1.2 Basic Usage

Once you have StumpWM up and running, the first thing you might want to do is start emacs. Type C-t e, or in other words Control + t followed by e. Now perhaps you want an xterm. Type C-t c. Now you have some programs running.

To see a list of windows StumpWM is managing, type C-t w. The highlighted window is the one you’re looking at right now. It’s the focused window.

All of StumpWM’s keys are bound to named commands, which can be executed not only by keys but also from the input bar. Type C-t ; to open a command prompt. Now type time and press return. Note, time can also be called by typing C-t a. Throughout this manual you’ll find definitions for commands, functions, and variables. Any command you see in this manual can be executed from the input bar or bound to a key.

At this point you probably want to switch back from your new xterm to emacs. Type C-t C-t. This runs the other command. Type it again and you’re back to xterm.

Perhaps you’d like to see emacs and xterm side-by-side. Type C-t s. You have now split the screen into 2 frames. For more information see Frames. To switch to the empty frame type C-t TAB. Now let’s pull the xterm window into this empty frame. Type C-t w for a window listing. Find the xterm window. See the number beside it? Type C-t followed by xterm’s window number.

Another common activity is browsing the interwebs. Type C-t !. The input bar pops up again. You can now run a shell command. Let’s start a web browser: type firefox into the input bar and press return.

Unfortunately, firefox probably isn’t wide enough because it’s in one of the frames. Type C-t Q to remove all frames but the current one and resize it to fit the screen.

For a full list of key bindings, see List of Default Keybindings.

This document was generated on January 28, 2024 using texi2html 1.82.