12. Miscellaneous Commands

The following is a list of commands that don’t really fit in any other section.

Command: emacs

Start emacs unless it is already running, in which case focus it.

Command: banish &optional where

Warp the mouse the lower right corner of the current head.

Command: ratwarp x y

Warp the mouse to the specified location.

Command: ratrelwarp dx dy

Warp the mouse by the specified amount from its current position.

Command: ratclick &optional (button 1)

Simulate a pointer button event at the current pointer location. Note: this function rarely works.

Command: echo-date

Display the date and time.

Command: eval-line cmd

Evaluate the s-expression and display the result(s).

Command: window-send-string string &optional (window (current-window))

Send the string of characters to the current window as if they’d been typed.

Command: reload

Reload StumpWM using asdf.

Command: loadrc

Reload the ‘~/.stumpwmrc’ file.

Command: keyboard-quit

Command: quit

Quit StumpWM.

Command: restart-hard

Restart stumpwm. This is handy if a new stumpwm executable has been made and you wish to replace the existing process with it.

Any run-time customizations will be lost after the restart.

Command: restart-soft

Soft Restart StumpWM. The lisp process isn’t restarted. Instead, control jumps to the very beginning of the stumpwm program. This differs from RESTART, which restarts the unix process.

Since the process isn’t restarted, existing customizations remain after the restart.

Command: getsel

Echo the X selection.

Command: putsel string

Stuff the string string into the X selection.

Command: command-mode

Command mode allows you to type ratpoison commands without needing the <C-t> prefix. Keys not bound in StumpWM will still get sent to the current window. To exit command mode, type <C-g>.

Command: copy-unhandled-error

When an unhandled error occurs, StumpWM restarts and attempts to continue. Unhandled errors should be reported to the mailing list so they can be fixed. Use this command to copy the unhandled error and backtrace to the X11 selection so you can paste in your email when submitting the bug report.

Command: commands

List all available commands.

Command: lastmsg

Display the last message. If the previous command was lastmsg, then continue cycling back through the message history.

Command: list-window-properties

List all the properties of the current window and their values, like xprop.

Function: run-commands &rest commands

Run each stumpwm command in sequence. This could be used if you’re used to ratpoison’s rc file and you just want to run commands or don’t know lisp very well. One might put the following in one’s rc file:

(stumpwm:run-commands "escape C-z" "exec firefox" "split")

Macro: defcommand name (&rest args) (&rest interactive-args) &body body

Create a command function and store its interactive hints in *command-hash*. The local variable %interactivep% can be used to check if the command was called interactively. If it is non-NIL then it was called from a keybinding or from the colon command.

INTERACTIVE-ARGS is a list of the following form: ((TYPE PROMPT) (TYPE PROMPT) ...)

each element in INTERACTIVE-ARGS declares the type and prompt for the command’s arguments.

TYPE can be one of the following:

:y-or-n

A yes or no question returning T or NIL.

:variable

A lisp variable

:function

A lisp function

:command

A stumpwm command as a string.

:key-seq

A key sequence starting from *TOP-MAP*

:window-number

An existing window number

:number

An integer number

:string

A string

:key

A single key chord

:window-name

An existing window’s name

:direction

A direction symbol. One of :UP :DOWN :LEFT :RIGHT

:gravity

A gravity symbol. One of :center :top :right :bottom :left :top-right :top-left :bottom-right :bottom-left

:group

An existing group

:frame

A frame

:shell

A shell command

:rest

The rest of the input yes to be parsed.

:module

An existing stumpwm module

Note that new argument types can be created with DEFINE-STUMPWM-TYPE.

PROMPT can be string. In this case, if the corresponding argument is missing from an interactive call, stumpwm will use prompt for its value using PROMPT. If PROMPT is missing or nil, then the argument is considered an optional interactive argument and is not prompted for when missing.

Alternatively, instead of specifying nil for PROMPT or leaving it out, an element can just be the argument type.

Macro: define-stumpwm-type type (input prompt) &body body

Create a new type that can be used for command arguments. type can be any symbol.

When body is evaluated input is bound to the argument-line. It is passed to argument-pop, argument-pop-rest, etc. prompt is the prompt that should be used when prompting the user for the argument.

(define-stumpwm-type :symbol (input prompt) (or (find-symbol (string-upcase (or (argument-pop input) ;; Whitespace messes up find-symbol. (string-trim " " (completing-read (current-screen) prompt ;; find all symbols in the ;; stumpwm package. (let (acc) (do-symbols (s (find-package "STUMPWM")) (push (string-downcase (symbol-name s)) acc)) acc))) (throw 'error "Abort."))) "STUMPWM") (throw 'error "Symbol not in STUMPWM package"))) (defcommand "symbol" (sym) ((:symbol "Pick a symbol: ")) (message "~a" (with-output-to-string (s) (describe sym s))))

This code creates a new type called :symbol which finds the symbol in the stumpwm package. The command symbol uses it and then describes the symbol.

Function: run-or-raise cmd props &optional (all-groups *run-or-raise-all-groups*) (all-screens *run-or-raise-all-screens*)

Run the shell command, cmd, unless an existing window matches props. props is a property list with the following keys:

:class

Match the window’s class.

:instance

Match the window’s instance or resource-name.

:role

Match the window’s WM_WINDOW_ROLE.

:title

Match the window’s title.

By default, the global *run-or-raise-all-groups* decides whether to search all groups or the current one for a running instance. all-groups overrides this default. Similarily for *run-or-raise-all-screens* and all-screens.

Variable: *run-or-raise-all-groups*

When this is T the run-or-raise function searches all groups for a running instance. Set it to NIL to search only the current group.

Variable: *run-or-raise-all-screens*

When this is T the run-or-raise function searches all screens for a running instance. Set it to NIL to search only the current screen. If *run-or-raise-all-groups* is NIL this variable has no effect.

Function: restarts-menu err

Display a menu with the active restarts and let the user pick one. Error is the error being recovered from. If the user aborts the menu, the error is re-signalled.

Macro: with-restarts-menu &body body

Execute BODY. If an error occurs allow the user to pick a restart from a menu of possible restarts. If a restart is not chosen, resignal the error.

Variable: *startup-message*

This is the message StumpWM displays when it starts. Set it to NIL to suppress.

Variable: *suppress-abort-messages*

Suppress abort message when non-nil.

Variable: *default-package*

This is the package eval reads and executes in. You might want to set this to :stumpwm if you find yourself using a lot of internal stumpwm symbols. Setting this variable anywhere but in your rc file will have no effect.

Macro: defprogram-shortcut name &key (command (string-downcase (string name))) (props (backq-list (quote quote) (backq-list (quote class) (string-capitalize command)))) (map *top-map*) (key (kbd (concat H- (subseq command 0 1)))) (pullp nil) (pull-name (intern1 (concat (string name) -PULL))) (pull-key (kbd (concat H-M- (subseq command 0 1))))

Define a command and key binding to run or raise a program. If pullp is set, also define a command and key binding to run or pull the program.

Variable: *initializing*

True when starting stumpwm. Use this variable in your rc file to run code that should only be executed once, when stumpwm starts up and loads the rc file.

12.1 Menus

Some commands present the options in a menu. The following are the menu key bindings:

C-p

Up

k

Highlight the previous menu option.

C-n

Down

j

Highlight the next menu option.

C-g

ESC

Abort the menu.

RET

Select the highlighted option.

12.2 StumpWM’s Data Directory

If you want to store StumpWM data between sessions, the recommended method is to store them in ‘~/.stumpwm.d/’. StumpWM supplies some functions to make doing this easier.

Variable: *data-dir*

The directory used by stumpwm to store data between sessions.

Function: data-dir-file name &optional type

Return a pathname inside stumpwm’s data dir with the specified name and type

Macro: with-data-file (s file &rest keys &key (if-exists supersede) &allow-other-keys) &body body

Open a file in StumpWM’s data directory. keyword arguments are sent directly to OPEN. Note that IF-EXISTS defaults to :supersede, instead of :error.

12.3 Debugging StumpWM

Variable: *debug-level*

Set this variable to a number > 0 to turn on debugging. The greater the number the more debugging output.

Variable: *debug-stream*

This is the stream debugging output is sent to. It defaults to *error-output*. It may be more convenient for you to pipe debugging output directly to a file.

Function: redirect-all-output file

Elect to redirect all output to the specified file. For instance, if you want everything to go to ~/stumpwm.d/debug-output.txt you would do:

(redirect-all-output (data-dir-file "debug-output" "txt"))

12.4 Timers

StumpWM has a timer system similar to that of Emacs.

Function: run-with-timer secs repeat function &rest args

Perform an action after a delay of SECS seconds. Repeat the action every REPEAT seconds, if repeat is non-nil. SECS and REPEAT may be reals. The action is to call FUNCTION with arguments ARGS.

Function: cancel-timer timer

Remove TIMER from the list of active timers.

Function: timer-p timer

Return T if TIMER is a timer structure.

12.5 Getting Help

Command: describe-key keys

Either interactively type the key sequence or supply it as text. This command prints the command bound to the specified key sequence.

Command: describe-variable var

Print the online help associated with the specified variable.

Command: describe-function fn

Print the online help associated with the specified function.

Command: where-is cmd

Print the key sequences bound to the specified command.

Command: modifiers

List the modifiers stumpwm recognizes and what MOD-X it thinks they’re on.

This document was generated by David Bjergaard on November 1, 2014 using texi2html 1.82.