rofi
rofi
TLDR
Show the list of apps
Show the list of all commands
Switch between windows
Pipe a list of items to stdin and print the selected item to stdout
SYNOPSIS
rofi [ -show mode ]|[ -dmenu ]|[ -e msg ] [ CONFIGURATION ]
DESCRIPTION
rofi is an X11 pop-up window switcher, run dialog, dmenu replacement, and more. It focuses on being fast to use and have minimal distraction. It supports keyboard and mouse navigation, type to filter, tokenized search and more.
USAGE
rofi's main functionality is to assist in your
workflow, allowing you to quickly switch between windows, start
applications or log into a remote machine via ssh
. There
are different modes for different types of actions.
rofi is a standalone application and should not be
integrated into scripts. For integration into scripts it has a special
mode that functions as a (drop-in) replacement for
dmenu(1). See emulating dmenu below.
Running rofi
To launch rofi directly in a certain mode, specify a
mode with rofi -show <mode>
. To show the
drun
dialog:
rofi -show drun
A very useful setup in minimalistic window managers is to combine
drun
, run
with window
mode:
rofi -show combi -modes combi -combi-modes "window,drun,run"
In this setup it first list all open applications, then all installed applications. So if you type firefox and hit return, it will switch to the running firefox, or launch it when it is not running.
Emulating dmenu
rofi can emulate dmenu(1) (a
dynamic menu for X11) when launched with the -dmenu
flag.
For more information see rofi-dmenu(5).
Display Error message
rofi error dialog can also be called from the command line.
rofi -e "my message"
Markup support can be enabled, see CONFIGURATION options.
CONFIGURATION
There are currently three methods of setting configuration options (evaluated in order below):
System configuration file (for example
/etc/rofi.rasi
). It first checksXDG_CONFIG_DIRS
, and thenSYSCONFDIR
(that is passed at compile time). It loads the first config file it finds, it does not merge multiple system configuration files.Rasi theme file: The new theme format can be used to set configuration values.
Command-line options: Arguments passed to rofi.
To get a template config file, run:
rofi -dump-config > config.rasi
This will contain (commented) all current configuration options, modified options are uncommented.
To get a template config file that sets the icon-theme run:
rofi -icon-theme hicolor -dump-config
.
It is strongly recommended to use this as a starting point for your configuration.
An empty configuration section in the config file looks like:
configuration { // set config options here }
Most of the configuration options mentioned below (beside options
like -show
, -dump-config
that apply to a
single run) can be set here.
For example to set the dpi value to 72:
configuration { dpi: 72; }
The configuration system supports the following types:
string
integer (signed and unsigned)
char
boolean
lists
For the syntax of these options, see the rofi-theme(5) manpage.
For use on the command line, Boolean options have a non-default command-line syntax. Example to enable option X:
-X
To disable option X:
-no-X
Below is a list of the most important options:
General
-help
The help option shows the full list of command-line options and the current set values. These include dynamic (run-time generated) options.
-version
Show the rofi version and exit.
-dump-config
Dump the current active configuration, in rasi format, to stdout and exit. Information about the rasi format can be found in the rofi-theme(5) manpage.
-dump-theme
Dump the current active theme, in rasi format, to stdout and exit.
-rasi-validate
filename
Try to parse the file and return 0 when successful, non-zero when failed.
-threads
num
Specify the number of threads rofi should use:
0: Autodetect the number of supported hardware threads.
1: Disable threading
2..n: Specify the maximum number of threads to use in the thread pool.Default: Autodetect
-display
display
The X server to contact. Default is $DISPLAY
.
-dmenu
Run rofi in dmenu mode. This allows for interactive
scripts. In dmenu
mode, rofi reads from
STDIN, and output to STDOUT. A simple example, displaying three
pre-defined options:
echo -e "Option #1\nOption #2\nOption #3" | rofi -dmenu
Or get the options from a script:
~/my_script.sh | rofi -dmenu
See the rofi-dmenu(5) manpage for more information.
-show
mode
Open rofi in a certain mode. Available modes are
window
, run
, drun
,
ssh
, combi
. The special argument
keys
can be used to open a searchable list of supported key
bindings (see the rofi-keys(5) manpage)
To show the run-dialog:
rofi -show run
If -show
is the last option passed to rofi, the first
enabled modes is shown.
-modes
mode1,mode2
Specify an ordered, comma-separated list of modes to enable. Enabled
modes can be changed at runtime. Default key is Ctrl+Tab
.
If no modes are specified, all configured modes will be enabled. To only
show the run
and ssh
launcher:
rofi -modes "run,ssh" -show run
Custom modes can be added using the internal script
mode. Each such mode has two parameters:
<name>:<script>
Example: Have a mode called 'Workspaces' using the
i3_switch_workspaces.sh
script:
rofi -modes "window,run,ssh,Workspaces:i3_switch_workspaces.sh" -show Workspaces
Notes: The i3 window manager dislikes commas in the command when
specifying an exec command. For that case, #
can be used as
a separator.
TIP: The name is allowed to contain spaces:
rofi -modes "My File Browser:fb.sh" -show "My File Browser"
-case-sensitive
Start in case-sensitive mode. This option can be changed at run-time
using the -kb-toggle-case-sensitivity
key binding.
-cycle
Cycle through the result list. Default is 'true'.
-filter
filter
Filter the list by setting text in input bar to filter
-config
filename
Load an alternative configuration file.
-cache-dir
filename
Directory that is used to place temporary files, like history.
-scroll-method
method
Select the scrolling method. 0: Per page, 1: continuous.
-normalize-match
Normalize the string before matching, so o
will match
ö
, and é
matches e
.
This is not a perfect implementation, but works. For now, it disables
highlighting of the matched part.
-no-lazy-grab
Disables lazy grab, this forces the keyboard being grabbed before gui is shown.
-no-plugins
Disable plugin loading.
-plugin-path
directory
Specify the directory where rofi should look for plugins.
-show-icons
Show application icons in drun
and window
modes.
-icon-theme
Specify icon theme to be used. If not specified default theme from DE is used, Adwaita and gnome themes act as fallback themes.
-markup
Use Pango markup to format output wherever possible.
-normal-window
Make rofi react like a normal application window. Useful for scripts like Clerk that are basically an application.
-[no-]steal-focus
Make rofi steal focus on launch and restore close to window that held it when launched.
-refilter-timeout-limit
The limit of elements that is used to switch from instant to delayed filter mode.
Default: 8192
A fallback icon can be specified for each mode:
configuration { <mode>{ fallback-icon: "<icon name>"; } }
Example
configuration { run,drun { fallback-icon: "application-x-addon"; } }
Matching
-matching
method
Specify the matching algorithm used. Currently, the following methods are supported:
normal: match the int string
regex: match a regex input
glob: match a glob pattern
fuzzy: do a fuzzy match
prefix: match prefix
Default: normal
Note: glob matching might be slow for larger lists
-tokenize
Tokenize the input.
-drun-categories
category1,category2
Only show desktop files that are present in the listed categories.
-drun-match-fields
field1,field2,...
When using drun
, match only with the specified Desktop
entry fields. The different fields are:
name: the application's name
generic: the application's generic name
exec: the application's executable
categories: the application's categories
comment: the application comment
all: all the aboveDefault: name,generic,exec,categories,keywords
-drun-display-format
The format string for the drun
dialog:
name: the application's name
generic: the application's generic name
exec: the application's executable
categories: the application's categories
comment: the application comment
Pango markup can be used to formatting the output.
Default: {name} [<span weight='light' size='small'><i>({generic})</i></span>]
Note: Only fields enabled in -drun-match-fields
can be
used in the format string.
-[no-]drun-show-actions
Show actions present in the Desktop files.
Default: false
-window-match-fields
field1,field2,...
When using window mode, match only with the specified fields. The different fields are:
title: window's title
class: window's class
role: window's role
name: window's name
desktop: window's current desktop
all: all the aboveDefault: all
-matching-negate-char
char
Set the character used to negate the query (i.e. if it does not match the next keyword). Set to '\x0' to disable.
Default: '-'
Layout and Theming
IMPORTANT: In newer rofi releases,
all the theming options have been moved into the new theme format. They
are no longer normal rofi options that can be passed
directly on the command line (there are too many). Small snippets can be
passed on the command line:
rofi -theme-str 'window {width: 50%;}'
to override a single
setting. They are merged into the current theme. They can also be
appended at the end of the rofi config file to override
parts of the theme.
Most of the following options are deprecated and should not be used. Please use the new theme format to customize rofi. More information about the new format can be found in the rofi-theme(5) manpage.
-location
Specify where the window should be located. The numbers map to the following locations on screen:
1 2 3 8 0 4 7 6 5
Default: 0
-fixed-num-lines
Keep a fixed number of visible lines.
-sidebar-mode
Open in sidebar-mode. In this mode, a list of all enabled modes is
shown at the bottom. (See -modes
option) To show sidebar,
use:
rofi -show run -sidebar-mode
-hover-select
Automatically select the entry the mouse is hovering over. This option is best combined with custom mouse bindings. To utilize hover-select and accept an entry in a single click, use:
rofi -show run -hover-select -me-select-entry '' -me-accept-entry MousePrimary
-eh
number
Set row height (in chars) Default: 1
-auto-select
When one entry is left, automatically select it.
-m
num
-m
name
-monitor
num
-monitor
name
Select monitor to display rofi on. It accepts as input: primary (if primary output is set), the xrandr output name, or integer number (in order of detection). Negative numbers are handled differently:
-1: the currently focused monitor.
-2: the currently focused window (that is, rofi will be displayed on top of the focused window).
-3: Position of mouse (overrides the location setting to get normal context menu behavior.)
-4: the monitor with the focused window.
-5: the monitor that shows the mouse pointer.Default: -5
See rofi -h
output for the detected monitors, their
position, and size.
-theme
filename
Path to the new theme file format. This overrides the old theme settings.
-theme-str
string
Allow theme parts to be specified on the command line as an override.
For example:
rofi -theme-str '#window { fullscreen: true; }'
This option can be specified multiple times. This is now the method to tweak the theme via the command line.
-dpi
number
Override the default DPI setting.
If set to
0
, it tries to auto-detect based on X11 screen size (similar to i3 and GTK).If set to
1
, it tries to auto-detect based on the size of the monitor that rofi is displayed on (similar to latest Qt 5).
-selected-row
selected row
Select a certain row.
Default: 0
PATTERN setting
-terminal
Specify which terminal to start.
rofi -terminal xterm
Pattern: {terminal}
Default: x-terminal-emulator
-ssh-client
client
Override the used ssh
client.
Pattern: {ssh-client}
Default: ssh
SSH settings
-ssh-command
cmd
Set the command to execute when starting an ssh session. The pattern {host} is replaced by the selected ssh entry.
Pattern: {ssh-client}
Default: {terminal} -e {ssh-client} {host}
-parse-hosts
Parse the /etc/hosts
file for entries.
Default: disabled
-parse-known-hosts
-no-parse-known-hosts
Parse the ~/.ssh/known_hosts
file for entries.
Default: enabled
Run settings
-run-command
cmd
Set command ({cmd}) to execute when running an application. See PATTERN.
Default: {cmd}
-run-shell-command
cmd
Set command to execute when running an application in a shell. See PATTERN.
Default: {terminal} -e {cmd}
-run-list-command
cmd
If set, use an external tool to generate a list of executable
commands. Uses run-command
.
Default: {cmd}
Window switcher settings
-window-format
format
Format what is being displayed for windows.
format: {field[:len]}
field:
w: desktop name
t: title of window
n: name
r: role
c: class
len: maximum field length (0 for auto-size). If length and
window width are negative, field length is width -
len.
If length is positive, the entry will be truncated or padded to fill
that length.
default: {w} {c} {t}
-window-command
cmd
Set command to execute on selected window for an alt action
(-kb-accept-alt
). See PATTERN.
Default: "wmctrl -i -R {window}"
-window-thumbnail
Show window thumbnail (if available) as icon in the window switcher.
You can stop rofi from exiting when closing a window (allowing multiple to be closed in a row).
configuration { window { close-on-delete: false; } }
You can hide the currently active window with the 'hide-active-window' setting:
configuration { window { hide-active-window: true; } }
or pass -window-hide-active-window true
on command
line.
Combi settings
-combi-modes
mode1,mode2
The modes to combine in combi mode. For syntax to
-combi-modes
, see -modes
. To get one merge
view, of window
,run
, and ssh
:
rofi -show combi -combi-modes "window,run,ssh" -modes combi
NOTE: The i3 window manager dislikes commas in the
command when specifying an exec command. For that case, #
can be used as a separator.
-combi-display-format
The format string for entries in the combi
dialog:
mode: the mode display name
text: the entry text
Pango markup can be used to formatting the output.
Default: {mode} {text}
Note: This setting is ignored if combi-hide-mode-prefix
is enabled.
History and Sorting
-disable-history
-no-disable-history
(re-enable history)
Disable history
-sort
to enable -no-sort
to disable
Enable, disable sorting. This setting can be changed at runtime (see
-kb-toggle-sort
).
-sorting-method
'method' to specify the sorting
method.
There are 2 sorting methods:
levenshtein (Default)
fzf sorting.
-max-history-size
number
Maximum number of entries to store in history. Defaults to 25. (WARNING: can cause slowdowns when set too high)
Message dialog
-e
message
Pops up a message dialog (used internally for showing errors) with message. Message can be multi-line.
File browser settings
File browser behavior can be controlled via the following options:
configuration { filebrowser { /** Directory the file browser starts in. */ directory: "/some/directory"; /** * Sorting method. Can be set to: * - "name" * - "mtime" (modification time) * - "atime" (access time) * - "ctime" (change time) */ sorting-method: "name"; /** Group directories before files. */ directories-first: true; } }
Other
-drun-use-desktop-cache
Build and use a cache with the content of desktop files. Usable for systems with slow hard drives.
-drun-reload-desktop-cache
If drun-use-desktop-cache
is enabled, rebuild a cache
with the content of desktop files.
-drun-url-launcher
command
Command to open a Desktop Entry that is a Link.
-pid
path
Make rofi create a pid file and check this on startup. The pid file prevents multiple rofi instances from running simultaneously. This is useful when running rofi from a key-binding daemon.
-replace
If rofi is already running, based on pid file, try to kill that instance.
-display-{mode}
string
Set the name to use for mode. This is used as prompt and in combi-browser.
It is now preferred to use the configuration file:
configuration { {mode} { display-name: *string*; } }
-click-to-exit
-no-click-to-exit
Click the mouse outside the rofi window to exit.
Default: enabled
-xserver-i300-workaround
Workaround for bug in Xserver. See issue #611 and #1642 on the rofi issue tracker.
Default: disabled
PATTERN
To launch commands (for example, when using the ssh launcher), the user can enter the used command-line. The following keys can be used that will be replaced at runtime:
{host}
: the host to connect to
{terminal}
: the configured terminal (see -terminal)
{ssh-client}
: the configured ssh client (see -ssh-client)
{cmd}
: the command to execute
{window}
: the window ID of the selected window (inwindow-command
)
THEMING
Please see rofi-theme(5) manpage for more information on theming.
KEY BINDINGS
Please see the rofi-keys(5) manpage for the keybindings and how to set them up.
The keybinding can also be used for actions, when the action is executed the mentioned keystroke is inserted:
Timeout
You can configure an action to be taken when rofi has not been interacted with for a certain amount of seconds. You can specify a keybinding to trigger after X seconds.
configuration { timeout { delay: 15; action: "kb-cancel"; } }
Input change
When the input of the textbox changes:
configuration { inputchange { action: "kb-row-first"; } }
Available Modes
window
Show a list of all the windows and allow switching between them.
Pressing the delete-entry
binding
(shift-delete
) will close the window. Pressing the
accept-custom
binding (control-enter
or
shift-enter
) will run a command on the window. (See option
window-command
);
If there is no match, it will try to launch the input.
windowcd
Shows a list of the windows on the current desktop and allows
switching between them. Pressing the delete-entry
binding
(shift-delete
) will kill the window. Pressing the
accept-custom
binding (control-enter
or
shift-enter
) will run a command on the window. (See option
window-command
);
If there is no match, it will try to launch the input.
run
Shows a list of executables in $PATH
and can launch them
(optional in a terminal). Pressing the delete-entry
binding
(shift-delete
) will remove this entry from the run history.
Pressing the accept-custom
binding
(control-enter
) will run the command as entered in the
entry box. Pressing the accept-alt
binding
(shift-enter
) will run the command in a terminal.
When pressing the mode-complete
binding
(Control-l
), you can use the File Browser mode to launch
the application with a file as the first argument.
drun
Same as the run launches, but the list is created
from the installed desktop files. It automatically launches them in a
terminal if specified in the Desktop File. Pressing the
delete-entry
binding (shift-delete
) will
remove this entry from the run history. Pressing the
accept-custom
binding (control-enter
) will run
the command as entered in the entry box. Pressing the
accept-alt
binding (shift-enter
) will run the
command in a terminal.
When pressing the mode-complete
binding
(Control-l
), you can use the File Browser mode to launch
the application passing a file as argument if specified in the desktop
file.
The DRUN mode tries to follow the XDG Desktop Entry Specification ⟨https://freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/⟩ and should be compatible with applications using this standard. Some applications create invalid desktop files, rofi will discard these entries. See the debugging section for more info on DRUN mode, this will print why desktop files are discarded.
There are two advanced options to tweak the behaviour:
configuration { drun { /** Parse user desktop files. */ parse-user: true; /** Parse system desktop files. */ parse-system: false; } }
ssh
Shows a list of SSH targets based on your ssh
config
file, and allows to quickly ssh
into them.
keys
Shows a searchable list of key bindings.
script
Allows custom scripted Modes to be added, see the rofi-script(5) manpage for more information.
combi
Combines multiple modes in one list. Specify which modes are included
with the -combi-modes
option.
When using the combi mode, a !bang can be used to filter the
results by modes. All modes that match the bang as a prefix are
included. For example, say you have specified
-combi-modes run,window,windowcd
. If your query begins with
the bang !w
, only results from the window
and
windowcd
modes are shown, even if the rest of the input
text would match results from run
.
If no match, the input is handled by the first combined modes.
FAQ
The text in the window switcher is not nicely aligned.
Try using a mono-space font or tabs + the tab-stops setting..
The window is completely black.
Check quotes used on the command-line: you might have used
“
("smart quotes") instead of "
("machine
quotes").
What does the icon in the top right show?
The indicator shows:
` ` Case insensitive and no sorting. `-` Case sensitivity enabled, no sorting. `+` Case insensitive and Sorting enabled `±` Sorting and Case sensitivity enabled"
Why do I see different icons for run,drun and window mode
Each of these modes uses different methods of resolving the icon:
Window: It first uses the icon that the application exposes via the X11 Server, if none is set it does a lookup of the window Class name in the icon theme.
drun: It uses the icon set in the desktop file.
run: It does a lookup using the executable name.
EXAMPLES
Some basic usage examples of rofi:
Show the run dialog:
rofi -modes run -show run
Show the run dialog, and allow switching to Desktop File run dialog
(drun
):
rofi -modes run,drun -show run
Combine the run and Desktop File run dialog (drun
):
rofi -modes combi -show combi -combi-modes run,drun
Combine the run and Desktop File run dialog (drun
), and
allow switching to window switcher:
rofi -modes combi,window -show combi -combi-modes run,drun
Pop up a text message claiming that this is the end:
rofi -e "This is the end"
Pop up a text message in red, bold font claiming that this is still the end:
rofi -e "<span color='red'><b>This is still the end</b></span>" -markup
Show all key bindings:
rofi -show keys
i3
In i3 ⟨http://i3wm.org/⟩ you want to bind rofi to be launched on key release. Otherwise, it cannot grab the keyboard. See also the i3 manual ⟨http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html⟩:
Some tools (such as import
or xdotool
)
might be unable to run upon a KeyPress event, because the
keyboard/pointer is still grabbed. For these situations, the
--release
flag can be used, as it will execute the command
after the keys have been released.
LICENSE
MIT/X11 Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
WEBSITE
rofi website can be found here ⟨https://github.com/davatorium/rofi/⟩
SUPPORT
rofi support can be obtained: * GitHub Discussions ⟨https://github.com/davatorium/rofi/discussions⟩ * Forum (Reddit) ⟨https://reddit.com/r/qtools//⟩ * IRC ⟨irc://irc.libera.chat:6697/#rofi⟩ (#rofi on irc.libera.chat),
DEBUGGING
For more information see rofi-debugging(5) manpage.
ISSUE TRACKER
The rofi issue tracker can be found here ⟨https://github.com/davatorium/rofi/issues⟩ Before creating an issue, consider posting a question on the discussion forum ⟨https://github.com/davatorium/rofi/discussions⟩ first. When creating an issue, please read this ⟨https://github.com/davatorium/rofi/blob/master/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md⟩ first.
SEE ALSO
rofi-sensible-terminal(1), dmenu(1), rofi-debugging(5), rofi-theme(5), rofi-script(5), rofi-keys(5) rofi-theme-selector(1) rofi-dmenu(5)
AUTHOR
Qball Cow qball@blame.services ⟨mailto:qball@blame.services⟩
Rasmus Steinke rasi@xssn.at ⟨mailto:rasi@xssn.at⟩
Morgane Glidic sardemff7+rofi@sardemff7.net ⟨mailto:sardemff7+rofi@sardemff7.net⟩
Original code based on work by: Sean Pringle ⟨https://github.com/seanpringle/simpleswitcher⟩ sean.pringle@gmail.com ⟨mailto:sean.pringle@gmail.com⟩
For a full list of authors, check the AUTHORS
file.