ratpoison

Resources

ratpoison is a tiling window manager modeled after screen. The main philosophy behind ratpoison is to manage window without using a mouse (what its name reflects). Written in C, it is extremely lightweight and fast.

Installation

USE flags

USE flags for x11-wm/ratpoison window manager without mouse dependency

`debug`	Enable extra debug codepaths, like asserts and extra output. If you want to get meaningful backtraces see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Quality_Assurance/Backtraces
`emacs`	Add support for GNU Emacs
`history`	Use sys-libs/readline for history handling
`sloppy`	Install sloppy, a focus-follows-mouse implementation for ratpoison
`xft`	Build with support for XFT font renderer (x11-libs/libXft)
`xrandr`	Enable support for XRandR

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2023-01-11 09:43 More information about USE flags

Emerge

Install x11-wm/ratpoison:

root #emerge --ask x11-wm/ratpoison

Configuration

Starting

Edit ~/.xinitrc in the user's home directory by adding the following line:

FILE ~/.xinitrc

exec /usr/bin/ratpoison

Startup file

Being a simple window manager, ratpoison does not need much out-of-the-box configuration. Customizable settings can be adjusted to each user's needs by editing ratpoison's start up file.

On start up ratpoison runs commands found in the ~/.ratpoisonrc file. This file contains key bindings and programs that need to be run with ratpoison. Here is an example of a ~/.ratpoisonrc file:

FILE ~/.ratpoisonrc

# Add key bindings:
bind c exec /usr/bin/urxvt
bind e exec /usr/bin/urxvt -e /usr/bin/emacs
bind m exec /usr/bin/urxvt -bg black -fg white -e /usr/bin/mitmproxy
bind f exec /usr/bin/firefox

# What programs should be ran on start up?
exec /usr/bin/numlockx

# Initiate here the number of desired workspaces:
exec /usr/bin/rpws init 6 -k

Usage

Since ratpoison is modeled after screen, users accustomed to screen will easily manage to use it. Each command begins with a Ctrl-t (abbreviated C-t from now on), and is followed by one other keystroke. The simplest way to get to know the commands is to press C-t ? This will open a help window containing the most common key bindings.

Most commonly used keys:

Keystroke	Description
C-t C-c	Execute xterm
C-t !	Spawn a shell executing shell command, usually an application, such as C-t ! firefox `Enter`
C-t k	Close the current window
C-t b	Banish the rat cursor to the lower right corner of the screen. The next step would be to unplug the rat from the computer altogether.
C-t C-t	Switch to the window that was last accessed but is not currently visible
C-t s	Split the current frame into upper frame and a lower frame. By default, split in halves.
C-t S	Split the current frame into left frame and a right frame.
C-t r	Resize the current frame interactively by pressing `Up` and `Down` keys. Hit `Enter` when finished.
C-t R	Remove the current frame and extend some frames around to fill the remaining gap.
C-t :quit	Run before exiting ratpoison
C-t a	Output current data and time
C-t C-g	Do nothing and that successfully

Note
All windows are maximized to the full screen size.

Tips

By default, ratpoison only has one workspace. Add the following line to the ~/.ratpoisonrc file in order to create six workspaces: