cagebreak-config - (unknown subject)

NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION COMMANDS MODES KEY DEFINITIONS SEE ALSO BUGS LICENSE

NAME

cagebreak-config Cagebreak configuration file

DESCRIPTION

The cagebreak configuration is a plain text file.

Each line consists of a comment or a command and its arguments which are parsed sequentially but independently from the rest of the file.

Each line starting with a "#" is a comment.

Note that nesting of commands is limited to 50 times. Lines are arbitrarily long in practice, though a reasonable limit of 4Mb has been set.

See KEY DEFINITIONS for details on modifier keys and MODES for details on modes.

COMMANDS

abort

Return to default mode

background <r> <g> 

Set RGB of background - <[r|g|b]> are floating point numbers between 0 and 1. There is no support for background images.

# Set background to red
background 1.0 0.0 0.0

bind <key> <command>

Bind <key> to execute <command> if pressed in root mode

bind <key> <command>
# is equivalent to
definekey root <key> <command>

close

Close current window - This may be useful for windows of applications which do not offer any method of closing them.

Configure message characteristics -

•

font sets the font of the message. Here, is either

- an X core font description or
- a FreeType font description via pango

	•		fg_color <r> <g> <b> <a> sets the RGBA of the foreground
	•		bg_color <r> <g> <b> <a> sets the RGBA of the background
	•		display_time <n> sets the display time in seconds
	•		anchor <position> sets the position of the message.

<position> may be one of {top,bottom}_{left,center,right} or center.

•

[enable|disable] Enable or disable messages

# Set font
## Set example X code font
configure_message font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
## Set example FreeType font description
configure_message font pango:monospace 10

# Set foreground RGBA to red
configure_message fg_color 1.0 0.0 0.0 1.0

# Set background RGBA to red
configure_message bg_color 1.0 0.0 0.0 1.0

# Set duration for message display to four seconds
configure_message display_time 4

cursor [enable|disable]

Enable or disable cursor

This simply hides the cursor. Pointing and clicking is still possible.

custom_event <message>

Send a custom event to the IPC socket

This sends an event of type "custom_event" to all programs listening to the IPC socket along with the string <message>. See cagebreak-socket(7) for more details.

definekey <mode> <key> <command>

Bind <key> to execute <command> if pressed in <mode> - definekey is a more general version of bind.

definemode <mode>

Define new mode <mode> - After a call to definemode, <mode> can be used with definekey to create a custom key mapping.

# define new mode and create a mapping for it
definemode foo
definekey foo C-t abort

dump

Triggers the dump event, see cagebreak-socket(7) for details

escape <key>

Set <key> to switch to root mode to execute one command

escape <key>
# is equivalent to
definekey top <key> mode root

exchange <tile_id 1> <tile_id 2> [<follow_focus>]

Exchange tile ids <tile_id 1> and <tile_id 2>, optionally set follow_focus to 0 to disable to focus following.

exchangedown

Exchange current window with window in the tile to the bottom

exchangeleft

Exchange current window with window in the tile to the left

exchangeright

Exchange current window with window in the tile to the right

exchangeup

Exchange current window with window in the tile to the top

exec <command>

Execute <command> using sh -c

focus [<tile_id>]

If <tile_id> is provided, focus it, else focus next tile

focusdown

Focus tile to the bottom

focusleft

Focus tile to the left

focusprev

Focus previous tile

focusright

Focus tile to the right

focusup

Focus tile to the top

hsplit [<percentage>]

Split current tile horizontally, optionally give a float between 0.0 and 1.0 as a percentage of the screen size to split

input <identifier> <setting> <value>

Set <setting> to <value> for device <identifier> - <identifier> can be "*" (wildcard), of the form "type:<device_type>" or the identifier of the device as printed for example by cagebreak -s. The supported input types are

	•		touchpad
	•		pointer
	•		keyboard
	•		touch
	•		tablet_tool
	•		tablet_pad
	•		switch

Configurations are applied sequentially. Currently, only libinput devices may be configured. The available settings and their corresponding values are as follows:

accel_profile adaptive|flat

Set pointer acceleration profile for specified input device

calibration_matrix <6 space-separated floating point values>

Set calibration matrix

click_method none|button_areas|clickfinger

Change click method for the specified device

drag enabled|disabled

Enable or disable tap-and-drag for specified input device

drag_lock enabled|disabled

Enable or disable drag lock for specified input device

dwt enabled|disabled

Enable or disable disable-while-typing for specified input device

events enabled|disabled|disabled_on_external_mouse

Enable or disable send_events for specified input device - Disabling send_events disables the input device.

keybindings [enabled|disabled]

Enable or disable keybinding interpretation for a specific keyboard.

left_handed enabled|disabled

Enable or disable left handed mode for specified input device

middle_emulation enabled|disabled

Enable or disable middle click emulation

natural_scroll enabled|disabled

Enable or disable natural (inverted) scrolling for specified input device

pointer_accel [<-1|1>]

Change the pointer acceleration for specified input device

scroll_button disable|<event-code-or-name>

Set button used for scroll_method on_button_down - The button can be given as an event name or code, which can be obtained from libinput debug-events. If set to disable, it disables the scroll_method on_button_down.

scroll_factor <floating point value>

Change the scroll factor for the specified input device - Scroll speed will be scaled by the given value, which must be non-negative.

scroll_method none|two_finger|edge|on_button_down

Change scroll method for specified input device

repeat_delay <n>

Repeat delay in ms for keyboards only

repeat_rate <n>

Repeat rate in 1/s for keyboards only

tap enabled|disabled

Enable or disable tap for specified input device

tap_button_map lrm|lmr

Specify which button mapping to use for tapping - lrm treats 1 finger as left click, 2 fingers as right click, and 3 fingers as middle click. lmr treats 1 finger as left click, 2 fingers as middle click, and 3 fingers as right click.

message <text>

Display a line of arbitrary text.

mode <mode>

Enter mode "<mode>" - Returns to default mode, after a command is executed.

movetonextscreen

Move currently focused window to next screen See output for differences between screen and output.

movetoprevscreen

Move currently focused window to previous screen See output for differences between screen and output.

movetoscreen <n>

Move currently focused window to <n>-th screen See output for differences between screen and output.

movetoworkspace <n>

Move currently focused window to <n>-th workspace See output for differences between screen and output.

moveviewtotile <view_id> <tile_id> [<follow_focus>]

Move view with <view_id> to tile with <tile_id>, optionally set <follow_focus> to 0 to disable following the view with the focus.

moveviewtoworkspace <view_id> <workspace> [<follow_focus>]

Move view with <view_id> to workspace number <workspace>, optionally set <follow_focus> to 0 to disable following the view with the focus.

moveviewtoscreen <view_id> <screen> [<follow_focus>]

Move view with <view_id> to screen number <screen>, optionally set <follow_focus> to 0 to disable following the view with the focus.

mergeleft [<tile_id>]

Merge tile to the left, relative to the focussed tile by default, the specified <tile_id> otherwise.

mergeright [<tile_id>]

Merge tile to the right, relative to the focussed tile by default, the specified <tile_id> otherwise.

mergeup [<tile_id>

Merge tile to the top, relative to the focussed tile by default, the specified <tile_id> otherwise.

mergedown [<tile_id>

Merge tile to the bottom, relative to the focussed tile by default, the specified <tile_id> otherwise.

next [<view_id>]

If given a <view_id>, focus it else focus next

nextscreen

Focus next screen See output for differences between screen and output.

only [<screen> <workspace>]

Remove all splits and make current view fill the entire screen on current screen and workspace by default or <screen> and <workspace> if given.

Configure output "<name>" -

	•		<xpos> and <ypos> are the position of the monitor in pixels. The top-left monitor should have the coordinates 0 0.
	•		<width> and <height> specify the resolution in pixels.
	•		<rate> sets the refresh rate of the monitor (often this is 50 or 60).
	•		<scale> sets the output scale (default is 1.0)
	•		enable and disable enable or disable <name>. Note that if <output> is the only enabled output, output <output> disable has no effect.
	•		permanent sets <name> to persist even on disconnect. When the physical monitor is disconnected, the output is maintained and operates identically to the attached monitor. On reconnect, the monitor operates as though it was never disconnected. Setting the output role to peripheral when the monitor is disconnected, destroys the output, as if the monitor were disconnected.
	•		peripheral sets the role of <name> to peripheral, meaning that on disconnecting the respective monitor, all views will be moved to another available output. The default role is peripheral.
	•		prio <n> is used to set the priority of an output. If nothing else is set, outputs are added as they request to be added and have a numerical priority of -1. Using prio <n> it is possible to set priorities for outputs, where <n> >= 1. The larger <n> is, the higher the priority is, that is to say, the earlier the output will appear in the list of outputs.
	•		rotate <n> is used to rotate the output by ‘<n> mod 4 x 90‘ degrees counter-clockwise.

# Don’t rotate
output DP-1 rotate 0

# rotate 90 degrees counter-clockwise
output DP-1 rotate 1

# rotate 180 degrees counter-clockwise
output DP-1 rotate 2

# rotate 270 degrees counter-clockwise
output DP-1 rotate 3

output and the screen family of commands are similar in that they both deal with monitors on some level.

	•		output addresses outputs by their name and is vaguely symmetric to input.
	•		Any screen command deals with the number identifying a monitor within a Cagebreak session either explicitly or implicitly (i.e. the commands containing next and prev).

prev

Focus previous window in current tile

prevscreen

Focus previous screen

quit

Exit cagebreak

resizedown [<pixels> [<tile_id>]]

Resize towards the bottom, by 10 pixels by default and <pixels> if given, on the focussed tile by default and <tile_id> if given.

resizeleft [<pixels> [<tile_id>]]

Resize towards the left, by 10 pixels by default and <pixels> if given, on the focussed tile by default and <tile_id> if given.

resizeright [<pixels> [<tile_id>]]

Resize towards the right, by 10 pixels by default and <pixels> if given, on the focussed tile by default and <tile_id> if given.

resizeup [<pixels> [<tile_id>]]

Resize towards the top, by 10 pixels by default and <pixels> if given, on the focussed tile by default and <tile_id> if given.

screen <n>

Change to <n>-th screen See output for differences between screen and output.

show_info

Display information about the current setup - In particular, print the identifiers of the available inputs and outputs.

setmode <mode>

Set default mode to <mode>

setmodecursor <mode> <cursor>

Set cursor to be <cursor> when in mode <mode>

switchvt <n>

Switch to tty <n>

time

Display time

vsplit [<percentage>]

Split current tile vertically, optionally give a float between 0.0 and 1.0 as a percentage of the screen size to split

workspace <n>

Change to <n>-th workspace

workspaces <n>

Set number of workspaces to <n> - <n> is a single integer larger than 1 and less than 30.

MODES

By default, three modes are defined:

top

Default mode - Keybindings defined in this mode can be accessed directly.

	•		definekey can be used to set keybindings for top mode.
	•		setmode can be used to set a different default mode.

root

Command mode - Keybindings defined in this mode can be accessed after pressing the key defined by escape.

•

bind can be used to set keybindings for root mode.

resize

Resize mode - Used to resize tiles.

definemode can be used to create additional modes.

KEY DEFINITIONS

Keys are specified by their names as displayed for example by xev.

Modifiers can be specified using the following syntax:

The supported modifiers are:

A - Alt

C - Control

L - Logo

S - Shift

2 - Mod 2

3 - Mod 3

5 - Mod 5

For example to specify the keybinding Control+t, the expression

C-t

is used.

BUGS

See GitHub Issues: <https://github.com/project-repo/cagebreak/issues>

Mail contact: ‘cagebreak @ project-repo . co‘

GPG Fingerprints:

	•		0A268C188D7949FEB39FD1462F2AD980247E4918
	•		283D10F54201B0C6CCEE2C561DE04E4B056C749D

LICENSE

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.

Updated 2026-06-01 - jenkler.se | uex.se