dmenu(1) [debian man page]
DMENU(1) General Commands Manual DMENU(1) NAME
dmenu - dynamic menu SYNOPSIS
dmenu [-b] [-i] [-l lines] [-m monitor] [-p prompt] [-fn font] [-nb color] [-nf color] [-sb color] [-sf color] [-v] dmenu_run ... dmenu_path DESCRIPTION
dmenu is a dynamic menu for X, originally designed for dwm(1). It manages huge numbers of user-defined menu items efficiently. dmenu reads a list of newline-separated items from standard input and creates a menu. When the user selects an item or enters any text and presses Return, their choice is printed to standard output and dmenu terminates. dmenu_run is a dmenu script used by dwm which lists programs in the user's PATH and executes the selected item. dmenu_path is a program used by dmenu_run to find and cache a list of executables. OPTIONS
-b dmenu appears at the bottom of the screen. -i dmenu matches menu items case insensitively. -l lines dmenu lists items vertically, with the given number of lines. -m monitor dmenu appears on the given Xinerama screen. -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 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 standard output, then exits. USAGE
dmenu is completely controlled by the keyboard. Besides standard Unix line editing and item selection (Up/Down/Left/Right, PageUp/Page- Down, Home/End), the following keys are recognized: Tab (Control-i) Copy the selected item to the input field. Return (Control-j) Confirm selection. Prints the selected item to standard output and exits, returning success. Shift-Return (Control-Shift-j) Confirm input. Prints the input text to standard output and exits, returning success. Escape (Control-c) Exit without selecting an item, returning failure. Control-y Paste the current X selection into the input field. SEE ALSO
dwm(1) dmenu-4.2.1 DMENU(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
RATMENU(1) General Commands Manual RATMENU(1) NAME
ratmenu - create a menu to run commands SYNOPSIS
ratmenu [ -display displayname ] [ -font fname ] [ -fg foreground-color ] [ -bg background-color ] [ -io item-offset ] [ -label name ] [ -shell prog ] [ -align {left|center|right} ] [ -style {snazzy|dreary} ] [ -persist ] [ -version ] [ menuitem command ] ... DESCRIPTION
ratmenu is a simple program that accepts a list of menu item and command pairs on the command line. It creates a window that consists of nothing but a menu. When a particular item is selected, the corresponding command is executed. ratmenu does not recognize any usage of the rodent. It is entirely keystroke operated. Menu items must be followed by a command. The syntax is based on that of the dialog program. ratmenu accepts the following command line options. -display displayname Use the X display displayname, instead of the default display. -font fname (X Resource: font) Use the font fname, instead of the default font. -label name Change both the window and icon labels of the window to name. The default label is the last component of the path used to run ratmenu, typically, ratmenu. -fg foreground-color (X Resource: fgcolor) Set the foreground color to foreground-color. By default, the foreground color is black. -bg background-color (X Resource: bgcolor) Set the background color to background-color. By default, the background color is white. -io item-offset Set the first selected item to item-offset. By default, the first item is the top-most one, or item-offset 1. The next item down would be at item-offset 2. -style {snazzy|dreary} (X Resource: style) The default style is snazzy, where the highlight bar, which shows the currently selected item, remains stationary while all the menu items are rotated up or down when the cursor keys are moved. In dreary mode, the highlight bar moves up and down the menu as it does on all conventional keyboard controlled menus. -align {left|center|right} (X Resource: align) Align the text of the menu entries to the left, right, or center. Defaults to left. This is different from 9menu, which defaults to center. -shell prog Use prog as the shell to run commands, instead of /bin/sh. A popular alternative shell is rc(1). If the shell cannot be executed, ratmenu will silently fall back to using /bin/sh. -back prevmenu prevmenu is a command or shell script to run when the back key is pressed, usually a script that has ratmenu showing the pre- vious menu. Used to create nested menus, it gives the user a way to back out and return to the previous menu. Note that you can use this option for other things too. The command specified by the -back option is executed when the user hits one of the "back" keys. -persist (X Resource: persist) Ordinarily, ratmenu exits if a new window pops up on top of it, or if you switch to another window. This option tells ratmenu to hang around, like a regular window. -version This option prints the version of ratmenu on the standard output, and then exits with an exit value of zero. KEYSTROKES
The Up keystrokes move the selection to the next item up. The Down keystrokes move the selection to the next item down. When the selec- tion reaches the top or bottom, it scrolls around to the other side on pressing of the appropriate keystroke. The Select keystrokes execute the command corresponding to the currently selected menu item, and exit ratmenu. The Exit keystrokes quit ratmenu without doing anything. Up 'k', Up_arrow, BackSpace, '-', C-p Down 'j', Down_arrow, Space, Tab, '+', C-n, C-i Select 'l', Right_arrow, Return, C-f, C-m, C-j Back 'h', Left_arrow, C-b Exit 'q', Escape, C-g CONFIGURATION USING X RESOURCES
You can configure some items using xrdb to load appropriate X resources. There is an example configuration in the file /usr/share/doc/rat- menu/Xresources.ratmenu which shows all possible configuration items. Give it a look; it is fairly easy to figure out. EXAMPLES
ratmenu -label "Remotes xterm" acme "rsh acme xterm" herman "rsh herman 9term" & ratmenu -label 'X progs' ghostview ghostview xdvi xdvi xeyes xeyes xneko xneko & ratmenu -back ~/bin/mypreviousmenu "X Eyes" xeyes & SEE ALSO
ratpoison(1), ratpoisonrc(5), dialog(1) xrdb(1) Ratpoison Desktop Users Manual. AUTHORS
The initial idea for this program was by Arnold Robbins, after having worked with John Mackin's GWM Blit emulation. Matty Farrow wrote a version using libXg, from which some ideas were borrowed. This code was written by David Hogan and Arnold Robbins. Rich Salz motivated the -shell option. Jonathan Walther modified this code to play nicely with the ratpoison window manager by removing handling of mouse events and iconification. Zrajm C Akfohg made many improvements in his ratmen fork, including X resource handling, some of which were folded back in. Ratpoison Desktop For X Oct 10 2001 RATMENU(1)