Rofi: a window switcher, application launcher and dmenu replacement
Rofi is a window switcher, application launcher and dmenu replacement.
I’ve been using rofi with i3-gaps since early 2019. I had played with it before, but I’ve been using it daily the last couple of years.
I use it to launch applications, open ssh sessions, with pass and with a set of useful custom scripts.
Installation
You need to install the rofi package. I also installed rofi-dmenu for dmenu compatibility, rofi-pass to use with pass and the extra rofi-emoji and rofi-calc.
1paru -S rofi rofi-dmenu rofi-pass rofi-emoji rofi-calc
Executing
You can run Rofi in different modes depending if you want to launch an application, open a ssh session, change windows or executing a command in the terminal.
Check Rofi at github and man rofi for more details.
In my setup, and using i3-gaps (learn more here) I use it to accomplish a series of tasks:
- As an application launcher (both desktop apps and terminal commands)
1bindsym $mod+d exec --no-startup-id "rofi -modi combi -show combi -combi-modi drun,run"
- To explore my password store, allowing me to auto-type password anywhere or copy to the clipboard a username or password
1bindsym $mod+p exec --no-startup-id rofi-pass
- Open ssh sessions
1bindsym $mod+s exec --no-startup-id rofi -show ssh
- Running custom scripts (as an example a web search script)
1bindsym $mod+f exec --no-startup-id websearch
Here’s my websearch script, inspired by ditrotube.
1cat .local/bin/websearch
2
3#!/usr/bin/env bash
4
5DMBROWSER="/usr/bin/librewolf"
6
7declare -a options=(
8"searx - https://searx.tuxcloud.net/?q="
9"amazon - https://www.amazon.com/s?k="
10"kindlebooks - https://www.amazon.com/s?rh=n%3A154606011&ref=nb_sb_noss&k="
11"youtube - https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query="
12"goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/search?q="
13"archaur - https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/?O=0&K="
14"archpkg - https://archlinux.org/packages/?sort=&q="
15"archwiki - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?search="
16"audible - https://audible.com/search?keywords="
17"duckduckgo - https://duckduckgo.com/lite/?q="
18"github - https://github.com/search?q="
19"gitlab - https://gitlab.com/search?search="
20"google - https://www.google.com/search?q="
21"reddit - https://www.reddit.com/search/?q="
22"quit"
23)
24
25while [ -z "$engine" ]; do
26 enginelist=$(printf '%s\n' "${options[@]}" | rofi -dmenu -p 'Choose search engine:') || exit
27 engineurl=$(echo "$enginelist" | awk '{print $NF}')
28 engine=$(echo "$enginelist" | awk '{print $1}')
29done
30
31while [ -z "$query" ]; do
32 if [[ "$engine" == "quit" ]]; then
33 echo "Program terminated." && exit 0
34 else
35 query=$(echo "$engine" | rofi -dmenu -p 'Enter search query:') || exit
36 fi
37done
38
39$DMBROWSER "$engineurl""$query"
40
41#eof
Configuration
The rofi configuration file is located at .config/rofi/config.rasi.
1cat .config/rofi/config.rasi
2
3configuration {
4 modi: "run,ssh,window,combi,drun,windowcd";
5 matching: "fuzzy";
6 show-icons: true;
7 theme: "~/.config/rofi/themes/dmenu.rasi";
8 font: "Cantarell Regular 11";
9 icon-theme: "oomox-gruvbox-dark";
10 lines: 7;
11 separator-style: "solid";
12 hide-scrollbar: true;
13 kb-row-down: "Control+j";
14 kb-row-up: "Control+k";
15 kb-accept-entry: "Return,KP_Enter";
16 kb-remove-to-eol: "";
17 display-drun: "Open";
18 display-run: "❯ sh";
19 display-combi: "";
20 display-window: "Change window";
21 display-windowcd: "Change window (same workspace)";
22 terminal: "/usr/bin/alacritty";
23 ssh-command: "{terminal} -e {ssh-client} {host}";
24}
I’m using a theme to emulate dmenu, but I used a gruvbox inspired on until recently.
1cat .config/rofi/themes/dmenu.rasi
2
3* {
4 background-color: Black;
5 border-color: White;
6 text-color: White;
7 font: "Cantarell Regular 12";
8}
9
10#window {
11 anchor: north;
12 location: north;
13 width: 100%;
14 padding: 4px;
15 children: [ horibox ];
16}
17
18#horibox {
19 orientation: horizontal;
20 children: [ prompt, entry, listview ];
21}
22
23#listview {
24 layout: horizontal;
25 spacing: 5px;
26 lines: 100;
27}
28
29#entry {
30 expand: false;
31 width: 10em;
32}
33
34#element {
35 padding: 0px 2px;
36}
37#element selected {
38 background-color: SteelBlue;
39}
1cat .config/rofi/themes/gruvbox-common.inc.rasi
2
3window {
4 background-color: @background;
5 border: 2;
6 padding: 2;
7}
8
9mainbox {
10 border: 0;
11 padding: 0;
12}
13
14message {
15 border: 2px 0 0;
16 border-color: @separatorcolor;
17 padding: 1px;
18}
19
20textbox {
21 highlight: @highlight;
22 text-color: @foreground;
23}
24
25listview {
26 border: 2px solid 0 0;
27 padding: 2px 0 0;
28 border-color: @separatorcolor;
29 spacing: 2px;
30 scrollbar: @scrollbar;
31}
32
33element {
34 border: 0;
35 padding: 2px;
36}
37
38element.normal.normal {
39 background-color: @normal-background;
40 text-color: @normal-foreground;
41}
42
43element.normal.urgent {
44 background-color: @urgent-background;
45 text-color: @urgent-foreground;
46}
47
48element.normal.active {
49 background-color: @active-background;
50 text-color: @active-foreground;
51}
52
53element.selected.normal {
54 background-color: @selected-normal-background;
55 text-color: @selected-normal-foreground;
56}
57
58element.selected.urgent {
59 background-color: @selected-urgent-background;
60 text-color: @selected-urgent-foreground;
61}
62
63element.selected.active {
64 background-color: @selected-active-background;
65 text-color: @selected-active-foreground;
66}
67
68element.alternate.normal {
69 background-color: @alternate-normal-background;
70 text-color: @alternate-normal-foreground;
71}
72
73element.alternate.urgent {
74 background-color: @alternate-urgent-background;
75 text-color: @alternate-urgent-foreground;
76}
77
78element.alternate.active {
79 background-color: @alternate-active-background;
80 text-color: @alternate-active-foreground;
81}
82
83scrollbar {
84 width: 4px;
85 border: 0;
86 handle-color: @scrollbar-handle;
87 handle-width: 8px;
88 padding: 0;
89}
90
91sidebar {
92 border: 2px 0 0;
93 border-color: @separatorcolor;
94}
95
96inputbar {
97 spacing: 0;
98 text-color: @normal-foreground;
99 padding: 2px;
100 children: [ prompt, textbox-prompt-sep, entry, case-indicator ];
101}
102
103case-indicator,
104entry,
105prompt,
106button {
107 spacing: 0;
108 text-color: @normal-foreground;
109}
110
111button.selected {
112 background-color: @selected-normal-background;
113 text-color: @selected-normal-foreground;
114}
115
116textbox-prompt-sep {
117 expand: false;
118 str: ":";
119 text-color: @normal-foreground;
120 margin: 0 0.3em 0 0;
121}
1cat .config/rofi/themes/gruvbox-dark.rasi
2
3* {
4 /* Theme settings */
5 highlight: bold italic;
6 scrollbar: true;
7
8 /* Gruvbox dark colors */
9 gruvbox-dark-bg0: #282828;
10 gruvbox-dark-bg0-soft: #32302f;
11 gruvbox-dark-bg3: #665c54;
12 gruvbox-dark-fg0: #fbf1c7;
13 gruvbox-dark-fg1: #ebdbb2;
14 gruvbox-dark-red-dark: #cc241d;
15 gruvbox-dark-red-light: #fb4934;
16 gruvbox-dark-yellow-dark: #d79921;
17 gruvbox-dark-yellow-light: #fabd2f;
18 gruvbox-dark-gray: #a89984;
19
20 /* Theme colors */
21 background: @gruvbox-dark-bg0;
22 background-color: @background;
23 foreground: @gruvbox-dark-fg1;
24 border-color: @gruvbox-dark-gray;
25 separatorcolor: @border-color;
26 scrollbar-handle: @border-color;
27
28 normal-background: @background;
29 normal-foreground: @foreground;
30 alternate-normal-background: @gruvbox-dark-bg0-soft;
31 alternate-normal-foreground: @foreground;
32 selected-normal-background: @gruvbox-dark-bg3;
33 selected-normal-foreground: @gruvbox-dark-fg0;
34
35 active-background: @gruvbox-dark-yellow-dark;
36 active-foreground: @background;
37 alternate-active-background: @active-background;
38 alternate-active-foreground: @active-foreground;
39 selected-active-background: @gruvbox-dark-yellow-light;
40 selected-active-foreground: @active-foreground;
41
42 urgent-background: @gruvbox-dark-red-dark;
43 urgent-foreground: @background;
44 alternate-urgent-background: @urgent-background;
45 alternate-urgent-foreground: @urgent-foreground;
46 selected-urgent-background: @gruvbox-dark-red-light;
47 selected-urgent-foreground: @urgent-foreground;
48}
49
50@import "gruvbox-common.inc"