Commands Reference, Volume 3

mwm Command

Purpose

Runs the AIXwindows Window Manager (MWM).

Syntax

mwm -display Host:Display:ScreenID -xrm ResourceString -multiscreen -name Name -screens Name [ Name ... ]

Description

The mwm command runs the AIXwindows Window Manager (MWM) and is often started by a display or session manager. The AIXwindows Window Manager (MWM) is an X Window System client that provides window management functionality and some session management functionality. It provides functions that facilitate control (by the user and the programmer) of elements of window states such as placement, size, icon or normal display, and input-focus ownership. It also provides session management functions such as stopping a client.

The appearance and behavior of the window manager can be altered by changing the configuration of specific resources. Resources are defined under X Defaults .

By default, the mwm command manages only the single screen specified by the -display option or the DISPLAY environment variable (by default, screen 0). If the -multiscreen option is specified or if the multiScreen resource is True, the mwm command tries to manage all the screens on the display.

When the mwm command is managing multiple screens, the -screens option can be used to give each screen a unique resource name. The names are separated by blanks, for example, -screens mwm0 mwm1. If there are more screens than names, resources for the remaining screens are retrieved using the first name. By default, the screen number is used for the screen name.

For information on windows, icons, resources, events, button and key bindings, menus, and variables, see the following sections:

• Windows
• Icons
• Icon Box
• Component Appearance Resources
• General Appearance and Behavior Resources
• Client-Specific Resources
• Window Manager Event Specification
• Button Bindings
• Key Bindings
• Menu Panes
• Environment
• Related Information

Flags

Windows

Default window manager window frames have the following distinct components with associated functions:

Default Window Menu

Selection  Accelerator  Description
Restore    Alt+F5       Restores the window to its size before 
                           minimizing or maximizing.
Move       Alt+F7       Allows the window to be moved with keys 
                           or mouse.
Size       Alt+F8       Allows the window to be resized.
Minimize   Alt+F9       Turns the window into an icon.
Maximize   Alt+F10      Makes the window fill the screen.
Lower      Alt+F3       Moves window to bottom of window stack.
Close      Alt+F4       Causes client to stop.

Icons

Icons are small graphic representations of windows. A window can be iconified (minimized) using the Minimize button on the window frame. Icons provide a way to reduce clutter on the screen.

Pressing the left mouse button when the pointer is over an icon causes the icon's window menu to open. Releasing the button (press + release without moving mouse = click) causes the menu to stay posted. The menu contains the following selections:

Pressing button 3 over an icon also causes the icon's window menu to open. To make a menu selection, drag the pointer over the menu and release button 3 when the desired item is highlighted.

Double-clicking button 1 on an icon calls the f.restore_and_raise function and restores the icon's associated window to its previous state. For example, if a maximized window is iconified, double-clicking button 1 restores it to its maximized state. Double-clicking button 1 on the icon box's icon opens the icon box and allow access to the contained icons. (Double-clicking a mouse button is a quick way to perform a function.) Pressing the Shift+Esc key sequence or the pop-up Menu key causes the icon window menu of the currently selected icon to open.

Icon Box

When icons begin to clutter the screen, they can be packed into an icon box. (To use an icon box, the window manager must be started with the icon box configuration already set.) The icon box is a window manager window that holds client icons. It includes one or more scroll bars when there are more window icons than the icon box can show at the same time.

Icons in the icon box can be manipulated with the mouse. The following button action descriptions summarize the behavior of this interface. Button actions apply whenever the pointer is on any part of the icon. Double-clicking an icon in the icon box calls the f.restore_and_raise function.

Pressing mouse button 3 when the pointer is over an icon causes the menu for that icon to open.

To pull down the window menu for the icon box itself, press button 1 with the pointer over the menu button for the icon box. The window menu of the icon box differs from the window menu of a client window: The Close selection is replaced with the PackIcons (Shift+Alt+F7) selection. When selected, the PackIcons option packs the icons in the box to achieve neat rows with no empty slots.

You can also post the window menu by pressing the Shift+Esc or Alt+Space key sequence. Pressing the pop-up Menu key causes the icon window menu of the currently selected icon to open.

Input Focus

The mwm command supports (by default) a keyboard input focus policy of explicit selection. This means when a window is selected to get keyboard input, it continues to get keyboard input until the window is withdrawn from window management, another window is explicitly selected to get keyboard input, or the window is iconified. Several resources control the input focus. The client window with the keyboard input focus has the active window appearance with a visually distinct window frame.

The following table and key action descriptions summarize the keyboard input focus selection behavior:

Window Stacking

There are two types of window stacks: global window stacks and an application's local family window stack.

The global stacking order of windows can be changed as a result of setting the keyboard input focus, iconifying a window, or performing a window manager window stacking function. When keyboard focus policy is explicit the default value of the focusAutoRaise resource is True. This causes a window to be raised to the top of the stack when it receives input focus, for example, by pressing button 1 on the title bar. The key actions defined in the preceding list raises the window receiving focus to the top of the stack.

In pointer mode, the default value of the focusAutoRaise resource is False; that is, the window stacking order is not changed when a window receives keyboard input focus. The following key actions can be used to cycle through the global window stack:

By default, a window's icon is placed on the bottom of the stack when the window is iconified; however, the default can be changed by the lowerOnIconify resource.

Transient windows (secondary windows such as dialog boxes) stay above their parent windows by default. However, an application's local family stacking order can changed to allow a transient window to be placed below its parent top-level window. The following parameter values show the modification of the stacking order for the f.lower function:

The within and freeFamily parameter values can also be used with the f.raise and f.raise_lower functions.

X Defaults

The mwm command is configured from its resource database. This database is built from the following sources. They are listed in order of precedence.

1. mwm command line options
2. XENVIRONMENT variable or $HOME/.Xdefaults-host
3. RESOURCE_MANAGER root window property or $HOME/.Xdefaults
4. $HOME/Mwm
5. /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Mwm.

The /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Mwm and $HOME/Mwm file names represent customary locations for these files. The actual location of the systemwide class resource file might depend on the XFILESEARCHPATH environment variable and the current language environment. The actual location of the user-specific class resource file might depend on the XUSERFILESEARCHPATH and XAPPLRESDIR environment variables and the current language environment.

Entries in the resource database can refer to other resource files for specific types of resources. These include files that contain bitmaps, fonts, and mwm-specific resources such as menus and behavior specifications (for example, button and key bindings).

Mwm is the resource class name of the mwm command and mwm is the resource name used by the mwm command to look up resources. (For looking up resources of multiple screens, the -screens command-line option specifies resource names such as mwm_b+w and mwm_color.) In the following discussion of resource specification, "Mwm" and "mwm" (and the aliased mwm resource names) can be used interchangeably, but "mwm" takes precedence over "Mwm". The mwm command uses the following types of resources:

Resource identifiers can be either a resource name (for example, foreground) or a resource class (for example, Foreground). If the value of a resource is a file name and if the file name is prefixed by the ~/ (tilde followed by a slash) characters, it is relative to the path contained in the HOME environment variable (generally the user's home directory).

Component Appearance Resources

The syntax for specifying component appearance resources that apply to window manager icons, menus, and client window frames is as follows:

Mwm*ResourceID

For example, Mwm*foreground is used to specify the foreground color for the mwm command menus, icons, client window frames, and feedback dialogs.

The syntax for specifying component appearance resources that apply to a particular mwm component is as follows:

Mwm*[Menu|Icon|Client|Feedback]*ResourceID

If Menu is specified, the resource is applied only to Mwm menus; if Icon is specified, the resource is applied to icons; and if Client is specified, the resource is applied to client window frames. For example, Mwm*Icon*foreground is used to specify the foreground color for the mwm command icons, Mwm*Menu*foreground specifies the foreground color for the mwm command menus, and Mwm*Client*foreground is used to specify the foreground color for the mwm command client window frames.

The appearance of the title area of a client window frame (including window management buttons) can be separately configured. The syntax for configuring the title area of a client window frame is as follows:

Mwm*Client*Title*ResourceID

For example, Mwm*Client*Title*foreground specifies the foreground color for the title area. Defaults for title area resources are based on the values of the corresponding client window frame resources.

The appearance of menus can be configured based on the name of the menu. The syntax for specifying menu appearance by name is as follows:

Mwm*Menu*MenuName*ResourceID

For example, Mwm*Menu*MyMenu*foreground specifies the foreground color for the menu named MyMenu.

The user can also specify resources for window manager menu components (the gadgets that comprise the menu). These may include, for example, a menu title, a title separator, one or more buttons, and separators. If a menu contains more than one instance of a class, such as multiple PushButtonGadget gadgets, the name of the first instance is PushButtonGadget1, the second is PushButtonGadget2, and so on. The following list identifies the naming conventions used for window manager menu components:

The following component appearance resources that apply to all window manager parts can be specified.

Component Appearance Resource Set

Frame and Icon Component Resource Set

General Appearance and Behavior Resources  

The syntax for specifying general appearance and behavior resources is as follows:

Mwm*ResourceID

For example, Mwm*keyboardFocusPolicy specifies the window manager policy for setting the keyboard focus to a particular client window.

General Appearance and Behavior Resource Set  

w = width 
h = height 
millisec = milliseconds

Client-Specific Resources

The syntax for specifying client-specific resources is as follows:

Mwm*ClientNameOrClass*ResourceID

For example, Mwm*mterm*windowMenu is used to specify the window menu to be used with mterm clients.

The syntax for specifying client-specific resources for all classes of clients is as follows:

Mwm*ResourceID

Specific client specifications take precedence over the specifications for all clients. For example, Mwm*windowMenu is used to specify the window menu to be used for all classes of clients that do not have a window menu specified.

The syntax for specifying resource values for windows that have an unknown name and class (that is, windows that do not have a WM_CLASS property associated with them) is as follows:

Mwm*defaults*ResourceID

For example, Mwm*defaults*iconImage is used to specify the icon image to be used for windows that have an unknown name and class.

Client-Specific Resource Set

Mwm*XClock.clientDecoration: -resizeh -maximize

Mwm*XClock.clientDecoration: menu minimize border

Resource Description File

The mwm resource description file is a supplementary resource file that contains resource descriptions that are referred to by entries in the defaults files (.Xdefaults, app-defaults/Mwm). It contains descriptions of resources that are to be used by the mwm command and that cannot be easily encoded in the defaults files (a bitmap file is an analogous type of resource description file). A particular mwm resource description file can be selected using the configFile resource.

The following types of resources can be described in the mwm resource description file:

mwm Resource Description File Syntax

The mwm resource description file is a standard text file that contains items of information separated by blanks, tabs, and new-line characters. Blank lines are ignored. Items or characters can be quoted to avoid special interpretation (for example, the # (comment character) can be quoted to prevent it from being interpreted as the comment character). A quoted item can be contained in " " (double quotation marks). Single characters can be quoted by preceding them with the \ (backslash). All text from an unquoted # (comment character) to the end of the line is regarded as a comment and is not interpreted as part of a resource description. If an ! (exclamation mark) is the first character in a line, the line is regarded as a comment. If a line ends in a \ (backslash), the next line is considered a continuation of that line.

Window manager functions can be accessed with button and key bindings and with window manager menus. Functions are indicated as part of the specifications for button and key binding sets and for menu panes. The function specification has the following syntax:

Function = FunctionName [FunctionArguments]
FunctionName = Window Manager Function
FunctionArguments = {QuotedItem | UnquotedItem}

The following functions are supported. If a function is specified that is not one of the supported functions, it is interpreted by the mwm command as the f.nop function.

Function Contexts

Each function may be constrained as to which resource types can specify the function (for example, menu pane) and also what context the function can be used in (for example, the function is done to the selected client window). The following are the function contexts:

If a function's context is specified as icon|window and the function is started in an icon box, the function applies to the icon box, not to the icons inside.

If a function is specified in a type of resource where it is not supported or is started in a context that does not apply, the function is treated as f.nop. The following table indicates the resource types and function contexts in which window manager functions apply:

Window Manager Event Specification

Events are indicated as part of the specifications for button and key-binding sets and for menu panes.

Button events have the following syntax:

Button = [ModifierList]<ButtonEventName>
ModifierList = Modifier Name {ModifierName}

All modifiers specified are interpreted as being exclusive (this means that only the specified modifiers can be present when the button event occurs). Following is a list that indicates the values that can be used for the ModifierName parameter. The Alt key is frequently labeled Extend or Meta. Alt and Meta can be used interchangeably in event specification.

Following is a list that indicates the values that can be used for the ButtonEventName parameter.

Key events that are used by the window manager for menu mnemonics and for binding to window manager functions are single key presses; key releases are ignored. Key events have the following syntax:

Key = [ModifierList] <Key> KeyName 
ModifierList = ModifierName {ModifierName}

All modifiers specified are interpreted as being exclusive (this means that only the specified modifiers can be present when the key event occurs). Modifiers for keys are the same as those that apply to buttons. The KeyName parameter is an X11 keysym name. Key symbol names can be found in the keysymdef.h file (remove the XK_ prefix).

The key symbol names will be resolved to a single specific key code by the Window Manager during startup and will not change unless the Window Manager is restarted.

Button Bindings

The buttonBindings resource value is the name of a set of button bindings that are used to configure window manager behavior. A window manager function can be used when a button press occurs with the pointer over a framed client window, an icon, or the root window. The context for indicating where the button press applies is also the context for starting the window manager function when the button press is done (significant for functions that are context-sensitive).

Following is the button binding syntax:

Buttons BindingsSetName
        { 
Button Context Function
Button Context Function
                . 
                . 
Button Context Function
        }

Following is the syntax for the context specification:

Context = Object[|Context] 
Object = root | icon | window | title | frame | border | app

The Context specification indicates where the pointer must be for the button binding to be effective. For example, a context of window indicates that the pointer must be over a client window or window management frame for the button binding to be effective. The frame context is for the window management frame around a client window (including the border and title bar), the border context is for the border part of the window management frame (not including the title bar), the title context is for the title area of the window management frame, and the app context is for the application window (not including the window management frame).

If an f.nop function is specified for a button binding, the button binding is not done.

Key Bindings

The keyBindings resource value is the name of a set of key bindings that are used to configure window manager behavior. A window manager function can be done when a particular key is pressed. The context in which the key binding applies is indicated in the key binding specification. The valid contexts are the same as those that apply to button bindings.

Following is the key binding syntax:

Keys BindingsSetName
{ 
Key Context Function
Key Context Function
                . 
                . 
Key Context Function
} 
 

If an f.nop function is specified for a key binding, the key binding is not done. If an f.post_wmenu or f.menu function is bound to a key, the mwm command automatically uses the same key for removing the menu from the screen after it is open.

The Context specification syntax is the same as for button bindings. For key bindings, the frame, title, border, and app contexts are equivalent to the window context. The context for a key event is the window or icon that has the keyboard input focus (root if no window or icon has the keyboard input focus).

Menu Panes

Menus can be opened using the f.post_wmenu and f.menu window manager functions. The context for window manager functions that are done from a menu is root, icon, or window, depending on how the menu is opened. In the case of the window menu or menus opened with a key binding, the location of the keyboard input focus indicates the context. For menus opened using a button binding, the context of the button binding is the context of the menu.

Following is the menu pane specification syntax:

Menu MenuName
{
Label [Mnemonic] [Accelerator] Function
Label [Mnemonic] [Accelerator] Function
                 .
                 . 
Label [Mnemonic] [Accelerator] Function
} 

Each line in the Menu specification identifies the label for a menu item and the function to be completed if the menu item is selected. Optionally, a menu button mnemonic and a menu button keyboard accelerator can be specified. Mnemonics are functional only when the menu is posted and keyboard traversal applies.

The label can be a string or a bitmap file. The Label specification has the following syntax:

Label = Text | BitmapFile
BitmapFile = @FileName
Text = QuotedItem | UnquotedItem

The string encoding for labels must be compatible with the menu font that is used. Labels are not available for menu items that use the f.nop function, an invalid function, or a function that does not apply in the current context.

A Mnemonic specification has the following syntax:

Mnemonic = _Character

The first matching Character in the label is underlined. If there is no matching Character in the label, no mnemonic is registered with the window manager for that label. Although the Character must exactly match a character in the label, the mnemonic does not perform if any modifier (such as the Shift key) is pressed with the character key.

The Accelerator specification is a key event specification with the same syntax that is used for key bindings to window manager functions.

Environment

The mwm command does the following:

• Uses the HOME environment variable to specify the user's home directory.
• Uses the LANG environment variable to specify the user's choice of language for the mwm message catalog and the mwm resource description file.
• Uses the XFILESEARCHPATH, XUSERFILESEARCHPATH, XAPPLRESDIR, XENVIRONMENT, LANG, and HOME environment variables to determine search paths for resource defaults files. The mwm command can also use the XBMLANGPATH environment variable to search for bitmap files.
• Reads the $HOME/.motifbind file, if it exists, to install a virtual key bindings property on the root window.
• Uses the MWMSHELL environment variable (or SHELL if MWMSHELL is not set) to specify the shell to use when running commands through the f.exec function.

Exit Status

This command returns the following exit values:

Files

/usr/lib/X11/$LANG/system.mwmrc

/usr/lib/X11/system.mwmrc

/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/Mwm

$HOME/Mwm

$HOME/.Xdefaults

$HOME/$LANG/.mwmrc

$HOME/.mwmrc

$HOME/.motifbind

Related Information

The X command in AIX 5L Version 5.2 Commands Reference.