DMENU(1)

NAME
dmenu - dynamic menu

SYNOPSIS
dmenu [-b] [-f] [-i] [-l lines] [-p prompt] [-fn font] [-nb color] [-nf color] [-sb color] [-sf color] [-v]

dmenu_run ...

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 stdin and creates a menu. When the user selects an item or enters any text and presses Return, their choice is printed to stdout 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.

OPTIONS

-b  dmenu appears at the bottom of the screen.

-f  dmenu grabs the keyboard before reading stdin. This is faster, but may lock up X if stdin is from a terminal.

-i  dmenu matches menu items case insensitively.

-l lines
    dmenu lists items vertically, with the given number of lines.

-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 X 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 stdout, then exits.

USAGE
dmenu is completely controlled by the keyboard. Besides standard Unix line editing and item selection (arrow keys, page up/down, home and end), the following keys are recognized:

Tab (Ctrl-i)
    Copy the selected item to the input field.

Return (Ctrl-j)
    Confirm selection. Prints the selected item to stdout and exits, returning success.

Shift-Return (Ctrl-Shift-j)
    Confirm input. Prints the input text to stdout and exits, returning success.

Escape (Ctrl-c)
    Exit without selecting an item, returning failure.

Ctrl-y
    Paste the current X selection into the input field.

SEE ALSO
dwm(1), dmenu_lsx(1)