jgmenu - Man Page
A simple X11 menu
Synopsis
jgmenu [--no-spawn] [--checkout=<tag>] [--config-file=<file>]
[--icon-size=<size>] [--at-pointer] [--hide-on-startup]
[--simple] [--vsimple] [--csv-file=<file>]
[--csv-cmd=<command>] [--die-when-loaded]
[--center] [--persistent]
Use these commands to get started
- jgmenu_run
Launch menu
- jgmenu_run init
Create config file ~/.config/jgmenu/jgmenurc
- jgmenu_run init -i
Interactive setup
- man jgmenututorial
Step-by-step tutorial
Description
jgmenu
is a simple menu for Linux/BSD. It reads CSV menu data from a file and generates a graphical menu on an X11 window.
Fields
Each line of CSV menu data is parsed into the following fields using comma as a field separator:
- (1)
description
- (2)
command
- (3)
icon
- (4)
working directory
- (5)
metadata
- (6)
execute without “sh -c” wrapper
For example:
printf "Terminal,xterm\\nWeb Browser,firefox" | jgmenu --vsimple
Special Characters at beginning of line
- #
Ignore line
- .
A line beginning with a dot followed by a space, will source the file specified by the string following the dot
- @
Treat as widget
Special Characters in fields
- ,
As commas are used as field separators, individual fields can only contain commas if they are triple quoted. For example:
foo,""“^pipe(find . -printf `%f,display %p,%p\n')”""
- < > &
The description field is parsed as pango markup, so
<
,>
, and&
need to be escaped as<
,>
, and&
respectively.
Markup
The syntax ^foo(bar) is used to carry out action foo
with argument bar
. We refer to bar
as the inner value
.
The following markup is supported in the description
field
- sep()
Define a separator. If an inner value is provided, the separator will appear as a title. If no inner value is provided, the separator will simply be a horizontal line
The following markup is supported in the command
field
- ^tag()
Define the beginning of a new menu structure node.
The lines following
^tag(whatever)
will not show in the top level menu, but can be opened by using^checkout()
or^root()
.item0.0 item0.1 submenu1,^checkout(1) submenu2,^root(2) ^tag(1) item1.0 item1.1 ^tag(2) item2.0 item2.1
- ^checkout()
Open the tag specified by the inner value as a submenu in a new window
- ^root()
Open the tag specified by the inner value in the root window, replacing the current menu
- ^sub()
Draw a submenu arrow. This can be useful for creating submenus with
stay_alive=0
. For example:item0.0 item0.1 submenu1,^sub(echo "item1.0" | jgmenu --simple)
- ^back()
Check-out parent menu
- ^term()
Run program in terminal
- ^pipe()
Execute sub-process and checkout a menu based on its stdout.
- ^filter()
Invoke search
- ^quit()
Quit
Icons
Icons will be displayed if the third field is populated, for example:
Terminal,xterm,utilities-terminal Firefox,firefox,firefox
Options
- --no-spawn
Redirect command to stdout rather than execute it.
- --checkout=<tag>
Checkout submenu on startup.
- --config-file=<file>
Read config file.
- --icon-size=<size>
Specify icon size (22 by default). If set to 0, icons will not be loaded.
- --at-pointer
Launch menu at mouse pointer.
- --hide-on-startup
Start menu is hidden state.
- --simple
Ignore tint2 settings; Run in short-lived mode (i.e. exit after mouse click or enter/escape); read menu items from
stdin
.- --vsimple
Same as
--simple
, but also disables icons and ignores jgmenurc.- --csv-file=<file>
Specify menu file (in jgmenu flavoured CSV format). If file cannot be opened, input is reverted to
stdin
.- --csv-cmd=<command>
Specify command to produce menu data, for example
jgmenu_run pmenu
- --die-when-loaded
Open menu and then exit(0). Useful for debugging and testing.
- --center
Center align menu horizontally and vertically.
- --persistent
Same as the persistent config option. See config option section below for details.
User Interface
- Up, Down
Select previous/next item
- Left. Right
Move to parent/sub menu
- PgUp, PgDn
Scroll up/down
- Home, End
Select first/last item
- Enter
Select an item or open a submenu
- F5
Restart
- F8
Print node tree to stderr
- F9
exit(1)
- F10
exit(0)
- Backspace
Return to parent menu
Type any string to invoke a search. Words separated by space will be searched for using OR
logic (i.e. the match of either word is sufficient to display an item).
Widgets
Lines beginning with `@' in jgmenu flavoured CSV files are parsed in accordance with the following syntax:
@type,action,x,y,w,h,r,halign,valign,fgcol,bgcol,content
- type
The widget type, which can be one of the following:
- rect
Rectangle with a 1px thick border drawn using
fgcol
- search
Search box showing the current filter (what the user has typed) or the specified
text
if no filter has been invoked.- icon
Icon
- action
The action to take when selected. This can either be a shell command or a menu action such
^root()
.- x, y
Horizontal and vertical margin of widget
- w, h
Width and height of widget
- r
Corner radius
- fgcol, bgcol
Foreground and background colours using syntax
rrggbb #aa fgcol
acceptsauto
to use the jgmenurc’scolor_norm_fg
- content
icon_path
foricon
widgetstext
for all other widget types- halign, valign
Horizontal and vertical alignment of widget. This has not yet been implemented, but defaults to
top
andleft
Configuration File
If no file is specified using the –config-file= option, the XDG Base Directory Specification is adhered to. I.e:
- Global config in
${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS:-/etc/xdg}
- User config override in
${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}
For most users ~/.config/jgmenu/jgmenurc is appropriate.
Global config variables are set in the following order (i.e. bottom of list has higher precedence):
- built-in defaults (config.c)
- tint2rc config file (can be specified by
TINT2_CONFIG
environment variable) - jgmenurc config file (can be specified by –config-file=)
- command line arguments
Syntax
Lines beginning with #
are ignored.
All other lines are recognised as setting variables in the format
key = value
White spaces are mostly ignored.
Values
Unless otherwise specified, values as treated as simple strings.
Here follow some specific types:
- boolean
When a variable takes a boolean value, only 0 and 1 are accepted. 0 means false; 1 means true.
- integer
When a variable takes an integer value, only numerical values are accepted. The only valid characters are digits (0-9) and minus-sign. All integer variables relating to geometry and position are interpreted as pixel values unless otherwise specified.
- color
When a variable takes a color value, only the syntax
#rrggbb aaa
is recognised, whererr
,gg
andbb
represent hexadecimal values (00-ff) for the colours red, green and blue respectively; andaaa
stands for the alpha channel value expressed as a percentage (0-100) (i.e. 100 means no transparency and 0 means fully transparent.) For example#ff0000 100
represents red with no transparency, whereas#000088 50
means dark blue with 50% transparency.- pathname
When a variable takes a pathname value, it is evaluated as a string. If the first character is tilde (~), it will be replaced by the the environment variable $HOME just as a shell would expand it.
Variables
- verbosity = integer (default 0)
General verbosity: (0) warnings only; (1) basic info; (2) more info; (3) max info
Additional specific topics: (4) IPC
Note: Some IPC messages need environment variable
JGMENU_VERBOSITY=4
too- stay_alive = boolean (default 1)
If set to 1, the menu will “hide” rather than “exit” when the following events occur: clicking on menu item; clicking outside the menu; pressing escape. When in the hidden mode, a USR1 signal will “un-hide” the menu.
- persistent = boolean (default 0)
If set to 1, the menu will not exit nor hide when the following events occur: clicking on menu item; clicking outside the menu; pressing escape. Use in conjunction with the ^quit() markup.
- hide_on_startup = boolean (default 0)
If set to 1, jgmenu start in “hidden” mode. This is useful for starting jgmenu during the boot process and then sending a
killall -SIGUSR1 jgmenu
to show the menu.- csv_cmd = string (default apps)
Defines the command to produce the jgmenu flavoured CSV for
jgmenu
. Accpetable keyword include apps, pmenu, lx, and ob. If a value is given other than these keywords, it will be executed in a shell (so be careful!). If left blank, jgmenu will read fromstdin
. Examples:csv_cmd = lx csv_cmd = jgmenu_run lx --no-dirs csv_cmd = cat ~/mymenu.csv
- tint2_look = boolean (default 0)
Read tint2rc and parse config options for colours, dimensions and alignment.
- position_mode = (fixed | ipc | pointer | center) (default fixed)
Define menu positioning mode.
- fixed
Align to
margin_{x,y}
and respect_NET_WORKAREA
.- ipc
Use IPC to read environment variables set by panel. See Inter-Process Communication for further info.
- pointer
Launch at pointer whilst respecting both
_NET_WORKAREA
andedge_snap_x
.- center
Launch at center of screen and ignore
_NET_WORKAREA
. Take precedence overmenu_{v,h}align
.
- edge_snap_x = integer (default 30)
Specify the distance (in pixels) from the left hand edge, within which the menu will snap to the edge. Note that this only applies in
at_pointer
mode.- terminal_exec = string (default x-terminal-emulator)
Define terminal to use for commands with ^term() markup
- terminal_args = string (default -e)
The values of these two variables are used to build a string to launch programs requiring a terminal to run. With the default values, the string would become:
x-terminal-emulator -e 'some_command with arguments'
.terminal_args
must finish with-e
or equivalent, where-e
refers to the meaning of-e
inxterm -e
.- monitor = integer (default 0)
Specify a particular monitor as an index starting from 1. If 0, the menu will be launched on the monitor where the mouse is.
- hover_delay = integer (default 100)
Time (in milliseconds) from hovering over an item until a submenu is opened.
- hide_back_items = boolean (default 1)
If enabled, all ^back() items will be suppressed. As a general rule, it should be set to 1 for a multi-window menu, and 0 when in single-window mode.
- columns = integer (default 1)
Number of columns in which to show menu items
- tabs = integer (default 120)
Specify the position is pixels of the first tab
- menu_margin_x = integer (default 0)
Distance between the menu (=X11 window) and the edge of the screen. See note on
_NET_WORKAREA
undermenu_{v,h}align
variables.- menu_margin_y = integer (default 0)
Vertical equilvalent of
menu_margin_x
- menu_width = integer (default 200)
Minimum menu width of the menu. The menu width will adjust to the longest item in the current (sub)menu. If a filter is applied (e.g. by the user typing) the menu width will not adjust.
- menu_height_min = integer (default 0)
Set the minimum height of the root menu. If
menu_height_min
andmenu_height_max
these are set to the same value, the menu height will be fixed at that value. If set to zero, they will be ignored.- menu_height_max = integer (default 0)
Minimum height of the root menu. See
menu_height_min
- menu_height_mode = (static | dynamic) (default static)
Mode of menu height
- static
Height of the initial root menu will be used for any subsequent
^root()
action- dynamic
Root menu height will be re-calculated every time a new tag is opened using
^root()
.
- menu_padding_top = integer (default 5)
Distance between top border and item/widget
- menu_padding_right = integer (default 5)
Distance between right border and item/widget
- menu_padding_bottom = integer (default 5)
Distance between bottom border and item/widget
- menu_padding_left = integer (default 5)
Distance between left border and item/widget
- menu_radius = integer (default 1)
Radius of rounded corners of menu
- menu_border = integer (default 0)
Thickness of menu border
- menu_halign = (left | right | center) (default left)
Horizontal alignment of menu. If not set, jgmenu will try to guess the alignment reading
_NET_WORKAREA
, which is a freedesktop EWMH root window property. Not all Window Managers and Panels respect_NET_WORKAREA
. The following do: openbox, xfwm4, tint2 and polybar. The following do NOT: awesome, i3, bspwm and plank- menu_valign = (top | bottom | center) (default bottom)
Vertical alignment of menu. See
menu_halign
.- menu_gradient_pos = (none | top | right | bottom | left | top_left | top_right | bottom_left | bottom_right ) (default none)
Start position of menu window gradient. The end position is at the opposite side or corner. Colors color_menu_bg and color_menu_bg_to specify the start (from) and finish (to).
- sub_spacing = integer (default 1)
Horizontal space between windows. A negative value results in each submenu window overlapping its parent window.
- sub_padding_top = integer (default auto)
Same as
menu_padding_top
but applies to submenu windows only. It understands the keywordauto
which means that the smallest of the fourmenu_padding_*
variables will be used.- sub_padding_right = integer (default auto)
See
sub_padding_top
- sub_padding_bottom = integer (default auto)
See
sub_padding_top
- sub_padding_left = integer (default auto)
See
sub_padding_top
- sub_hover_action = integer (default 1)
Open submenu when hovering over item (only works in multi-window mode).
- item_margin_x = integer (default 3)
Horizontal distance between items and the edge of the menu.
- item_margin_y = integer (default 3)
Vertical distance between items and the edge of the menu.
- item_height = integer (default 25)
Height of menu items.
- item_padding_x = integer (default 4)
Horizontal distance between item edge and its content (e.g. text or icon)
- item_radius = integer (default 1)
Radius of rounded corners of items
- item_border = integer (default 0)
Thickness of item border
- item_halign = (left | right) (default left)
Horizontal alignment of menu items. If set to
right
, the optionarrow_string
should be changed too.- sep_height = integer (default 5)
Height of separator without text (defined by ^sep()). Separators with text use
item_height
- sep_halign = (left | center | right) (default left)
Horizontal alignment of separator text
- sep_markup = string (unset by default)
If specified,
<span $sep_markup>foo</span>
will be passed to pango for ^sep(foo).See the following link for pango attributes: <https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/pango-Markup.html>
Keywords include (but are not limited to):
- font
- size (x-small, small, medium, large, x-large) - style (normal, oblique, italic)
- weight (ultralight, light, normal, bold, ultrabold, heavy
- foreground (using format #rrggbb or a colour name)
- underline (none, single, double)
Example:
sep_markup = font="Sans Italic 12" foreground="blue"
- font = string (unset by default)
Font description for menu items.
font
accepts a string such asCantarell 10
orUbuntuCondensed 11
. The font description without a specified size unit is interpreted aspoints
. Ifpx
is added, it will be read as pixels. Using “points” enables consistency with other applications.- font_fallback = string (default xtg)
Same as
icon_theme_fallback
, except that the xsettings variableGtk/FontName
is read.- icon_size = integer (default 22)
Size of icons in pixels. If set to 0, icons will be disabled.
- icon_text_spacing = integer (default 10)
Distance between icon and text within a menu item
- icon_norm_alpha = integer (default 100)
Opacity of menu item icons, expressed as a percentage (0-100).
- icon_sel_alpha = integer (default 100)
Opacity of the currently selected menu item’s icon, expressed as a percentage (0-100).
- icon_theme = string (unset by default)
Name of icon theme. E.g.
Adwaita
,breeze
,Paper
,Papirus
andNumix
. Seels /usr/share/icons/
(or similar) for available icon themes on your system.- icon_theme_fallback = string (default xtg)
Fallback sources of the icon theme in order of precedence, where the left-most letter designates the source with highest precedence. The following characters are acceptable:
x=xsettings Net/IconThemeName
;t=tint2
;g=gtk3.0
.icon_theme
takes priority if set. In order to increase consistency with tint2, xsettings variables will only be read if the tint2rc variablelauncher_icon_theme_override
is0
.- arrow_string = string (default ▸)
String to be used to indicate that an item will open submenu. See jgmenuunicode(7) for examples
- arrow_width = integer (default 15)
Width allowed for
arrow_string
. Set to 0 to hide arrow.- color_menu_bg = color (default #000000 100)
Background colour of menu window. If gradients are enabled, this will be the `from' color.
- color_menu_bg_to = color (default #000000 100)
Background `to' colour of menu window - for use with gradients
- color_menu_border = color (default #eeeeee 8)
Border colour of menu window
- color_norm_bg = color (default #000000 0)
Background colour of menu items, except the one currently selected.
- color_norm_fg = color (default #eeeeee 100)
Font (foreground) colour of menu items, except the one currently selected.
- color_sel_bg = color (default #ffffff 20)
Background color of the currently selected menu item.
- color_sel_fg = color (default #eeeeee 100)
Font (foreground) color of the currently selected menu item.
- color_sel_border = color (default #eeeeee 8)
Border color of the currently selected menu item.
- color_sep_fg = color (default #ffffff 20)
Font (foreground) colour of separators without text
- color_title_fg = color (default #eeeeee 50)
Font (foreground) colour of separators with text. The font colour can be overridden by
sep_markup
- color_title_bg = color (default #000000 0)
Background colour of separators with text.
- color_title_border = color (default #000000 0)
Border colour of separators with text.
- color_scroll_ind = color (default #eeeeee 40)
Colour of scroll indicator lines (which show if there are menu items above or below those which are visible).
CSV generator variables
The following variables begin with csv_
which denotes that they set environment variables which are used by the CSV generators.
- csv_name_format = string (default %n (%g))
Defines the format of the
name
field for CSV generators. Supported by apps and lx. It understands the following two fields:- %n
Application name
- %g
Application generic name. If a
generic name
does not exist or is the same as thename
,%n
will be used without any formatting.
- csv_single_window = boolean (default 0)
If set, csv-generators will output ^root() instead of ^checkout(). This results in a single window menu, where submenus appear in the same window. This is supported by apps and pmenu.
- csv_no_dirs = boolean (default 0)
If set, csv-generators will output applications without any directory structure. This is supported by apps, pmenu and lx.
- csv_i18n = string (no default)
Look for a translation file in the specified file or directory. See `jgmenu-i18n(1) for further details. Supported by apps and ob.
- csv_no_duplicates = boolean (default 0)
Restrict applications to appear in one directory only. Supported by apps.
Inter-Process Communication (IPC)
IPC can be used to align jgmenu to a panel launcher in real-time. This is currently supported by tint2 and xfce-panel. It works as follows:
jgmenu_run
reads the environment variables listed below and passes them via a unix socket to the long-running instance of jgmenu.
If position_mode=ipc
, jgmenu aligns to these variables every times it is launched.
The following four environment variables define the extremities of the panel: TINT2_BUTTON_PANEL_X1
, TINT2_BUTTON_PANEL_X2
, TINT2_BUTTON_PANEL_Y1
, TINT2_BUTTON_PANEL_Y2
.
(X1,Y1) ╔══════════════════════╗ ║ panel ║ ╚══════════════════════╝ (X2,Y2)
The following environment variables define the position of the launcher. These are interpreted differently depending on panel alignment.
In the case of a horizontal panel:
TINT2_BUTTON_ALIGNED_X1
andTINT2_BUTTON_ALIGNED_X2
define the launcher button’s horizontal extremities to align to.TINT2_BUTTON_ALIGNED_Y1
andTINT2_BUTTON_ALIGNED_Y2
define the edge of the panel to align to. These shall be the same.
In the case or a vertical panel, the same rules apply with X and Y reversed.
If the above variables are not set, menu_margin_x
and menu_margin_y
are used.
Diagrams
General Notes
- margin
Refers to space outside an object
- padding
Refers to space inside an object (between border and content)
Vertical Menu
╔════════════════════════╗ ║ 1 ║ ╟────────────────────────╢ ║ 2 ║ ╟────────────────────────╢ ║ item ║ ╟────────────────────────╢ ║ 2 ║ ╟────────────────────────╢ ║ item ║ ╟────────────────────────╢ ║ 2 ║ ╟────────────────────────╢ ║ 3 ║ ╚════════════════════════╝ 1. menu_padding_top 2. item_margin_y 3. menu_padding_bottom
Horizontal Menu
╔═╤═╤════════════════╤═╤═╗ ║ │ │ │ │ ║ ║ │ ├────────────────┤ │ ║ ║ │ │icon text >│ │ ║ ║ │ ├────────────────┤ │ ║ ║2│1│ │1│3║ ║ │ ├────┬─┬───────┬─┤ │ ║ ║ │ │ 4 │5│ │6│ │ ║ ║ │ ├────┴─┴───────┴─┤ │ ║ ║ │ │ │ │ ║ ║ │ │ │ │ ║ ╚═╧═╧════════════════╧═╧═╝ 1. item_margin_x 2. padding_left 3. padding_right 4. icon_size 5. icon_to_text_spacing 6. arrow_width
Hooks
A hook in jgmenu is a rule which optionally triggers a command and then performs a restart if a file or directory has has changed since the last time the instance of jgmenu was mapped (=made visible - normally by running jgmenu_run).
Hooks are specified in the file $HOME/.config/jgmenu/hooks are take the format
<file>,<command>
For example, to synchronise with the GTK theme, use this hook:
~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini,jgmenu_run gtktheme
Leave the <command>
empty to just restart.
A number of restart-hooks are built-in by default, for example ~/.config/jgmenu/{jgmenurc,append.csv,prepend.csv} and /usr/share/applications.
To list all the built-in hooks, use the keyword print
in the hook file (on a line on its own). In order to remove all the built-in hooks, use the keyword clear
.
Startup Script
Unless the --vsimple
argument is used, the file ~/.config/jgmenu/startup is executed on initial startup.
See Also
The jgmenu source code and documentation can be downloaded from <https://github.com/johanmalm/jgmenu/>
Authors
Johan Malm.
Referenced By
jgmenu-apps(1), jgmenu-lx(1), jgmenu-ob(1), jgmenu_run(1), jgmenututorial(7).