated to warn users, in additon to adding it to the appropriate place in the changelog. We will typically remove deprecated APIs one tag after they are deprecated.

Testing¶

Of course, your patches should also pass the unit tests as well (i.e. make check). These will be run by travis-ci on every pull request so you can see whether or not your contribution passes.

Resources¶

Here are a number of resources that may come in handy:

Miscellaneous¶

Reference¶

Built-in Hooks¶

subscribe.client_new(func)¶

Called before Qtile starts managing a new client. Use this hook to declare windows static, or add them to a group on startup. This hook is not called for internal windows.

arguments: window.Window object

Example:

def func(c):
    if c.name == "xterm":
        c.togroup("a")
    elif c.name == "dzen":
        c.static(0)

libqtile.hook.subscribe.client_new(func)

subscribe.screen_change(func)¶

Called when a screen is added or screen configuration is changed (via xrandr). The hook should take two arguments: the root qtile object and the xproto.randr.ScreenChangeNotify event. Common usage is simply to call qtile.cmd_restart() on each event (to restart qtile when there is a new monitor):

Example:

def restart_on_randr(qtile, ev):
    qtile.cmd_restart()

subscribe.setgroup(func)¶: Called when group is changed.

subscribe.focus_change(func)¶: Called when focus is changed.

subscribe.selection_change(func)¶: Called on selection chance.

subscribe.client_focus(func)¶

Called whenver focus changes.

arguments: window.Window object of the new focus.

subscribe.group_window_add(func)¶: Called when a new window is added to a group.

subscribe.window_name_change(func)¶: Called whenever a windows name changes.

subscribe.client_mouse_enter(func)¶: Called when the mouse enters a client.

subscribe.client_managed(func)¶

Called after Qtile starts managing a new client. That is, after a window is assigned to a group, or when a window is made static. This hook is not called for internal windows.

arguments: window.Window object

subscribe.layout_change(func)¶: Called on layout change.

subscribe.selection_notify(func)¶: Called on selection notify.

subscribe.client_urgent_hint_changed(func)¶: Called when the client urgent hint changes.

subscribe.net_wm_icon_change(func)¶: Called on _NET_WM_ICON chance.

subscribe.startup_once(func)¶: Called when Qtile has initialized, exactly once (i.e. not on each lazy.restart()).

subscribe.addgroup(func)¶: Called when group is added.

subscribe.client_killed(func)¶

Called after a client has been unmanaged.

arguments: window.Window object of the killed window.

subscribe.client_state_changed(func)¶: Called whenever client state changes.

subscribe.float_change(func)¶: Called when a change in float state is made

subscribe.delgroup(func)¶: Called when group is deleted.

subscribe.client_name_updated(func)¶: Called when the client name changes.

subscribe.changegroup(func)¶: Called whenever a group change occurs.

subscribe.startup(func)¶: Called each time qtile is started (including the first time qtile starts)

subscribe.client_type_changed(func)¶: Called whenever window type changes.

subscribe.current_screen_change(func)¶: Called when the current screen (i.e. the screen with focus) changes; no arguments.

Built-in Layouts¶

class libqtile.layout.floating.Floating(float_rules=None, **config)[source]¶

Floating layout, which does nothing with windows but handles focus order

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#0000ff'`	Border colour for the focused window.
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	Border colour for un-focused winows.
`border_width`	`1`	Border width.
`max_border_width`	`0`	Border width for maximize.
`fullscreen_border_width`	`0`	Border width for fullscreen.
`name`	`'floating'`	Name of this layout.
`auto_float_types`	`{'utility', 'splash', 'dialog', 'notification', 'toolbar'}`	default wm types to automatically float

__init__(float_rules=None, **config)[source]¶

If you have certain apps that you always want to float you can provide float_rules to do so. float_rules is a list of dictionaries containing some or all of the keys:

{'wname': WM_NAME, 'wmclass': WM_CLASS, 'role': WM_WINDOW_ROLE}

The keys must be specified as above. You only need one, but you need to provide the value for it. When a new window is opened it’s match method is called with each of these rules. If one matches, the window will float. The following will float gimp and skype:

float_rules=[dict(wmclass="skype"), dict(wmclass="gimp")]

Specify these in the floating_layout in your config.

class libqtile.layout.matrix.Matrix(columns=2, **config)[source]¶

This layout divides the screen into a matrix of equally sized cells and places one window in each cell. The number of columns is configurable and can also be changed interactively.

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#0000ff'`	Border colour for the focused window.
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	Border colour for un-focused winows.
`border_width`	`1`	Border width.
`name`	`'matrix'`	Name of this layout.
`margin`	`0`	Margin of the layout

class libqtile.layout.max.Max(**config)[source]¶

A simple layout that only displays one window at a time, filling the screen. This is suitable for use on laptops and other devices with small screens. Conceptually, the windows are managed as a stack, with commands to switch to next and previous windows in the stack.

key	default	description
`name`	`'max'`	Name of this layout.

class libqtile.layout.xmonad.MonadTall(**config)[source]¶

This layout attempts to emulate the behavior of XMonad’s default tiling scheme.

Main-Pane:

A main pane that contains a single window takes up a vertical portion of the screen based on the ratio setting. This ratio can be adjusted with the cmd_grow and cmd_shrink methods while the main pane is in focus.

---------------------
|            |      |
|            |      |
|            |      |
|            |      |
|            |      |
|            |      |
---------------------

Using the cmd_flip method will switch which horizontal side the main pane will occupy. The main pane is considered the “top” of the stack.

---------------------
|      |            |
|      |            |
|      |            |
|      |            |
|      |            |
|      |            |
---------------------

Secondary-panes:

Occupying the rest of the screen are one or more secondary panes. The secondary panes will share the vertical space of the screen however they can be resized at will with the cmd_grow and cmd_shrink methods. The other secondary panes will adjust their sizes to smoothly fill all of the space.

---------------------          ---------------------
|            |      |          |            |______|
|            |______|          |            |      |
|            |      |          |            |      |
|            |______|          |            |      |
|            |      |          |            |______|
|            |      |          |            |      |
---------------------          ---------------------

Panes can be moved with the cmd_shuffle_up and cmd_shuffle_down methods. As mentioned the main pane is considered the top of the stack; moving up is counter-clockwise and moving down is clockwise.

The opposite is true if the layout is “flipped”.

---------------------          ---------------------
|            |  2   |          |   2   |           |
|            |______|          |_______|           |
|            |  3   |          |   3   |           |
|     1      |______|          |_______|     1     |
|            |  4   |          |   4   |           |
|            |      |          |       |           |
---------------------          ---------------------

Normalizing:

To restore all client windows to their default size ratios simply use the cmd_normalize method.

Maximizing:

To toggle a client window between its minimum and maximum sizes simply use the cmd_maximize on a focused client.

Suggested Bindings:

Key([modkey], "h", lazy.layout.left()),
Key([modkey], "l", lazy.layout.right()),
Key([modkey], "j", lazy.layout.down()),
Key([modkey], "k", lazy.layout.up()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "h", lazy.layout.swap_left()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "l", lazy.layout.swap_right()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "j", lazy.layout.shuffle_down()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "k", lazy.layout.shuffle_up()),
Key([modkey], "i", lazy.layout.grow()),
Key([modkey], "m", lazy.layout.shrink()),
Key([modkey], "n", lazy.layout.normalize()),
Key([modkey], "o", lazy.layout.maximize()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "space", lazy.layout.flip()),

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#ff0000'`	Border colour for the focused window.
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	Border colour for un-focused winows.
`border_width`	`2`	Border width.
`single_border_width`	`None`	Border width for single window
`name`	`'xmonad-tall'`	Name of this layout.
`margin`	`0`	Margin of the layout
`ratio`	`0.5`	The percent of the screen-space the master pane should occupy by default.
`align`	`0`	Which side master plane will be placed (one of `MonadTall._left` or `MonadTall._right`)
`change_ratio`	`0.05`	Resize ratio
`change_size`	`20`	Resize change in pixels

class libqtile.layout.ratiotile.RatioTile(**config)[source]¶

Tries to tile all windows in the width/height ratio passed in

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#0000ff'`	Border colour for the focused window.
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	Border colour for un-focused winows.
`border_width`	`1`	Border width.
`name`	`'ratiotile'`	Name of this layout.
`margin`	`0`	Margin of the layout
`ratio`	`1.618`	Ratio of the tiles
`ratio_increment`	`0.1`	Amount to inrement per ratio increment
`fancy`	`False`	Use a different method to calculate window sizes.

class libqtile.layout.slice.Slice(side, width, **config)[source]¶

Slice layout

This layout cuts piece of screen and places a single window on that piece, and delegates other window placement to other layout

key	default	description
`width`	`256`	Slice width
`side`	`'left'`	Side of the slice (left, right, top, bottom)
`name`	`'max'`	Name of this layout.
`wname`	`None`	WM_NAME to match
`wmclass`	`None`	WM_CLASS to match
`role`	`None`	WM_WINDOW_ROLE to match
`fallback`	`<libqtile.layout.max.Max object at 0x7f3cd848fcc0>`	Fallback layout

class libqtile.layout.stack.Stack(**config)[source]¶

The stack layout divides the screen horizontally into a set of stacks. Commands allow you to switch between stacks, to next and previous windows within a stack, and to split a stack to show all windows in the stack, or unsplit it to show only the current window. At the moment, this is the most mature and flexible layout in Qtile.

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#0000ff'`	Border colour for the focused window.
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	Border colour for un-focused winows.
`border_width`	`1`	Border width.
`name`	`'stack'`	Name of this layout.
`autosplit`	`False`	Auto split all new stacks.
`num_stacks`	`2`	Number of stacks.
`fair`	`False`	Add new windows to the stacks in a round robin way.
`margin`	`0`	Margin of the layout

class libqtile.layout.tile.Tile(ratio=0.618, masterWindows=1, expand=True, ratio_increment=0.05, add_on_top=True, shift_windows=False, master_match=None, **config)[source]¶

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#0000ff'`	Border colour for the focused window.
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	Border colour for un-focused winows.
`border_width`	`1`	Border width.
`name`	`'tile'`	Name of this layout.
`margin`	`0`	Margin of the layout

class libqtile.layout.tree.TreeTab(**config)[source]¶

Tree Tab Layout

This layout works just like Max but displays tree of the windows at the left border of the screen, which allows you to overview all opened windows. It’s designed to work with uzbl-browser but works with other windows too.

key	default	description
`bg_color`	`'000000'`	Background color of tabs
`active_bg`	`'000080'`	Background color of active tab
`active_fg`	`'ffffff'`	Foreground color of active tab
`inactive_bg`	`'606060'`	Background color of inactive tab
`inactive_fg`	`'ffffff'`	Foreground color of inactive tab
`margin_left`	`6`	Left margin of tab panel
`margin_y`	`6`	Vertical margin of tab panel
`padding_left`	`6`	Left padding for tabs
`padding_x`	`6`	Left padding for tab label
`padding_y`	`2`	Top padding for tab label
`border_width`	`2`	Width of the border
`vspace`	`2`	Space between tabs
`level_shift`	`8`	Shift for children tabs
`font`	`'Arial'`	Font
`fontsize`	`14`	Font pixel size.
`fontshadow`	`None`	font shadow color, default is None (no shadow)
`section_fontsize`	`11`	Font pixel size of section label
`section_fg`	`'ffffff'`	Color of section label
`section_top`	`4`	Top margin of section label
`section_bottom`	`6`	Bottom margin of section
`section_padding`	`4`	Bottom of magin section label
`section_left`	`4`	Left margin of section label
`panel_width`	`150`	Width of the left panel
`sections`	`['Default']`	Foreground color of inactive tab
`name`	`'treetab'`	Name of this layout.
`previous_on_rm`	`False`	Focus previous window on close instead of first.

class libqtile.layout.verticaltile.VerticalTile(**config)[source]¶

VerticalTile implements a tiling layout that works nice on vertically mounted monitors. The available height gets divided by the number of panes, if no pane is maximized. If one pane has been maximized, the available height gets split in master- and secondary area. The maximized pane (master pane) gets the full height of the master area and the other panes (secondary panes) share the remaining space. The master area (at default 75%) can grow and shrink via keybindings.

-----------------                -----------------  ---
|               |                |               |   |
|       1       |  <-- Panes     |               |   |
|               |        |       |               |   |
|---------------|        |       |               |   |
|               |        |       |               |   |
|       2       |  <-----+       |       1       |   |  Master Area
|               |        |       |               |   |
|---------------|        |       |               |   |
|               |        |       |               |   |
|       3       |  <-----+       |               |   |
|               |        |       |               |   |
|---------------|        |       |---------------|  ---
|               |        |       |       2       |   |
|       4       |  <-----+       |---------------|   |  Secondary Area
|               |                |       3       |   |
-----------------                -----------------  ---

Normal behavior. No One maximized pane in the master area maximized pane. No and two secondary panes in the specific areas. secondary area.

-----------------------------------  In some cases VerticalTile can be
|                                 |  useful on horizontal mounted
|                1                |  monitors two.
|                                 |  For example if you want to have a
|---------------------------------|  webbrowser and a shell below it.
|                                 |
|                2                |
|                                 |
-----------------------------------

Suggested keybindings:

Key([modkey], 'j', lazy.layout.down()),
Key([modkey], 'k', lazy.layout.up()),
Key([modkey], 'Tab', lazy.layout.next()),
Key([modkey, 'shift'], 'Tab', lazy.layout.next()),
Key([modkey, 'shift'], 'j', lazy.layout.shuffle_down()),
Key([modkey, 'shift'], 'k', lazy.layout.shuffle_up()),
Key([modkey], 'm', lazy.layout.maximize()),
Key([modkey], 'n', lazy.layout.normalize()),

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#FF0000'`	Border color for the focused window.
`border_normal`	`'#FFFFFF'`	Border color for un-focused winows.
`border_width`	`1`	Border width.
`margin`	`0`	Border margin.
`name`	`'VerticalTile'`	Name of this layout.

class libqtile.layout.zoomy.Zoomy(**config)[source]¶

A layout with single active windows, and few other previews at the right

key	default	description
`columnwidth`	`150`	Width of the right column
`property_name`	`'ZOOM'`	Property to set on zoomed window
`property_small`	`'0.1'`	Property value to set on zoomed window
`property_big`	`'1.0'`	Property value to set on normal window
`margin`	`0`	Margin of the layout

Built-in Widgets¶

class libqtile.widget.AGroupBox(**config)[source]¶

A widget that graphically displays the current group.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`border`	`'000000'`	group box border color

class libqtile.widget.Backlight(**config)[source]¶

A simple widget to show the current brightness of a monitor.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`backlight_name`	`'acpi_video0'`	ACPI name of a backlight device
`brightness_file`	`'brightness'`	Name of file with the current brightness in /sys/class/backlight/backlight_name
`max_brightness_file`	`'max_brightness'`	Name of file with the maximum brightness in /sys/class/backlight/backlight_name
`update_interval`	`0.2`	The delay in seconds between updates

class libqtile.widget.Battery(**config)[source]¶

A simple but flexible text-based battery widget.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`charge_char`	`'^'`	Character to indicate the battery is charging
`discharge_char`	`'V'`	Character to indicate the battery is discharging
`error_message`	`'Error'`	Error message if something is wrong
`format`	`'{char} {percent:2.0%} {hour:d}:{min:02d}'`	Display format
`hide_threshold`	`None`	Hide the text when there is enough energy
`low_percentage`	`0.1`	Indicates when to use the low_foreground color 0 < x < 1
`low_foreground`	`'FF0000'`	Font color on low battery

class libqtile.widget.BatteryIcon(**config)[source]¶

Battery life indicator widget.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`theme_path`	`'/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/qtile/checkouts/v0.10.3/libqtile/resources/battery-icons'`	Path of the icons
`custom_icons`	`{}`	dict containing key->filename icon map

class libqtile.widget.BitcoinTicker(**config)[source]¶

A bitcoin ticker widget, data provided by the btc-e.com API. Defaults to displaying currency in whatever the current locale is.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`currency`	`''`	The currency the value of bitcoin is displayed in
`format`	`'BTC Buy: {buy}, Sell: {sell}'`	Display format, allows buy, sell, high, low, avg, vol, vol_cur, last, variables.

class libqtile.widget.CPUGraph(**config)[source]¶

Display CPU usage graph.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`core`	`'all'`	Which core to show (all/0/1/2/...)

class libqtile.widget.Canto(**config)[source]¶

Display RSS feeds updates using the canto console reader.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`fetch`	`False`	Whether to fetch new items on update
`feeds`	`[]`	List of feeds to display, empty for all
`one_format`	`'{name}: {number}'`	One feed display format
`all_format`	`'{number}'`	All feeds display format

class libqtile.widget.CheckUpdates(**config)[source]¶

Shows number of pending updates in different unix systems.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`distro`	`'Arch'`	Name of your distribution
`update_interval`	`60`	Update interval in seconds.
`execute`	`None`	Command to execute on click
`display_format`	`'Updates: {updates}'`	Display format if updates available
`colour_no_updates`	`'ffffff'`	Colour when there’s no updates.
`colour_have_updates`	`'ffffff'`	Colour when there are updates.

class libqtile.widget.Clipboard(width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

Display current clipboard contents.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`selection`	`'CLIPBOARD'`	the selection to display(CLIPBOARD or PRIMARY)
`max_width`	`10`	maximum number of characters to display (None for all, useful when width is bar.STRETCH)
`timeout`	`10`	Default timeout (seconds) for display text, None to keep forever
`blacklist`	`['keepassx']`	list with blacklisted wm_class, sadly not every clipboard window sets them, keepassx does.Clipboard contents from blacklisted wm_classes will be replaced by the value of `blacklist_text`.
`blacklist_text`	`'***********'`	text to display when the wm_class is blacklisted

class libqtile.widget.Clock(**config)[source]¶

A simple but flexible text-based clock.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`format`	`'%H:%M'`	A Python datetime format string
`update_interval`	`1.0`	Update interval for the clock
`timezone`	`None`	The timezone to use for this clock, e.g. “US/Central” (or anything in /usr/share/zoneinfo). None means the default timezone.

class libqtile.widget.Cmus(**config)[source]¶

A simple Cmus widget.

Show the artist and album of now listening song and allow basic mouse control from the bar:

toggle pause (or play if stopped) on left click;
skip forward in playlist on scroll up;
skip backward in playlist on scroll down.

Cmus (https://cmus.github.io) should be installed.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`play_color`	`'00ff00'`	Text colour when playing.
`noplay_color`	`'cecece'`	Text colour when not playing.
`max_chars`	`0`	Maximum number of characters to display in widget.
`update_interval`	`0.5`	Update Time in seconds.

class libqtile.widget.Countdown(**config)[source]¶

A simple countdown timer text widget.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`format`	`'{D}d {H}h {M}m {S}s'`	Format of the displayed text. Available variables:{D} == days, {H} == hours, {M} == minutes, {S} seconds.
`update_interval`	`1.0`	Update interval in seconds for the clock
`date`	`datetime.datetime(2015, 12, 25, 19, 53, 18, 852642)`	The datetime for the endo of the countdown

class libqtile.widget.CurrentLayout(width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

Display the name of the current layout of the current group of the screen, the bar containing the widget, is on.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`font`	`'Arial'`	Default font
`fontsize`	`None`	Font size. Calculated if None.
`padding`	`None`	Padding. Calculated if None.
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	Foreground colour
`fontshadow`	`None`	font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)
`markup`	`False`	Whether or not to use pango markup

class libqtile.widget.CurrentScreen(width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

Indicates whether the screen this widget is on is currently active or not.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`active_text`	`'A'`	Text displayed when the screen is active
`inactive_text`	`'I'`	Text displayed when the screen is inactive
`active_color`	`'00ff00'`	Color when screen is active
`inactive_color`	`'ff0000'`	Color when screen is inactive

class libqtile.widget.DF(**config)[source]¶

Disk Free Widget

By default the widget only displays if the space is less than warn_space.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`partition`	`'/'`	the partition to check space
`warn_color`	`'ff0000'`	Warning color
`warn_space`	`2`	Warning space in scale defined by the `measure` option.
`visible_on_warn`	`True`	Only display if warning
`measure`	`'G'`	Measurement (G, M, B)
`format`	`'{p} ({uf}{m})'`	String format (p: partition, s: size, f: free space, uf: user free space, m: measure)
`update_interval`	`60`	The update inteval.

class libqtile.widget.DebugInfo(**config)[source]¶

Displays debugging infos about selected window

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`font`	`'Arial'`	Default font
`fontsize`	`None`	Font size. Calculated if None.
`padding`	`None`	Padding. Calculated if None.
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	Foreground colour
`fontshadow`	`None`	font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)
`markup`	`False`	Whether or not to use pango markup

class libqtile.widget.GenPollText(**config)[source]¶

A generic text widget that polls using poll function to get the text.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`func`	`None`	Poll Function

class libqtile.widget.GenPollUrl(**config)[source]¶

A generic text widget that polls an url and parses it using parse function.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`url`	`None`	Url
`data`	`None`	Post Data
`parse`	`None`	Parse Function
`json`	`True`	Is Json?
`user_agent`	`'Qtile'`	Set the user agent
`headers`	`{}`	Extra Headers

class libqtile.widget.GmailChecker(**config)[source]¶

A simple gmail checker.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`update_interval`	`30`	Update time in seconds.
`username`	`None`	username
`password`	`None`	password
`email_path`	`'INBOX'`	email_path
`fmt`	`'inbox[%s],unseen[%s]'`	fmt
`status_only_unseen`	`False`	Only show unseen messages

class libqtile.widget.GroupBox(**config)[source]¶

A widget that graphically displays the current group.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`active`	`'FFFFFF'`	Active group font colour
`inactive`	`'404040'`	Inactive group font colour
`highlight_method`	`'border'`	Method of highlighting (‘border’, ‘block’, ‘text’, or ‘line’)Uses *_border color settings
`rounded`	`True`	To round or not to round box borders
`this_current_screen_border`	`'215578'`	Border or line colour for group on this screen when focused.
`this_screen_border`	`'215578'`	Border or line colour for group on this screen when unfocused.
`other_screen_border`	`'404040'`	Border or line colour for group on other screen.
`highlight_color`	`['000000', '282828']`	Active group highlight color when using ‘line’ highlight method.
`urgent_alert_method`	`'border'`	Method for alerting you of WM urgent hints (one of ‘border’, ‘text’, ‘block’, or ‘line’)
`urgent_text`	`'FF0000'`	Urgent group font color
`urgent_border`	`'FF0000'`	Urgent border or line color
`disable_drag`	`False`	Disable dragging and dropping of group names on widget
`invert_mouse_wheel`	`False`	Whether to invert mouse wheel group movement
`visible_groups`	`None`	Groups that will be visible (if set to None or [], all groups will be visible)

class libqtile.widget.HDDBusyGraph(**config)[source]¶

Parses /sys/block/<dev>/stat file and extracts overall device IO usage, based on io_ticks‘s value. See https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/block/stat.txt

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`device`	`'sda'`	Block device to display info for

class libqtile.widget.HDDGraph(**config)[source]¶

Display HDD free or used space graph.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`path`	`'/'`	Partition mount point.
`space_type`	`'used'`	free/used

class libqtile.widget.Image(length=CALCULATED, width=None, **config)[source]¶

Display a PNG image on the bar.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal and vertical

key	default	description
`scale`	`True`	Enable/Disable image scaling
`filename`	`None`	PNG Image filename. Can contain ‘~’

class libqtile.widget.KeyboardLayout(**config)[source]¶

Widget for changing and displaying the current keyboard layout. It requires setxkbmap to be available in the system.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`update_interval`	`1`	Update time in seconds.
`configured_keyboards`	`['us']`	A list of predefined keyboard layouts represented as strings. For example: [‘us’, ‘us colemak’, ‘es’, ‘fr’].

class libqtile.widget.Maildir(**config)[source]¶

A simple widget showing the number of new mails in maildir mailboxes.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`maildirPath`	`'~/Mail'`	path to the Maildir folder
`subFolders`	`[]`	The subfolders to scan (e.g. [{“path”: “INBOX”, “label”: “Home mail”}, {“path”: “spam”, “label”: “Home junk”}]
`separator`	`' '`	the string to put between the subfolder strings.

class libqtile.widget.Memory(**config)[source]¶

Displays memory usage.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`fmt`	`'{MemUsed}M/{MemTotal}M'`	see /proc/meminfo for field names

class libqtile.widget.MemoryGraph(**config)[source]¶

Displays a memory usage graph.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`graph_color`	`'18BAEB'`	Graph color
`fill_color`	`'1667EB.3'`	Fill color for linefill graph
`border_color`	`'215578'`	Widget border color
`border_width`	`2`	Widget border width
`margin_x`	`3`	Margin X
`margin_y`	`3`	Margin Y
`samples`	`100`	Count of graph samples.
`frequency`	`1`	Update frequency in seconds
`type`	`'linefill'`	‘box’, ‘line’, ‘linefill’
`line_width`	`3`	Line width
`start_pos`	`'bottom'`	Drawer starting position (‘bottom’/’top’)

class libqtile.widget.Moc(**config)[source]¶

A simple MOC widget.

Show the artist and album of now listening song and allow basic mouse control from the bar:

toggle pause (or play if stopped) on left click;
skip forward in playlist on scroll up;
skip backward in playlist on scroll down.

MOC (http://moc.daper.net) should be installed.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`play_color`	`'00ff00'`	Text colour when playing.
`noplay_color`	`'cecece'`	Text colour when not playing.
`max_chars`	`0`	Maximum number of characters to display in widget.
`update_interval`	`0.5`	Update Time in seconds.

class libqtile.widget.Net(**config)[source]¶

Displays interface down and up speed.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`interface`	`'wlan0'`	The interface to monitor
`update_interval`	`1`	The update interval.

class libqtile.widget.NetGraph(**config)[source]¶

Display a network usage graph.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`interface`	`'auto'`	Interface to display info for (‘auto’ for detection)
`bandwidth_type`	`'down'`	down(load)/up(load)

class libqtile.widget.Notify(width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

A notify widget.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`foreground_urgent`	`'ff0000'`	Foreground urgent priority colour
`foreground_low`	`'dddddd'`	Foreground low priority colour
`default_timeout`	`None`	Default timeout (seconds) for notifications
`audiofile`	`None`	Audiofile played during notifications

class libqtile.widget.Pacman(**config)[source]¶

Shows number of available updates. Needs the pacman package manager installed. So will only work in Arch Linux installation.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`unavailable`	`'ffffff'`	Unavailable Color - no updates.
`execute`	`None`	Command to execute on click
`update_interval`	`60`	The update interval.

class libqtile.widget.Prompt(name='prompt', **config)[source]¶

A widget that prompts for user input. Input should be started using the .startInput method on this class.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`cursor`	`True`	Show a cursor
`cursorblink`	`0.5`	Cursor blink rate. 0 to disable.
`cursor_color`	`'bef098'`	Color for the cursor and text over it.
`prompt`	`'{prompt}: '`	Text displayed at the prompt
`record_history`	`True`	Keep a record of executed commands
`max_history`	`100`	Commands to keep in history. 0 for no limit.
`bell_style`	`'audible'`	Alert at the begin/end of the command history. Posible values: ‘audible’, ‘visual’ and None.
`visual_bell_color`	`'ff0000'`	Color for the visual bell (changes prompt background).
`visual_bell_time`	`0.2`	Visual bell duration (in seconds).

class libqtile.widget.Sep(height_percent=None, **config)[source]¶

A visible widget separator.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal and vertical

key	default	description
`padding`	`2`	Padding on either side of separator.
`linewidth`	`1`	Width of separator line.
`foreground`	`'888888'`	Separator line colour.
`size_percent`	`80`	Size as a percentage of bar size (0-100).

class libqtile.widget.She(**config)[source]¶

Widget to display the Super Hybrid Engine status. Can display either the mode or CPU speed on eeepc computers.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`device`	`'/sys/devices/platform/eeepc/cpufv'`	sys path to cpufv
`format`	`'speed'`	Type of info to display “speed” or “name”
`update_interval`	`0.5`	Update Time in seconds.

class libqtile.widget.Spacer(length=STRETCH, width=None)[source]¶

Just an empty space on the bar. Often used with length equal to bar.STRETCH to push bar widgets to the right or bottom edge of the screen.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal and vertical

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	Widget background color

__init__(length=STRETCH, width=None)[source]¶

length: Length of the widget. Can be either bar.STRETCH or a length in pixels.
width: DEPRECATED, same as length.

class libqtile.widget.SwapGraph(**config)[source]¶

Display a swap info graph.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`graph_color`	`'18BAEB'`	Graph color
`fill_color`	`'1667EB.3'`	Fill color for linefill graph
`border_color`	`'215578'`	Widget border color
`border_width`	`2`	Widget border width
`margin_x`	`3`	Margin X
`margin_y`	`3`	Margin Y
`samples`	`100`	Count of graph samples.
`frequency`	`1`	Update frequency in seconds
`type`	`'linefill'`	‘box’, ‘line’, ‘linefill’
`line_width`	`3`	Line width
`start_pos`	`'bottom'`	Drawer starting position (‘bottom’/’top’)

class libqtile.widget.Systray(**config)[source]¶

A widget that manages system tray.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`icon_size`	`20`	Icon width
`padding`	`5`	Padding between icons

class libqtile.widget.TaskList(**config)[source]¶

Displays the icon and name of each window in the current group. Contrary to WindowTabs this is an interactive widget. The window that currently has focus is highlighted.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`font`	`'Arial'`	Default font
`fontsize`	`None`	Font size. Calculated if None.
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	Foreground colour
`fontshadow`	`None`	font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)
`borderwidth`	`2`	Current group border width
`border`	`'215578'`	Border colour
`rounded`	`True`	To round or not to round borders
`highlight_method`	`'border'`	Method of highlighting (one of ‘border’ or ‘block’) Uses *_border color settings
`urgent_border`	`'FF0000'`	Urgent border color
`urgent_alert_method`	`'border'`	Method for alerting you of WM urgent hints (one of ‘border’ or ‘text’)
`max_title_width`	`200`	size in pixels of task title

class libqtile.widget.TextBox(text=' ', width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

A flexible textbox that can be updated from bound keys, scripts and qsh.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`font`	`'Arial'`	Text font
`fontsize`	`None`	Font pixel size. Calculated if None.
`fontshadow`	`None`	font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)
`padding`	`None`	Padding left and right. Calculated if None.
`foreground`	`'#ffffff'`	Foreground colour.

class libqtile.widget.ThermalSensor(**config)[source]¶

For using the thermal sensor widget you need to have lm-sensors installed. You can get a list of the tag_sensors executing “sensors” in your terminal. Then you can choose which you want, otherwise it will display the first available.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`metric`	`True`	True to use metric/C, False to use imperial/F
`show_tag`	`False`	Show tag sensor
`update_interval`	`2`	Update interval in seconds
`tag_sensor`	`None`	Tag of the temperature sensor. For example: “temp1” or “Core 0”
`threshold`	`70`	If the current temperature value is above, then change to foreground_alert colour
`foreground_alert`	`'ff0000'`	Foreground colour alert

class libqtile.widget.Volume(**config)[source]¶

Widget that display and change volume if theme_path is set it draw widget as icons.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`cardid`	`None`	Card Id
`device`	`'default'`	Device Name
`channel`	`'Master'`	Channel
`padding`	`3`	Padding left and right. Calculated if None.
`theme_path`	`None`	Path of the icons
`update_interval`	`0.2`	Update time in seconds.
`emoji`	`False`	Use emoji to display volume states, only if `theme_path` is not set.The specified font needs to contain the correct unicode characters.
`mute_command`	`None`	Mute command
`volume_up_command`	`None`	Volume up command
`volume_down_command`	`None`	Volume down command
`get_volume_command`	`None`	Command to get the current volume

class libqtile.widget.Wallpaper(**config)[source]¶

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`directory`	`'/home/docs/Pictures/wallpapers/'`	Wallpaper Directory
`wallpaper`	`None`	Wallpaper
`wallpaper_command`	`None`	Wallpaper command

class libqtile.widget.WindowName(width=STRETCH, **config)[source]¶

Displays the name of the window that currently has focus.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`show_state`	`True`	show window status before window name

class libqtile.widget.WindowTabs(**config)[source]¶

Displays the name of each window in the current group. Contrary to TaskList this is not an interactive widget. The window that currently has focus is highlighted.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`separator`	`' \| '`	Task separator text.
`selected`	`('<', '>')`	Selected task indicator

class libqtile.widget.YahooWeather(**config)[source]¶

A weather widget, data provided by the Yahoo! Weather API.

Format options:

astronomy_sunrise

astronomy_sunset

atmosphere_humidity

atmosphere_visibility

atmosphere_pressure

atmosphere_rising

condition_text

condition_code

condition_temp

condition_date

location_city

location_region

location_country

units_temperature

units_distance

units_pressure

units_speed

wind_chill

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`location`	`None`	Location to fetch weather for. Ignored if woeid is set.
`woeid`	`None`	Where On Earth ID. Auto-calculated if location is set.
`format`	`'{location_city}: {condition_temp} °{units_temperature}'`	Display format
`metric`	`True`	True to use metric/C, False to use imperial/F
`up`	`'^'`	symbol for rising atmospheric pressure
`down`	`'v'`	symbol for falling atmospheric pressure
`steady`	`'s'`	symbol for steady atmospheric pressure

Frequently Asked Questions¶

When I first start xterm/urxvt/rxvt containing an instance of Vim, I see text and layout corruption. What gives?¶

Vim is not handling terminal resizes correctly. You can fix the problem by starting your xterm with the “-wf” option, like so:

xterm -wf -e vim

Alternatively, you can just cycle through your layouts a few times, which usually seems to fix it.

How do I know which modifier specification maps to which key?¶

To see a list of modifier names and their matching keys, use the xmodmap command. On my system, the output looks like this:

$ xmodmap
xmodmap:  up to 3 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
lock        Caps_Lock (0x9)
control     Control_L (0x25),  Control_R (0x69)
mod1        Alt_L (0x40),  Alt_R (0x6c),  Meta_L (0xcd)
mod2        Num_Lock (0x4d)
mod3
mod4        Super_L (0xce),  Hyper_L (0xcf)
mod5        ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c),  Mode_switch (0xcb)

My “pointer mouse cursor” isn’t the one I expect it to be!¶

Qtile should set the default cursor to left_ptr, you must install xcb-util-cursor if you want support for themed cursors.

License¶

This project is distributed under the MIT license.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Index

Everything you need to know about Qtile¶

Getting started¶

Installing Qtile¶

Distro Guides¶

Installing on Arch Linux¶

Using an AUR Helper¶

Using pacman¶

Installing AUR packages without helper¶

Installing on Fedora¶

Installing on Funtoo¶

Customize¶

Installing on Ubuntu¶

PPA on Launchpad¶

Installing From Source¶

xcffib¶

cairocffi¶

pangocairo¶

asyncio/trollius¶

dbus/gobject¶

Qtile¶

Configuration¶

Configuration lookup order¶

Default Configuration¶

Key Bindings¶

Mouse Bindings¶

Configuration variables¶

Groups¶

Example¶

Keys¶

The command.lazy object¶

Lazy functions¶

Layouts¶

Example¶

Mouse¶

Example¶

Screens¶

Example¶

Third-party bars¶

Hooks¶

Examples¶

Testing your configuration¶

Starting Qtile¶

Running Inside Gnome¶

Commands and scripting¶

Commands API¶

Object Graph¶

Keys¶

Scripting¶

Client-Server Scripting Model¶

Example¶

qsh¶

Navigating the Object Graph¶

Documentation¶

Getting involved¶

Contributing¶

Reporting bugs¶

Writing code¶

Git workflow¶

Submit a pull request¶

Hacking on Qtile¶

Requirements¶

Building cffi module¶

Using Xephyr and the test suite¶

Second X Session¶

Capturing an xtrace¶

Coding style¶

Deprecation policy¶

Testing¶

Resources¶

Miscellaneous¶

Reference¶

Built-in Hooks¶

Built-in Layouts¶

Built-in Widgets¶

Frequently Asked Questions¶

When I first start xterm/urxvt/rxvt containing an instance of Vim, I see text and layout corruption. What gives?¶

How do I know which modifier specification maps to which key?¶

My “pointer mouse cursor” isn’t the one I expect it to be!¶

License¶

Capturing an `xtrace`¶