Rofi
Rofi is a window switcher, run dialog, ssh-launcher and dmenu replacement that started as a clone of simpleswitcher, written by Sean Pringle and later expanded by Dave Davenport.
Installation
Install the rofi package for use under Xorg display servers.
Merging support for Wayland compositors in the main branch has indefinitely stalled . For Wayland support, instead install rofi-lbonn-waylandAUR or rofi-lbonn-wayland-gitAUR for the developmental version. Note that these packages require a Wayland compositor that supports the Layer Shell protocol. This includes wlroots based compositors, such as Sway, and some Mir based compositors, but does not include mutter, the compositor for Gnome, for example.
To know more about rofi and its usage read the rofi(1) man page.
Configuration
There are two methods of setting configuration options:
- Local configuration. Normally, depending on XDG, in
~/.config/rofi/config.rasi. - Command line options:
$ rofi -combi-modi window,drun,ssh -theme solarized -font "hack 10" -show combi
can be expressed in a configuration file like this:
configuration {
modi: "window,drun,ssh,combi";
font: "hack 10";
combi-modi: "window,drun,ssh";
}
@theme "solarized"
To get a full list of options for config.rasi file run rofi -dump-config. You can write the output of the command directly to your configuration file while running rofi -dump-config > ~/.config/rofi/config.rasi
Icons
It is possible to use icons to display with their corresponding entries. Assuming you have installed, with and defining the icon theme with , you can have rofi display icons and do the following:
$ rofi -combi-modi window,drun,ssh -theme solarized -font "hack 10" -show combi -icon-theme "Papirus" -show-icons
Custom themes
You can preview and apply themes for rofi with
$ rofi-theme-selector
The rofi-theme(5) man page contains extensive instructions on how to theme rofi, using a custom, CSS-like language. This page contains additional informations on the layout system used by rofi, the precise syntax used to theme rofi, as well as additional instructions to theme most of rofi's properties. Rofi's theme system can be simple (the default dmenu theme is around 30 lines of CSS) but is flexible enough to create various interactive, widget-like applets and menus, like rofi-advanced.
Contributed themes
Rofi comes with several official themes stored in /usr/share/rofi/themes, and more user themes can be found at the rofi-themes repository.
Load up an official theme, or download a .rasi user theme and place it in on the command line:
$ rofi options -theme example
Alternatively, in your configuration file outside of the block:
@theme "example"
Tips and tricks
Rofi as dmenu replacement
If called as dmenu (via a symlink), rofi acts like dmenu. Then, programs that call dmenu from a script (like passmenu from pass) will use rofi instead of dmenu. The exact behavior of in dmenu mode is described in .
To approximate the look of dmenu, copy the file shipped by default in the rofi package to the rofi configuration directory (usually ) and enable it by appending at the end of config.rasi or with the option on the command line.
Execute shell commands from rofi
If you want the ability to run shell commands or use your own scripts directly from rofi with seeing the output, then ensure following:
Define -run-shell-command '{terminal} -e SHELL -ic "{cmd} && read" where is your shell (e.g. bash, zsh). This allows you to enter the command on the inputbar followed by Shift+Enter. The terminal stays open until the next keypress.
This is an example with the recommended escaping sequence for i3:
bindsym $mod+d exec --no-startup-id rofi -show drun -run-shell-command '{terminal} -e zsh -ic "{cmd} && read"'
Unicode selection integration
Install for a Unicode emoji/character picker integrated with rofi. See the project's README for usage and configuration.
Emoji selection menu
Install for an emoji picker integrated with rofi. See the project's README for the usage.
If you encounter rendering issues regarding emojis (rendering as rectangles for example), you should install , , and/or .
Rofi as a power management menu
Rofi can be used to perform power management operation with systemd. Clone rofi-power-menu repository. To launch it, you have to tell rofi where to find rofi-power-menu executable. For example, if the executable is in :
$ rofi -show p -modi p:$HOME/.rofi-power-menu
You can also put the executable in the PATH, and pass only its name.
To show default symbols, you may need to install .
For more information, read the README file in the repository.
Rofi as a Clipboard Manager
Rofi can be used as a X11 clipboard manager using Greenclip. Install the rofi-greenclipAUR package.