dmenu - Man Page

• Display a menu of the output of the ls command: ls | dmenu
• Display a menu with custom items separated by a new line (\n): echo -e "red\ngreen\nblue" | dmenu
• Let the user choose between multiple items and save the selected one to a file: echo -e "red\ngreen\nblue" | dmenu > color.txt
• Launch dmenu on a specific monitor: ls | dmenu -m 1
• Display dmenu at the bottom of the screen: ls | dmenu -b

tldr.sh

dmenu [-bfiv] [-l lines] [-m monitor] [-p prompt] [-fn font] [-nb color] [-nf color] [-sb color] [-sf color] [-w windowid]

dmenu_run ...

dmenu is a dynamic menu for X, which reads a list of newline-separated items from stdin.  When the user selects an item and presses Return, their choice is printed to stdout and dmenu terminates.  Entering text will narrow the items to those matching the tokens in the input.

dmenu_run is a script used by dwm(1) which lists programs in the user's $PATH and runs the result in their $SHELL.

-b

dmenu appears at the bottom of the screen.

-f

dmenu grabs the keyboard before reading stdin if not reading from a tty. This is faster, but will lock up X until stdin reaches end-of-file.

-i

dmenu matches menu items case insensitively.

-l lines

dmenu lists items vertically, with the given number of lines.

-m monitor

dmenu is displayed on the monitor number supplied. Monitor numbers are starting from 0.

-p prompt

defines the prompt to be displayed to the left of the input field.

-fn font

defines the font or font set used.

-nb color

defines the normal background color. #RGB, #RRGGBB, and X color names are supported.

-nf color

defines the normal foreground color.

-sb color

defines the selected background color.

-sf color

defines the selected foreground color.

-v

prints version information to stdout, then exits.

-w windowid

embed into windowid.

dmenu is completely controlled by the keyboard.  Items are selected using the arrow keys, page up, page down, home, and end.

Tab

Copy the selected item to the input field.

Return

Confirm selection.  Prints the selected item to stdout and exits, returning success.

Ctrl-Return

Confirm selection.  Prints the selected item to stdout and continues.

Shift-Return

Confirm input.  Prints the input text to stdout and exits, returning success.

Escape

Exit without selecting an item, returning failure.

Ctrl-Left

Move cursor to the start of the current word

Ctrl-Right

Move cursor to the end of the current word

C-a

Home

C-b

Left

C-c

Escape

C-d

Delete

C-e

End

C-f

Right

C-g

Escape

C-h

Backspace

C-i

Tab

C-j

Return

C-J

Shift-Return

C-k

Delete line right

C-m

Return

C-M

Shift-Return

C-n

Down

C-p

Up

C-u

Delete line left

C-w

Delete word left

C-y

Paste from primary X selection

C-Y

Paste from X clipboard

M-b

Move cursor to the start of the current word

M-f

Move cursor to the end of the current word

M-g

Home

M-G

End

M-h

Up

M-j

Page down

M-k

Page up

M-l

Down

dwm(1), stest(1)

bemenu(1), dunst(1), dunst(5), i3-dmenu-desktop(1), rofi(1), rofi-debugging(5), rofi-dmenu(5), rofi-script(5), stest(1), surf(1), vis-menu(1), wl-present(1), xwm(1).