Ruby Script for Manual Tiling and Window Placement

Demo using Openbox

Modes

--all

Tile all windows on screen.

--all-active

Tile all windows on the same monitor as the active window.

--all-binary

Tile all windows on screen and have every window take half the space of the previous window.

(t|b|l|r|tl|tr|bl|br)

Move active window to edges (left, top-left, top, top-right, etc.).

Example 1: rtile.rb l will place the window on the left half of the screen.
Example 2: rtile.rb tr will place the window on the top right of the screen.

--split-(up|down|left|right)

Split active window (either in half or using all windows occupying the same space).

--grow-(up|down|left|right)

Grow active window to the nearest edge (window or screen) of a direction. If the window is already at the edge of another window it will be pushed back.

--grid-(c)x(r)-(x),(y)

Place active window at x,y in a grid of c columns and r rows.

Example 1: --grid-3x3-2,2 will place the window in the middle of a 3x3 grid.
Example 2: --grid-2x2-2,1 is the same as rtile.rb tr.

--binary

Split the last two active windows at the position of the older window.

--swap

Swap the position of the last two active windows.

--swap-biggest

Swap the position of the active window with the biggest window on the same screen.

--cycle

Cycle the positions of all windows on screen.

--next-monitor

Move active window to the next monitor.

--cycle-monitors

Move all windows on screen to their next monitor.

--no-config-file

Do not load config file.

--add-to-config

Adds elements to the config (does not write them to file).

Example 1: --add-to-config=<gaps bottom="42"/> sets the bottom gap.
Example 2: --add-to-config=<column_config windows="3" monitor="1" column_sizes="2, 1"/> adds a column config.
Example 3: --add-to-config=<column_config windows="3" monitor="1" column_sizes="2, 1"/><gaps bottom="42"/> adds a column config and sets the bottom gap.

--version

Show version.

Features

• Gaps between windows in all operating modes.
• Settings per workspace (median, window placement direction).
• Fake windows that keep certain windows from covering more space than wanted.
• Setting for which windows to ignore when auto-tiling.

Dependencies

• pxdo
• rexml gem as of ruby 3.0.0

Settings

When rtile is run it will look for a config file in $HOME/.config/rtile/rtile.xml. If it does not exist it will be generated.

Gap Settings

top, bottom, left, right

Space between windows and screen edges.

Per monitor gap settings

Gap settings defined for a monitor take priority over the general settings.

Example:

	<gaps monitor="DP-1" top="22"/>
	<gaps top="42" bottom="22" left="22" right="22" windows_x="22" windows_y="22"/>

windows_x

Horizontal space between windows.

windows_y

Vertical space between windows.

Column Settings

max_size_main

Maximum number of windows in the main(first) column.

max_size

Maximum number of windows in other columns.

max_count

Maximum number of columns.

Workspace Settings

Workspace settings are only relevant for automatic tiling. Except for median.

id

Id of the workspace.

median

Determines how much width the main window takes up (default = 0.5).

reverse_x

true: The main window is placed on the right.

reverse_y

true: Windows are placed from the bottom up.

Window Settings

Window settings are only relevant for automatic tiling.

class

Window class (e.g. "firefox" or "mpv").

priority

high: High priority windows get placed first.
low: Low priority windows get placed last. Even after fake windows.

fake_windows

Pretends that there are at least this many windows on the same monitor as the application.
Example 1: fake_windows="2" will make the window never take up the whole desktop even if it is the only window on screen.
Example 2: priority="low" fake_windows="3" will place a window on the bottom right of the desktop even if it is the only window on screen.

floating

true: Window will be ignored.

Custom Column Configs

Manually set the count of columns and windows per column for a specific number of windows on a workspace.

windows

Number of windows the config applies to.

workspace

Workspace the config applies to. Empty or 'all' applies to all workspaces.

monitor

Monitor the config applies to. Can be the id (0, 1, 2, ...) or the name (e.g. HDMI-0). Empty or 'all' applies to all monitors.

column_sizes

Array of column sizes.
Example: column_sizes="1, 3" will make 2 columns. The first will have 1 window and the second will have 3 windows.

Example Config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<settings>
	<gaps top="42" bottom="22" left="22" right="22" windows_x="22" windows_y="22"/>
	<columns max_size_main="2" max_size="4" max_count="3"/>

	<workspace id="0" median="0.6"/>
	<workspace id="1"/>
	<workspace id="2"/>
	<workspace id="3" median="0.6"/>
	<workspace id="4" reverse_x="true" median="0.4"/>

	<window class="mpv" floating="true"/>
	<window class="firefox" priority="high"/>
	<window class="geany" priority="high" fake_windows="2"/>
	<window class="nemo" fake_windows="3"/>
	<window class="transmission-gtk" priority="low" fake_windows="3"/>
	<window class="terminator" priority="low" fake_windows="3"/>

	<column_config windows="1" workspace="all" column_sizes="1"/>
	<column_config windows="2" workspace="all" column_sizes="1, 1"/>
	<column_config windows="3" workspace="all" column_sizes="1, 2"/>
	<column_config windows="4" workspace="all" monitor="all" column_sizes="1, 3"/>
	<column_config windows="4" workspace="all" monitor="1" column_sizes="2, 2"/>
	<column_config windows="5" workspace="all" column_sizes="2, 3"/>
	<column_config windows="6" workspace="all" column_sizes="2, 4"/>
	<column_config windows="7" workspace="all" column_sizes="1, 2, 4"/>
</settings>

Example Keybindings for Openbox using the Keypad

<keybind key="C-W-KP_8">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --split-up</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="C-W-KP_2">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --split-down</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="C-W-KP_4">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --split-left</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="C-W-KP_6">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --split-right</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="C-W-KP_0">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --swap</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="C-W-KP_5">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --next-monitor</command>
	</action>
</keybind>

<keybind key="S-W-KP_8">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --grow-up</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="S-W-KP_2">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --grow-down</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="S-W-KP_4">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --grow-left</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="S-W-KP_6">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --grow-right</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="S-W-KP_0">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --cycle</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="S-W-KP_5">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --cycle-monitors</command>
	</action>
</keybind>

<keybind key="W-KP_8">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb t</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-KP_5">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-KP_2">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb b</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-KP_7">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb tl</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-KP_4">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb l</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-KP_1">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb bl</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-KP_9">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb tr</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-KP_6">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb r</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-KP_3">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb br</command>
	</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-KP_0">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>rtile.rb --binary</command>
	</action>
</keybind>