Frequently Asked Questions

Is xatk compatible with my window manager?

xatk uses some hints specified in EWMH. So xatk should work fine with window managers that support such hints. Metacity/Mutter, KWin, Compiz, Openbox, Awesome have been reported to work with xatk. Share your experience with us via issue tracking system.

Customization

All customizations are done by modifying xatk’s configuration file ~/.xatk/xatkrc. Before making any changes ensure that xatk is not running.

How to assign keybindings to the certain windows permanently?

Create a rule and prefix awn with !. For example,

class.emacs = !e

How to forbid xatk to assign keybindings to the certain windows?

Crate a rule and specify empty awn. For example,

class.emacs =

How to make xatk ignore all windows except a few ones?

Specify rules for windows which should not be ignored and the following rule at the end of RULES:

class..* =

How to forbid xatk to modify all window titles?

Set title_format to None.

How to disable multi-key shortcuts?

Change group_windows_by option value to None.

Shortcuts for my windows change all the time.

Try to increase the value of history_length option or specify premanent keys for some windows.

How to make two windows belong to the same group?

Windows belong to the same group if they have identical awn attributes. You can specify identical awns for those windows in the RULES section.

I want shortcuts to be in certain order (e.g. q,w,e,r...) without considering programs they belong to.

You can set history_length to 0, group_windows_by to None and define the rule like this:

title..*=qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm

Miscellaneous

How can I get a window class or instance?

First stop xatk if it is running. Run xatk with the following options:

xatk --no-daemon --filter=windows --verbose

You will see information messages starting with new window attributes. These lines contain klass, instance and name attributes. They correspond to window class, instance and title respectively.

Run 'xprop WM_CLASS' and select a window. The first string after ‘=’ is a window instance and the second one is a window class.

wmctrl -xl prints a window list on the standard output. The second column is in instance.class format.

Contributing

How can I help the project?

Report bugs and request features via issue tracking system.

Make a screencast.

Spread the word. Write about xatk on your site or blog.

Help with code, see Roadmap. A preliminary discussion with developers is encouraged.