bemenu
Dynamic menu library and client program inspired by dmenu
Releases
Releases are signed with 29317348D687B86B and published on GitHub.
Building
# Build everything
make
# To build only certain features, pass the targets which you are interested into
#
# You can also use the following meta-targets for common features:
# - clients (bemenu, bemenu-run)
# - x11
# - wayland
# - curses
#
# For example this would build the bemenu and bemenu-run binaries and the x11 backend:
make clients x11
# To install the built features, simply run:
make install
# NOTE: You may get errors during install when not building all the features.
# These errors are free to ignore if `Install OK!` is printed.
# By default that will install to /usr/local, but you can change this with PREFIX
make install PREFIX=/usr
# Other usual variables are available for modifying such as DESTDIR, bindir, libdir and mandir
# Note that if you want a custom PREFIX or libdir, you should pass those during build as well,
# since they will be used compile-time to figure out where to load backends from!
# HTML API documentation (requires doxygen installed):
make doxygen
# To test from source, you have to point the LD_LIBRARY_PATH and BEMENU_RENDERERS variables:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. BEMENU_RENDERERS=. ./bemenu-runOSX
Homebrew
# Make sure you have GNU Make and pkg-config installed
brew install make pkg-config
# You may need to setup your pkg-config to point to the brew version of the libraries
# For example to build curses backend, you'd do:
PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/usr/local/opt/ncurses/lib/pkgconfig" sh build-osx.sh curses
# Other than that, follow the normal build steps, but use `build-osx.sh` instead of makeNix
There is darwin.nix provided in this repo, you can install bemenu with it by running
nix-env -i -f darwin.nixThis installs only the curses backend.
Dependencies
- C compiler
- scdoc to generate manpage
Backend-specific
All dependencies below are searched with pkg-config
| Backend | Dependencies |
|---|---|
| curses | ncursesw |
| x11 | x11, xinerama, cairo, pango, pangocairo |
| Wayland | wayland-client, wayland-protocols, cairo, pango, pangocairo, xkbcommon |
Currently, pasting from clipboard is done at runtime with wl-paste -t text/plain and xclip -t text/plain -out, attempted in that order.
Installing the dependencies
Ubuntu 20.04
sudo apt install scdoc wayland-protocols libcairo-dev libpango1.0-dev libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-devEnvironment variables
| Variable | Description | Value |
|---|---|---|
| BEMENU_OPTS | Options for bemenu, bemenu-run from env | Any cli argument |
| BEMENU_BACKEND | Force backend by name | x11, wayland, curses |
| BEMENU_RENDERER | Force backend by loading a .so file | Path to the .so file |
| BEMENU_RENDERERS | Override the backend search path | Path to a directory |
| BEMENU_SCALE | Override the rendering scale factor | Float value |
About Wayland support
Wayland is only supported by compositors that implement the wlr-layer-shell protocol. Typically wlroots-based compositors.
Keybindings
Default Bindings
| Key | Binding |
|---|---|
| Left Arrow | Move cursor left |
| Right Arrow | Move cursor right |
| Up Arrow | Move to previous item |
| Down Arrow | Move to next item |
| Shift + Left Arrow | Select previous item |
| Shift + Right Arrow | Select next item |
| Shift + Alt + < | Select first item in actual list |
| Shift + Alt + > | Select last item in actual list |
| Shift + Page Up | Select first item in actual list |
| Shift + Page Down | Select last item in actual list |
| Page Up | Select first item in displayed list |
| Page Down | Select last item in displayed list |
| Tab | Move to next item |
| Shift + Tab | Select item and place it in filter |
| Esc | Exit bemenu |
| Insert | Return filter text or selected items if multi selection |
| Shift + Return | Return filter text or selected items if multi selection |
| Return | Execute selected item |
| Home | Curses cursor set to 0 |
| End | Cursor set to end of filter text |
| Backspace | Delete character at cursor |
| Delete | Delete character at cursor |
| Delete Left | Delete text before cursor |
| Delete Right | Delete text after cursor |
| Word Delete | Delete all text in filter |
| Alt + v | Select last item in displayed list |
| Alt + j | Select next item |
| Alt + d | Select last item in display list |
| Alt + l | Select previous item |
| Alt + f | Select next item |
| Alt + 0-9 | Execute selected item with custom exit code |
| Ctrl + Return | Select item but don't quit to select multiple items |
| Ctrl + g | Exit bemenu |
| Ctrl + n | Select next item |
| Ctrl + p | Select previous item |
| Ctrl + a | Move cursor to beginning of text in filter |
| Ctrl + e | Move cursor to end of text in filter |
| Ctrl + h | Delete character at cursor |
| Ctrl + u | Kill text behind cursor |
| Ctrl + k | Kill text after cursor |
| Ctrl + w | Kill all text in filter |
| Ctrl + m | Execute selected item |
| Ctrl + y | Paste clipboard |
Vim Bindings
Vim bindings can be activated via the --binding vim option. All bindings are in vim
normal mode. When bemenu is started with vim bindings it will be in insert mode. By
pressing escape, normal mode can be activated.
Note: The default bindings can still be used for actions that do not have a separate vim binding such as launching a program or pasting.
| Key | Binding |
|---|---|
| j/n | Goto next item |
| k/p | Goto previous item |
| h | Move cursor left |
| l | Move cursor right |
| q | Quit bemenu |
| v | Toggle item selection |
| i | Enter insert mode |
| I | Move to line start and enter insert mode |
| a | Move to the right and enter insert mode |
| A | Move to line end and enter insert mode |
| w | Move a word |
| b | Move a word backwards |
| e | Move to end of word |
| x | Delete a character |
| X | Delete a character before the cursor |
| 0 | Move to line start |
| $ | Move to line end |
| gg | Goto first item |
| G | Goto last item |
| H | Goto first item in view |
| M | Goto middle item in view |
| L | Goto last item in view |
| F | Scroll one page of items down |
| B | Scroll one page of items up |
| dd | Delete the whole line |
| dw | Delete a word |
| db | Delete a word backwards |
| d0 | Delete to start of line |
| d$ | Delete to end of line |
| cc | Change the whole line |
| cw | Change a word |
| cb | Change a word backwards |
| c0 | Change to start of line |
| c$ | Change to end of line |
Projects using bemenu
License
- GNU GPLv3 (or any later version) for client program[s] and other sources except library and bindings
- GNU LGPLv3 (or any later version) for library and bindings