Provided by: jgmenu_4.4.1-2build1_amd64 
NAME
jgmenu - A simple X11 menu
SYNOPSIS
jgmenu [--no-spawn] [--checkout=<tag>] [--config-file=<file>]
[--icon-size=<size>] [--at-pointer] [--hide-on-startup]
[--simple] [--vsimple] [--csv-file=<file>]
[--csv-cmd=<command>] [--die-when-loaded]
[--center] [--persistent]
Use these commands to get started
jgmenu_run
Launch menu
jgmenu_run init
Create config file ~/.config/jgmenu/jgmenurc
jgmenu_run init -i
Interactive setup
man jgmenututorial
Step-by-step tutorial
DESCRIPTION
jgmenu is a simple menu for Linux/BSD. It reads CSV menu data from a file and generates a graphical menu
on an X11 window.
Fields
Each line of CSV menu data is parsed into the following fields using comma as a field separator:
(1) description
(2) command
(3) icon
(4) working directory
(5) metadata
(6) execute without “sh -c” wrapper
For example:
printf "Terminal,xterm\\nWeb Browser,firefox" | jgmenu --vsimple
Special Characters at beginning of line
# Ignore line
. A line beginning with a dot followed by a space, will source the file specified by the string fol‐
lowing the dot
@ Treat as widget
Special Characters in fields
, As commas are used as field separators, individual fields can only contain commas if they are
triple quoted. For example:
foo,""“^pipe(find . -printf `%f,display %p,%p\n')”""
< > & The description field is parsed as pango markup, so <, >, and & need to be escaped as <, >,
and & respectively.
Markup
The syntax ^foo(bar) is used to carry out action foo with argument bar. We refer to bar as the inner
value.
The following markup is supported in the description field
sep() Define a separator. If an inner value is provided, the separator will appear as a title. If no
inner value is provided, the separator will simply be a horizontal line
The following markup is supported in the command field
^tag() Define the beginning of a new menu structure node.
The lines following ^tag(whatever) will not show in the top level menu, but can be opened by using
^checkout() or ^root().
item0.0
item0.1
submenu1,^checkout(1)
submenu2,^root(2)
^tag(1)
item1.0
item1.1
^tag(2)
item2.0
item2.1
^checkout()
Open the tag specified by the inner value as a submenu in a new window
^root()
Open the tag specified by the inner value in the root window, replacing the current menu
^sub() Draw a submenu arrow. This can be useful for creating submenus with stay_alive=0. For example:
item0.0
item0.1
submenu1,^sub(echo "item1.0" | jgmenu --simple)
^back()
Check-out parent menu
^term()
Run program in terminal
^pipe()
Execute sub-process and checkout a menu based on its stdout.
^filter()
Invoke search
^quit()
Quit
Icons
Icons will be displayed if the third field is populated, for example:
Terminal,xterm,utilities-terminal
Firefox,firefox,firefox
OPTIONS
--no-spawn
Redirect command to stdout rather than execute it.
--checkout=<tag>
Checkout submenu on startup.
--config-file=<file>
Read config file.
--icon-size=<size>
Specify icon size (22 by default). If set to 0, icons will not be loaded.
--at-pointer
Launch menu at mouse pointer.
--hide-on-startup
Start menu is hidden state.
--simple
Ignore tint2 settings; Run in short-lived mode (i.e. exit after mouse click or enter/escape); read
menu items from stdin.
--vsimple
Same as --simple, but also disables icons and ignores jgmenurc.
--csv-file=<file>
Specify menu file (in jgmenu flavoured CSV format). If file cannot be opened, input is reverted
to stdin.
--csv-cmd=<command>
Specify command to produce menu data, for example jgmenu_run pmenu
--die-when-loaded
Open menu and then exit(0). Useful for debugging and testing.
--center
Center align menu horizontally and vertically.
--persistent
Same as the persistent config option. See config option section below for details.
USER INTERFACE
Up, Down
Select previous/next item
Left. Right
Move to parent/sub menu
PgUp, PgDn
Scroll up/down
Home, End
Select first/last item
Enter Select an item or open a submenu
F5 Restart
F8 Print node tree to stderr
F9 exit(1)
F10 exit(0)
Backspace
Return to parent menu
Type any string to invoke a search. Words separated by space will be searched for using OR logic
(i.e. the match of either word is sufficient to display an item).
WIDGETS
Lines beginning with `@' in jgmenu flavoured CSV files are parsed in accordance with the following syn‐
tax:
@type,action,x,y,w,h,r,halign,valign,fgcol,bgcol,content
type The widget type, which can be one of the following:
rect Rectangle with a 1px thick border drawn using fgcol
search Search box showing the current filter (what the user has typed) or the specified text if no
filter has been invoked.
icon Icon
action The action to take when selected. This can either be a shell command or a menu action such
^root().
x, y Horizontal and vertical margin of widget
w, h Width and height of widget
r Corner radius
fgcol, bgcol
Foreground and background colours using syntax rrggbb #aa fgcol accepts auto to use the jgmenurc’s
color_norm_fg
content
icon_path for icon widgets text for all other widget types
halign, valign
Horizontal and vertical alignment of widget. This has not yet been implemented, but defaults to
top and left
CONFIGURATION FILE
If no file is specified using the –config-file= option, the XDG Base Directory Specification is adhered
to. I.e:
• Global config in ${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS:-/etc/xdg}
• User config override in ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}
For most users ~/.config/jgmenu/jgmenurc is appropriate.
Global config variables are set in the following order (i.e. bottom of list has higher precedence):
• built-in defaults (config.c)
• tint2rc config file (can be specified by TINT2_CONFIG environment variable)
• jgmenurc config file (can be specified by –config-file=)
• command line arguments
Syntax
Lines beginning with # are ignored.
All other lines are recognised as setting variables in the format
key = value
White spaces are mostly ignored.
Values
Unless otherwise specified, values as treated as simple strings.
Here follow some specific types:
boolean
When a variable takes a boolean value, only 0 and 1 are accepted. 0 means false; 1 means true.
integer
When a variable takes an integer value, only numerical values are accepted. The only valid char‐
acters are digits (0-9) and minus-sign. All integer variables relating to geometry and position
are interpreted as pixel values unless otherwise specified.
color When a variable takes a color value, only the syntax #rrggbb aaa is recognised, where rr, gg and
bb represent hexadecimal values (00-ff) for the colours red, green and blue respectively; and aaa
stands for the alpha channel value expressed as a percentage (0-100) (i.e. 100 means no trans‐
parency and 0 means fully transparent.) For example #ff0000 100 represents red with no transparen‐
cy, whereas #000088 50 means dark blue with 50% transparency.
pathname
When a variable takes a pathname value, it is evaluated as a string. If the first character is
tilde (~), it will be replaced by the the environment variable $HOME just as a shell would expand
it.
Variables
verbosity = integer (default 0)
General verbosity: (0) warnings only; (1) basic info; (2) more info; (3) max info
Additional specific topics: (4) IPC
Note: Some IPC messages need environment variable JGMENU_VERBOSITY=4 too
stay_alive = boolean (default 1)
If set to 1, the menu will “hide” rather than “exit” when the following events occur: clicking on
menu item; clicking outside the menu; pressing escape. When in the hidden mode, a USR1 signal
will “un-hide” the menu.
persistent = boolean (default 0)
If set to 1, the menu will not exit nor hide when the following events occur: clicking on menu
item; clicking outside the menu; pressing escape. Use in conjunction with the ^quit() markup.
hide_on_startup = boolean (default 0)
If set to 1, jgmenu start in “hidden” mode. This is useful for starting jgmenu during the boot
process and then sending a killall -SIGUSR1 jgmenu to show the menu.
csv_cmd = string (default apps)
Defines the command to produce the jgmenu flavoured CSV for jgmenu. Accpetable keyword include
apps, pmenu, lx, and ob. If a value is given other than these keywords, it will be executed in a
shell (so be careful!). If left blank, jgmenu will read from stdin. Examples:
csv_cmd = lx
csv_cmd = jgmenu_run lx --no-dirs
csv_cmd = cat ~/mymenu.csv
tint2_look = boolean (default 0)
Read tint2rc and parse config options for colours, dimensions and alignment.
position_mode = (fixed | ipc | pointer | center) (default fixed)
Define menu positioning mode.
fixed Align to margin_{x,y} and respect _NET_WORKAREA.
ipc Use IPC to read environment variables set by panel. See Inter-Process Communication for
further info.
pointer
Launch at pointer whilst respecting both _NET_WORKAREA and edge_snap_x.
center Launch at center of screen and ignore _NET_WORKAREA. Take precedence over menu_{v,h}align.
edge_snap_x = integer (default 30)
Specify the distance (in pixels) from the left hand edge, within which the menu will snap to the
edge. Note that this only applies in at_pointer mode.
terminal_exec = string (default x-terminal-emulator)
Define terminal to use for commands with ^term() markup
terminal_args = string (default -e)
The values of these two variables are used to build a string to launch programs requiring a termi‐
nal to run. With the default values, the string would become: x-terminal-emulator -e 'some_com‐
mand with arguments'. terminal_args must finish with -e or equivalent, where -e refers to the
meaning of -e in xterm -e.
monitor = integer (default 0)
Specify a particular monitor as an index starting from 1. If 0, the menu will be launched on the
monitor where the mouse is.
hover_delay = integer (default 100)
Time (in milliseconds) from hovering over an item until a submenu is opened.
hide_back_items = boolean (default 1)
If enabled, all ^back() items will be suppressed. As a general rule, it should be set to 1 for a
multi-window menu, and 0 when in single-window mode.
columns = integer (default 1)
Number of columns in which to show menu items
tabs = integer (default 120)
Specify the position is pixels of the first tab
menu_margin_x = integer (default 0)
Distance between the menu (=X11 window) and the edge of the screen. See note on _NET_WORKAREA un‐
der menu_{v,h}align variables.
menu_margin_y = integer (default 0)
Vertical equilvalent of menu_margin_x
menu_width = integer (default 200)
Minimum menu width of the menu. The menu width will adjust to the longest item in the current
(sub)menu. If a filter is applied (e.g. by the user typing) the menu width will not adjust.
menu_height_min = integer (default 0)
Set the minimum height of the root menu. If menu_height_min and menu_height_max these are set to
the same value, the menu height will be fixed at that value. If set to zero, they will be ig‐
nored.
menu_height_max = integer (default 0)
Minimum height of the root menu. See menu_height_min
menu_height_mode = (static | dynamic) (default static)
Mode of menu height
static Height of the initial root menu will be used for any subsequent ^root() action
dynamic
Root menu height will be re-calculated every time a new tag is opened using ^root().
menu_padding_top = integer (default 5)
Distance between top border and item/widget
menu_padding_right = integer (default 5)
Distance between right border and item/widget
menu_padding_bottom = integer (default 5)
Distance between bottom border and item/widget
menu_padding_left = integer (default 5)
Distance between left border and item/widget
menu_radius = integer (default 1)
Radius of rounded corners of menu
menu_border = integer (default 0)
Thickness of menu border
menu_halign = (left | right | center) (default left)
Horizontal alignment of menu. If not set, jgmenu will try to guess the alignment reading
_NET_WORKAREA, which is a freedesktop EWMH root window property. Not all Window Managers and Pan‐
els respect _NET_WORKAREA. The following do: openbox, xfwm4, tint2 and polybar. The following do
NOT: awesome, i3, bspwm and plank
menu_valign = (top | bottom | center) (default bottom)
Vertical alignment of menu. See menu_halign.
menu_gradient_pos = (none | top | right | bottom | left | top_left | top_right | bottom_left | bot‐
tom_right ) (default none)
Start position of menu window gradient. The end position is at the opposite side or corner. Col‐
ors color_menu_bg and color_menu_bg_to specify the start (from) and finish (to).
sub_spacing = integer (default 1)
Horizontal space between windows. A negative value results in each submenu window overlapping its
parent window.
sub_padding_top = integer (default auto)
Same as menu_padding_top but applies to submenu windows only. It understands the keyword auto
which means that the smallest of the four menu_padding_* variables will be used.
sub_padding_right = integer (default auto)
See sub_padding_top
sub_padding_bottom = integer (default auto)
See sub_padding_top
sub_padding_left = integer (default auto)
See sub_padding_top
sub_hover_action = integer (default 1)
Open submenu when hovering over item (only works in multi-window mode).
item_margin_x = integer (default 3)
Horizontal distance between items and the edge of the menu.
item_margin_y = integer (default 3)
Vertical distance between items and the edge of the menu.
item_height = integer (default 25)
Height of menu items.
item_padding_x = integer (default 4)
Horizontal distance between item edge and its content (e.g. text or icon)
item_radius = integer (default 1)
Radius of rounded corners of items
item_border = integer (default 0)
Thickness of item border
item_halign = (left | right) (default left)
Horizontal alignment of menu items. If set to right, the option arrow_string should be changed
too.
sep_height = integer (default 5)
Height of separator without text (defined by ^sep()). Separators with text use item_height
sep_halign = (left | center | right) (default left)
Horizontal alignment of separator text
sep_markup = string (unset by default)
If specified, <span $sep_markup>foo</span> will be passed to pango for ^sep(foo).
See the following link for pango attributes: <https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/pango-
Markup.html>
Keywords include (but are not limited to):
• font
• size (x-small, small, medium, large, x-large) - style (normal, oblique, italic)
• weight (ultralight, light, normal, bold, ultrabold, heavy
• foreground (using format #rrggbb or a colour name)
• underline (none, single, double)
Example:
sep_markup = font="Sans Italic 12" foreground="blue"
font = string (unset by default)
Font description for menu items. font accepts a string such as Cantarell 10 or UbuntuCondensed
11. The font description without a specified size unit is interpreted as points. If px is added,
it will be read as pixels. Using “points” enables consistency with other applications.
font_fallback = string (default xtg)
Same as icon_theme_fallback, except that the xsettings variable Gtk/FontName is read.
icon_size = integer (default 22)
Size of icons in pixels. If set to 0, icons will be disabled.
icon_text_spacing = integer (default 10)
Distance between icon and text within a menu item
icon_norm_alpha = integer (default 100)
Opacity of menu item icons, expressed as a percentage (0-100).
icon_sel_alpha = integer (default 100)
Opacity of the currently selected menu item’s icon, expressed as a percentage (0-100).
icon_theme = string (unset by default)
Name of icon theme. E.g. Adwaita, breeze, Paper, Papirus and Numix. See ls /usr/share/icons/
(or similar) for available icon themes on your system.
icon_theme_fallback = string (default xtg)
Fallback sources of the icon theme in order of precedence, where the left-most letter designates
the source with highest precedence. The following characters are acceptable: x=xsettings
Net/IconThemeName; t=tint2; g=gtk3.0. icon_theme takes priority if set. In order to increase
consistency with tint2, xsettings variables will only be read if the tint2rc variable launch‐
er_icon_theme_override is 0.
arrow_string = string (default ▸)
String to be used to indicate that an item will open submenu. See jgmenuunicode(7) for examples
arrow_width = integer (default 15)
Width allowed for arrow_string. Set to 0 to hide arrow.
color_menu_bg = color (default #000000 100)
Background colour of menu window. If gradients are enabled, this will be the `from' color.
color_menu_bg_to = color (default #000000 100)
Background `to' colour of menu window - for use with gradients
color_menu_border = color (default #eeeeee 8)
Border colour of menu window
color_norm_bg = color (default #000000 0)
Background colour of menu items, except the one currently selected.
color_norm_fg = color (default #eeeeee 100)
Font (foreground) colour of menu items, except the one currently selected.
color_sel_bg = color (default #ffffff 20)
Background color of the currently selected menu item.
color_sel_fg = color (default #eeeeee 100)
Font (foreground) color of the currently selected menu item.
color_sel_border = color (default #eeeeee 8)
Border color of the currently selected menu item.
color_sep_fg = color (default #ffffff 20)
Font (foreground) colour of separators without text
color_title_fg = color (default #eeeeee 50)
Font (foreground) colour of separators with text. The font colour can be overridden by sep_markup
color_title_bg = color (default #000000 0)
Background colour of separators with text.
color_title_border = color (default #000000 0)
Border colour of separators with text.
color_scroll_ind = color (default #eeeeee 40)
Colour of scroll indicator lines (which show if there are menu items above or below those which
are visible).
CSV generator variables
The following variables begin with csv_ which denotes that they set environment variables which are used
by the CSV generators.
csv_name_format = string (default %n (%g))
Defines the format of the name field for CSV generators. Supported by apps and lx. It under‐
stands the following two fields:
%n Application name
%g Application generic name. If a generic name does not exist or is the same as the name, %n
will be used without any formatting.
csv_single_window = boolean (default 0)
If set, csv-generators will output ^root() instead of ^checkout(). This results in a single win‐
dow menu, where submenus appear in the same window. This is supported by apps and pmenu.
csv_no_dirs = boolean (default 0)
If set, csv-generators will output applications without any directory structure. This is support‐
ed by apps, pmenu and lx.
csv_i18n = string (no default)
Look for a translation file in the specified file or directory. See `jgmenu-i18n(1) for further
details. Supported by apps and ob.
csv_no_duplicates = boolean (default 0)
Restrict applications to appear in one directory only. Supported by apps.
Inter-Process Communication (IPC)
IPC can be used to align jgmenu to a panel launcher in real-time. This is currently supported by tint2
and xfce-panel. It works as follows:
jgmenu_run reads the environment variables listed below and passes them via a unix socket to the long-
running instance of jgmenu.
If position_mode=ipc, jgmenu aligns to these variables every times it is launched.
The following four environment variables define the extremities of the panel: TINT2_BUTTON_PANEL_X1,
TINT2_BUTTON_PANEL_X2, TINT2_BUTTON_PANEL_Y1, TINT2_BUTTON_PANEL_Y2.
(X1,Y1)
╔══════════════════════╗
║ panel ║
╚══════════════════════╝
(X2,Y2)
The following environment variables define the position of the launcher. These are interpreted differ‐
ently depending on panel alignment.
In the case of a horizontal panel:
• TINT2_BUTTON_ALIGNED_X1 and TINT2_BUTTON_ALIGNED_X2 define the launcher button’s horizontal extremities
to align to.
• TINT2_BUTTON_ALIGNED_Y1 and TINT2_BUTTON_ALIGNED_Y2 define the edge of the panel to align to. These
shall be the same.
In the case or a vertical panel, the same rules apply with X and Y reversed.
If the above variables are not set, menu_margin_x and menu_margin_y are used.
DIAGRAMS
General Notes
margin Refers to space outside an object
padding
Refers to space inside an object (between border and content)
Vertical Menu
╔════════════════════════╗
║ 1 ║
╟────────────────────────╢
║ 2 ║
╟────────────────────────╢
║ item ║
╟────────────────────────╢
║ 2 ║
╟────────────────────────╢
║ item ║
╟────────────────────────╢
║ 2 ║
╟────────────────────────╢
║ 3 ║
╚════════════════════════╝
1. menu_padding_top
2. item_margin_y
3. menu_padding_bottom
Horizontal Menu
╔═╤═╤════════════════╤═╤═╗
║ │ │ │ │ ║
║ │ ├────────────────┤ │ ║
║ │ │icon text >│ │ ║
║ │ ├────────────────┤ │ ║
║2│1│ │1│3║
║ │ ├────┬─┬───────┬─┤ │ ║
║ │ │ 4 │5│ │6│ │ ║
║ │ ├────┴─┴───────┴─┤ │ ║
║ │ │ │ │ ║
║ │ │ │ │ ║
╚═╧═╧════════════════╧═╧═╝
1. item_margin_x
2. padding_left
3. padding_right
4. icon_size
5. icon_to_text_spacing
6. arrow_width
External to menu
screen
╔════════════════════════╗
║ 2 ║
║ ┌──────┐ ║
║ │ root │ ┌──────┐ ║
║1│ menu │ │ sub │ ║
║ │ │3│ menu │ ║
║ └──────┘ │ │ ║
║ └──────┘ ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ ║
╚════════════════════════╝
1. menu_margin_x
2. menu_margin_y
3. sub_spacing
HOOKS
A hook in jgmenu is a rule which optionally triggers a command and then performs a restart if a file or
directory has has changed since the last time the instance of jgmenu was mapped (=made visible - normally
by running jgmenu_run).
Hooks are specified in the file $HOME/.config/jgmenu/hooks are take the format
<file>,<command>
For example, to synchronise with the GTK theme, use this hook:
~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini,jgmenu_run gtktheme
Leave the <command> empty to just restart.
A number of restart-hooks are built-in by default, for example ~/.config/jgmenu/{jgmenurc,ap‐
pend.csv,prepend.csv} and /usr/share/applications.
To list all the built-in hooks, use the keyword print in the hook file (on a line on its own). In order
to remove all the built-in hooks, use the keyword clear.
STARTUP SCRIPT
Unless the --vsimple argument is used, the file ~/.config/jgmenu/startup is executed on initial startup.
SEE ALSO
• jgmenu_run(1)
• jgmenututorial(7)
• jgmenuunicode(7)
The jgmenu source code and documentation can be downloaded from <https://github.com/johanmalm/jgmenu/>
AUTHORS
Johan Malm.
2 January, 2021 JGMENU(1)