ROFI(1) ROFI(1)

NAME
rofi - A window switcher, application launcher, ssh dia‐
log and dmenu replacement

SYNOPSIS
rofi [ -show mode ]|[ -dmenu ]|[ -e msg ] [ CONFIGURATION
]

DESCRIPTION
rofi is an X11 pop-up window switcher, run dialog, dmenu
replacement, and more. It focuses on being fast to use
and have minimal distraction. It supports keyboard and
mouse navigation, type to filter, tokenized search and
more.

USAGE
rofi's main functionality is to assist in your workflow,
allowing you to quickly switch between windows, start
applications or log into a remote machine via ssh. There
are different modi for different types of actions.

rofi can also function as (drop-in) replacement for

dmenu(1).

Running rofi
To launch rofi directly in a certain mode, specify a mode
with rofi -show <mode>. To show the run dialog:

rofi -show run

Emulating dmenu
rofi can emulate dmenu(1) (a dynamic menu for X) when
launched with the -dmenu flag.

The website for dmenu can be found here

http://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/.

rofi does not aim to be 100% compatible with dmenu. There

are simply too many different flavors of dmenu. The idea
is that the basic usage command-line flags are obeyed,
theme-related flags are not. Besides, rofi offers some
extended features (like multi-select, highlighting, mes‐
sage bar, extra key bindings).

Display Error message

rofi error dialog can also be called from the command
line.

rofi -e "my message"

Markup support can be enabled, see CONFIGURATION options.

CONFIGURATION
There are currently three methods of setting configura‐
tion options (evaluated in order below):

· System configuration file (for example

 /etc/rofi.conf).

· Xresources: A method of storing key values in the

Xserver. See here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_resources for more
information.

· Rasi theme file: The new theme format can be used to

set configuration values.

· Configuration File: This uses the same format as the

Xresources file. By default it looks in XDG_USER_CON‐
FIG_DIR/rofi/config, but can be overridden on comman‐
dline. By default XDG_USER_CONFIG_DIR defaults to
$HOME/.config. (See rofi -h for current location).
This is the recommended way of configuring rofi.

· Command-line options: Arguments passed to rofi.

TIP: To get a template config file run: rofi -dump-xre‐

sources > rofi-example.config. NOTE: In version 1.4.0 we
support configuration in a new format, a config for this
can be generated by: rofi -dump-config

The Xresources file expects options starting with rofi.

followed by its name. An example to set the number of
lines:

rofi.lines: 10

Command line options override settings from Xresources

file. The same option set as argument — prefixed with a
'-':

rofi -lines 10

To get a list of available options formatted as Xre‐

sources entries, run:

rofi -dump-xresources

The configuration system supports the following types:

· string

· integer (signed and unsigned)

· char

· Boolean

Boolean options have a non-default command-line syntax.

Example to enable option X:

-X

To disable option X:

-no-X
 Below is a list of the most important options:

General
-help

The help option shows the full list of commandline

options and the current set value. These include dynamic
(run-time generated) options.

-dump-xresources

Dump the current active configuration in Xresources for‐

mat to the command-line. This does not validate all
passed values (for example, colors).

-threads num

Specify the number of threads rofi should use:

· 0: Autodetect the number of supported hardware

threads.

· 1: Disable threading

· 2..N: Specify the maximum number of threads to use in

the thread pool.

-dmenu

Run rofi in dmenu mode. This allows for interactive

scripts. In dmenu mode, rofi reads from STDIN, and output
to STDOUT. A simple example, displaying three pre-defined
options:

echo -e "Option #1\nOption #2\nOption #3" | rofi -dmenu

Or get the options from a script:

~/my_script.sh | rofi -dmenu

-show mode

Open rofi in a certain mode. Available modes are window,

run, drun, ssh, combi. The special argument keys can be
used to open a searchable list of supported key bindings
(see KEY BINDINGS)

To show the run-dialog:

rofi -show run

-modi mode1,mode1

Specify an ordered, comma-separated list of modes to

enable. Enabled modes can be changed at runtime. Default
key is Ctrl+Tab. If no modes are specified, all modes
will be enabled. To only show the run and ssh launcher:
 rofi -modi "run,ssh" -show run

Custom modes can be added using the internal 'script'

mode. Each mode has two parameters:

<name>:<script>

Example: Have a mode 'Workspaces' using the

i3_switch_workspaces.sh script:

rofi -modi "window,run,ssh,Workspaces:i3_switch_workspaces.sh" -show

Workspaces

Notes: The I3 Window manager does not like commas in the

command when specifying an exec command. For that case
'#' can be used as an separator.

-case-sensitive

Start in case sensitive mode. This option can be changed

at run-time using the -kb-toggle-case-sensitivity key
binding.

-cycle

Cycle through the result list. Default is 'true'.

-filter filter

Filter the list by setting text in input bar to filter

-config filename

Load an alternative configuration file.

-scroll-method method

Select the scrolling method. 0: Per page, 1: continuous.

-no-show-match

Hide the indicator that shows what part of the string is

matched.

-no-lazy-grab

Disables lazy grab, this forces the keyboard being

grabbed before gui is shown.

-no-plugins

Disable plugin loading.

-plugin-path directory

Specify the directory where rofi should look for plugins.

-show-icons
 Show application icons in drun and window modes.

-drun-icon-theme

Specify icon theme to be used in drun mode if show-icons

setting is enabled. If not specified default theme from
DE is used, Adwaita and gnome themes act as fallback
themes.

Matching
-matching method

Specify the matching algorithm used. Current the follow‐

ing methods are supported.

· normal: match the int string

· regex: match a regex input

· glob: match a glob pattern

· fuzzy: do a fuzzy match

Default: normal

Note: glob matching might be slow for larger lists

-tokenize

Tokenize the input.

-drun-match-fields field1,field2,...

When using drun, match only with the specified Desktop

entry fields. The different fields are:

· name: the application's name

· generic: the application's generic name

· exec: the application's executable

· categories: the application's categories

· comment: the application comment

· all: all of the above

Default: name,generic,exec,categories

-window-match-fields field1,field2,...

When using window mode, match only with the specified

fields. The different fields are:

· title: window's title

· class: window's class

 · role: window's role

· name: window's name

· desktop: window's current desktop

· all: all of the above

Default: all

Layout
Most of the following options are deprecated and should
not be used. Please use the new theme format to customize
rofi. More information about the new format can be found
in the rofi-theme(5) manpage.

-lines

Maximum number of lines to show before scrolling.

rofi -lines 25

Default: 15

-columns

Number of columns to show before scrolling.

rofi -columns 2

Default: 1

-width [value]

Set width of menu. [value] is specified in percentage.

rofi -width 60

If [value] is larger then 100, size is set in pixels.

Example to span a full-HD monitor:

rofi -width 1920

If [value] is negative, it tries to estimates a character

width. To show 30 characters in a row:

rofi -width -30

Character width is a rough estimate, and might not be

correct, but should work for most monospaced fonts.

Default: 50

-location

Specify where the window should be located. The numbers

map to the following locations on screen:

1 2 3
 8 0 4
7 6 5

Default: 0

-fixed-num-lines

Keep a fixed number of visible lines (See the -lines

option.)

-padding

Define the inner margin of the window.

Default: 5

-fullscreen

Use the full-screen height and width.

-sidebar-mode

Open in sidebar-mode. In this mode a list of all enabled

modes is shown at the bottom. (See -modi option) To show
sidebar, use:

rofi -show run -sidebar-mode -lines 0

-auto-select

When one entry is left, automatically select it.

-m num

-m name

-monitor num

-monitor name

Select monitor to display rofi on. It accepts as input:

primary (if primary output is set), the xrandr output
name, or integer number (in order of detection). Negative
numbers are handled differently:

· -1: the currently focused monitor.

· -2: the currently focused window (that is, rofi will

be displayed on top of the focused window).

· -3: Position at mouse (overrides the location setting

to get normal context menu behavior.)

· -4: the monitor with the focused window.

· -5: the monitor that shows the mouse pointer.

Default: -5
 See rofi -h output for the detected monitors, their posi‐
tion, and size.

-theme filename

Path to the new theme file format. This overrides the old
theme settings.

-theme-str string

Allow theme parts to be specified on the command line as

an override.

For example:

rofi -theme-str '#window { fullscreen: true; }'

This option can be specified multiple times.

-dpi number

Override the default DPI setting. If set to 0, it tries

to auto-detect based on X11 screen size (similar to i3
and GTK). If set to 1, it tries to auto-detect based on
the size of the monitor that rofi is displayed on (simi‐
lar to latest Qt 5).

PATTERN setting
-terminal

Specify which terminal to start.

rofi -terminal xterm

Pattern: {terminal} Default: x-terminal-emulator

-ssh-client client

Override the used ssh client.

Pattern: {ssh-client} Default: ssh

SSH settings
-ssh-command cmd

Set the command to execute when starting a ssh session.

The pattern {host} is replaced by the selected ssh entry.

Pattern: {ssh-client} Default: {terminal} -e {ssh-client}

{host}

-parse-hosts

Parse the /etc/hosts file for entries.

Default: disabled

-parse-known-hosts -no-parse-known-hosts
 Parse the ~/.ssh/known_hosts file for entries.

Default: enabled

Run settings
-run-command cmd

Set command ({cmd}) to execute when running an applica‐

tion. See PATTERN.

Default: {cmd}

-run-shell-command cmd

Set command to execute when running an application in a

shell. See PATTERN.

Default: {terminal} -e {cmd}

-run-list-command cmd

If set, use an external tool to generate list of exe‐

cutable commands. Uses run-command.

Default: {cmd}

Window switcher settings

-window-format format

Format what is being displayed for windows.

format: {field[:len]}

field:

· w: desktop name

· t: title of window

· n: name

· r: role

· c: class

len: maximum field length (0 for auto-size). If length

and window width are negative, field length is width -
len. if length is positive, the entry will be truncated
or padded to fill that length.

default: {w} {c} {t}

-window-command cmd

Set command to execute on selected window for a custom

action. See PATTERN.

Default: "xkill -id {window}"

Combi settings
-combi-modi mode1,mode2

The modi to combine in combi mode. For syntax to see

-modi. To get one merge view, of window,run, and ssh:

rofi -show combi -combi-modi "window,run,ssh" -modi combi

Notes: The I3 Window manager does not like commas in the

command when specifying an exec command. For that case
'#' can be used as a separator.

History and Sorting

-disable-history -no-disable-history (re-enable history)

Disable history

-sort to enable -no-sort to disable

Enable, disable sorting. This setting can be changed at

runtime (see -kb-toggle-sort).

-levenshtein-sort to enable -no-levenshtein-sort to dis‐

able

When searching, always sort the result based on leven‐

shtein distance. If disabled, fzf sorting is used when
fuzzy matching is used. If enabled, levenshtein sorting
is used event fuzzy matching is used.

For other matching modes sorting is always done via lev‐

enshtein-sort.

Dmenu specific
-sep separator

Separator for dmenu. Example: To show a list of 'a' to

'e' with '|' as a separator:

echo "a|b|c|d|e" | rofi -sep '|' -dmenu

-p prompt

Specify the prompt to show in dmenu mode. For example,

select 'monkey', a,b,c,d, or e.

echo "a|b|c|d|e" | rofi -sep '|' -dmenu -p "monkey:"

Default: dmenu

-selected-row selected row

Select a certain row.

Default: 0

-l number of lines to show

Maximum number of lines the menu may show before

scrolling.

rofi -lines 25

Default: 15

-i

Makes dmenu searches case-insensitive

-a X

Active row, mark row X as active (starting at 0). You can

specify single element: -a 3 A range: -a 3-8 or a set of
rows: -a 0,2 or any combination: -a 0,2-3,9

-u X

Urgent row, mark row X as urgent (starting at 0). You can

specify single element: -u 3 A range: -u 3-8 or a set of
rows: -u 0,2 or any combination: -u 0,2-3,9

-only-match

Only return a selected item, do not allow custom entry.

This mode always returns an entry, or returns directly
when no entries given.

-no-custom

Only return a selected item, do not allow custom entry.

This mode returns directly when no entries given.

-format format

Allows the output of dmenu to be customized (N is the

total number of input entries):

· 's' selected string

· 'i' index (0 - (N-1))

· 'd' index (1 - N)

· 'q' quote string

· 'f' filter string (user input)

· 'F' quoted filter string (user input)

Default: 's'

-select string

Select first line that matches the given string

-mesg string

Add a message line below the filter entry box. Supports

 pango markup. For more information on supported markup
see here https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/Pango‐
MarkupFormat.html

-normal-window

Make rofi react like a normal application window. Useful

for scripts like Clerk that are basically an application.

-dump

Dump the filtered list to stdout and quit. This can be

used to get the list as rofi would filter it. Use
together with -filter command.

-input file

Reads from file instead of stdin.

-password

Hide the input text. This should not be considered

secure!

-markup-rows

Tell rofi that DMenu input is pango markup encoded, and

should be rendered. See here https://devel‐
oper.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html for
details about pango markup.

-multi-select

Allow multiple lines to be selected. Adds a small selec‐

tion indicator to the left of each entry.

-sync

Force rofi mode to first read all data from stdin before
showing the selection window. This is original dmenu
behavior.

Note: the default asynchronous mode will also be automat‐

ically disabled if used with conflicting options, such as
-dump, -only-match or -auto-select.

-async-pre-read number

Reads the first 25 entries blocking, then switches to

async mode. This makes it feel more 'snappy'.

default: 25

Message dialog
-e message

Pops up a message dialog (used internally for showing

errors) with message. Message can be multi-line.
 Other
-pid path

Make rofi create a pid file and check this on startup.

The pid file prevents multiple rofi instances from run‐
ning simultaneously. This is useful when running rofi
from a key-binding daemon.

-fake-transparency

Enable fake transparency. This only works with transpar‐

ent background color in the theme.

-fake-background

Select what to use as background for fake transparency.

This can be 'background', 'screenshot' or a path to an
image file (currently only supports png).

-display-{mode} string

Set the name to use for mode. This is used as prompt and
in combi-browser.

-click-to-exit -no-click-to-exit

Click the mouse outside of the rofi window to exit.

Default: enabled

Debug
-no-config

Disable parsing of configuration. This runs rofi in stock

mode.

-no-plugins

Disables the loading of plugins.

To get a trace with (lots of) debug information, set the

following environment variable when executing rofi:

G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all

The trace can be filtered by only outputting the relevant

domains, for example:

G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=Dialogs.DRun

For more information on debugging, see the wiki

https://github.com/DaveDavenport/rofi/wiki/Debug‐
ging%20Rofi

PATTERN
To launch commands (for example, when using the ssh
launcher), the user can enter the used command-line. The
following keys can be used that will be replaced at run‐
time:
 · {host}: the host to connect to

· {terminal}: the configured terminal (see -termi‐

nal-emulator)

· {ssh-client}: the configured ssh client (see

-ssh-client)

· {cmd}: the command to execute

· {window}: the window ID of the selected window (in

window-command)

DMENU REPLACEMENT
If argv[0] (calling command) is dmenu, rofi will start in
dmenu mode. This way it can be used as a drop-in replace‐
ment for dmenu. Just copy or symlink rofi to dmenu in
$PATH.

ln -s /usr/bin/rofi /usr/bin/dmenu

THEMING
The theme format below describes the old (pre version
1.4) theme format. Please see rofi-theme(5) manpage for
an updated manual.

The theme setup allows you to specify colors per state,

similar to i3 Currently 3 states exist:

· normal: normal row

· urgent: highlighted row (urgent)

· active: highlighted row (active)

For each state, the following 5 colors must be set:

· bg: background color row

· fg: text color

· bgalt: background color alternating row

· hlfg: foreground color selected row

· hlbg: background color selected row

The window background and border color should be speci‐

fied separately. The key color-window contains a tuple
background,border,separator. An example for Xresources
file:

! State: 'bg', 'fg', 'bgalt', 'hlbg', 'hlfg'

rofi.color-normal: #fdf6e3, #002b36, #eee8d5, #586e75, #eee8d5
rofi.color-urgent: #fdf6e3, #dc322f, #eee8d5, #dc322f, #fdf6e3
rofi.color-active: #fdf6e3, #268bd2, #eee8d5, #268bd2, #fdf6e3

! 'background', 'border', 'separator'

 rofi.color-window: #fdf6e3, #002b36, #002b36

Same settings can also be specified on command-line:

rofi -color-normal "#fdf6e3,#002b36,#eee8d5,#586e75,#eee8d5"

COLORS
RGB colors can be specified by either their X11 name or
hexadecimal notation. For example:

white

Or:

#FFFFFF

ARGB colors are also supported. These can be used to cre‐

ate a transparent window if (1) your Xserver supports
TrueColor, and (2) you are running a composite manager.
For example: argb:FF444444

Or:

#FF444444

The first two fields specify the alpha level. This deter‐
mines the amount of transparency (00 everything, FF noth‐
ing). The other fields represent the actual color, in
hex.

Transparency can be used within rofi, for example if the

selected background color is 50% transparent, the back‐
ground color of the window will be visible through it.

KEY BINDINGS
rofi has the following key bindings:

· Ctrl-v, Insert: Paste from clipboard

· Ctrl-Shift-v, Shift-Insert: Paste primary selection

· Ctrl-u: Clear the line

· Ctrl-a: Beginning of line

· Ctrl-e: End of line

· Ctrl-f, Right: Forward one character

· Alt-f: Forward one word

· Ctrl-b, Left: Back one character

· Alt-b: Back one word

· Ctrl-d, Delete: Delete character

· Ctrl-Alt-d: Delete word

· Ctrl-h, Backspace: Backspace (delete previous charac‐
ter)

· Ctrl-Alt-h: Delete previous word

· Ctrl-j,Ctrl-m,Enter: Accept entry

· Ctrl-n,Down: Select next entry

· Ctrl-p,Up: Select previous entry

· Page Up: Go to previous page

· Page Down: Go to next page

· Ctrl-Page Up: Go to previous column

· Ctrl-Page Down: Go to next column

· Ctrl-Enter: Use entered text as a command (in ssh/run

modi)

· Shift-Enter: Launch the application in a terminal (in

run mode)

· Shift-Enter: Return the selected entry and move to

the next item while keeping rofi open. (in dmenu)

· Shift-Right: Switch to the next modi. The list can be

customized with the -switchers argument.

· Shift-Left: Switch to the previous modi. The list can

be customized with the -switchers argument.

· Ctrl-Tab: Switch to the next modi. The list can be

customized with the -switchers argument.

· Ctrl-Shift-Tab: Switch to the previous modi. The list

can be customized with the -switchers argument.

· Ctrl-space: Set selected item as input text.

· Shift-Del: Delete entry from history.

· grave: Toggle case sensitivity.

· Alt-grave: Toggle levenshtein sorting.

· Alt-Shift-S: Take a screenshot and store it in the

Pictures directory.

To get a full list of key bindings on the commandline,

see rofi -h. The options starting with -kb are keybind‐
ings. Key bindings can be modified using the configura‐
tion systems. To get a searchable list of key bindings,
run rofi -show keys.

A key binding starting with ! will act when all keys have
been released.
Available Modi
Window
Show a list of all the windows and allow switching
between them. Pressing the delete-entry binding
(shift-delete) will close the window. Pressing the
accept-custom binding (control-enter or shift-enter) will
run a command on the window. (See option window-command
);

WindowCD
Shows a list of the windows on the current desktop and
allows switching between them. Pressing the delete-entry
binding (shift-delete) will kill the window. Pressing the
accept-custom binding (control-enter or shift-enter) will
run a command on the window. (See option window-command
);

Run
Shows a list of executables in $PATH and can launch them
(optional in a terminal). Pressing the delete-entry bind‐
ing (shift-delete) will remove this entry from the run
history. Pressing the accept-custom binding (con‐
trol-enter or shift-enter) will run the command in a ter‐
minal.

DRun
Same as the run launches, but the list is created from
the installed desktop files. It automatically launches
them in a terminal if specified in the Desktop File.
Pressing the delete-entry binding (shift-delete) will
remove this entry from the run history. Pressing the
accept-custom binding (control-enter or shift-enter) with
custom input (no entry matching) will run the command in
a terminal.

SSH
Shows a list of SSH targets based on your ssh config
file, and allows to quickly ssh into them.

Keys
Shows a searchable list of key bindings.

Script
Allows custom scripted Modi to be added.

FAQ
The text in the window switcher is not nicely lined out.
Try using a mono-space font.

The window is completely black.

Check quotes used on the commandline: you might have used
“ ("smart quotes") instead of " ("machine quotes").

What does the icon in the top right show?

The indicator shows:

` ` Case insensitive and no sorting.

`-` Case sensitivity enabled, no sorting.
 `+` Case insensitive and Sorting enabled
`±` Sorting and Case sensitivity enabled"

EXAMPLES
Some basic usage examples of rofi:

Show the run dialog:

rofi -modi run -show run

Show the the run dialog, and allow switching to Desktop

File run dialog (drun):

rofi -modi run,drun -show run

Combine the run and Desktop File run dialog (drun):

rofi -modi combi -show combi -combi-modi run,drun

Combine the run and Desktop File run dialog (drun), and
allow switching to window switcher:

rofi -modi combi,window -show combi -combi-modi run,drun

Run rofi full monitor width at the top of the monitor

like a dropdown menu:

rofi -show run -width 100 -location 1 -lines 5 -bw 2 -yoffset -2

Get a colored list of available wi-fi networks:

tty-pipe nmcli device wifi | out2html -p | rofi -dmenu -markup-rows

Pop up a text message claiming that this is the end:

rofi -e "This is the end"

Pop up a text message in red, bold font claiming that

this is still the end:

rofi -e "<span color='red'><b>This is still the end</b></span>" -markup

Show all key bindings:

rofi -show keys

Use qalc to get a simple calculator in rofi:

rofi -show calc -modi "calc:qalc +u8 -nocurrencies"

i3
In i3 http://i3wm.org/ you want to bind rofi to be
launched on key release. Otherwise, it cannot grab the
keyboard. See also the i3 manual
http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html:

Some tools (such as import or xdotool) might be unable to

run upon a KeyPress event, because the keyboard/pointer
is still grabbed. For these situations, the --release
 flag can be used, as it will execute the command after
the keys have been released.

LICENSE
MIT/X11

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.

WEBSITE
rofi website can be found here https://davedaven‐
port.github.io/rofi/

SUPPORT
rofi support can be obtained here irc://irc.freen‐
ode.net/#rofi (#rofi on irc.freenode.net), or via the
forum https://reddit.com/r/qtools//

DEBUGGING
Please see this https://github.com/DaveDaven‐
port/rofi/wiki/Debugging%20Rofi wiki entry.

ISSUE TRACKER
rofi issue tracker can be found here
https://github.com/DaveDavenport/rofi/issues

When creating an issue, please read this

https://github.com/DaveDavenport/rofi/blob/mas‐
ter/.github/CONTRIBUTING.md first.

SEE ALSO
rofi-sensible-terminal(1), dmenu(1), rofi-theme(5),
rofi-theme-selector(1)

AUTHOR
Qball Cow qball@gmpclient.org

Rasmus Steinke rasi@xssn.at

Quentin Glidic sardemff7+rofi@sardemff7.net

Original code based on work by: Sean Pringle

sean.pringle@gmail.com
For a full list of authors, check the AUTHORS file.

December 2017 ROFI(1)