rofi

Rofi: A window switcher, application launcher and dmenu replacement

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Quick Overview

Rofi is a window switcher, application launcher, and dmenu replacement for Linux systems. It provides a customizable and extensible interface for quickly accessing and launching applications, as well as performing various system tasks through its flexible scripting capabilities.

Pros

Highly customizable appearance and behavior through themes and configuration options
Extensible functionality through custom modes and scripts
Fast and efficient, with low resource usage
Supports fuzzy search and sorting for quick access to items

Cons

Primarily designed for Linux systems, limiting its availability on other platforms
Configuration can be complex for advanced customizations
Limited built-in documentation, requiring users to rely on community resources
Some features may require additional dependencies or plugins

Getting Started

To get started with Rofi, follow these steps:

Install Rofi on your Linux system:

# For Debian/Ubuntu-based systems
sudo apt install rofi

# For Arch-based systems
sudo pacman -S rofi

Launch Rofi with a basic configuration:
```
rofi -show drun
```

Create a basic configuration file:

mkdir -p ~/.config/rofi
echo 'configuration {
  modi: "run,drun,window";
  width: 50;
  lines: 15;
  columns: 2;
  font: "mono 12";
  bw: 1;
  location: 0;
  padding: 5;
  show-icons: true;
}' > ~/.config/rofi/config.rasi

Customize Rofi's appearance by creating a theme file:

echo '@theme "/usr/share/rofi/themes/gruvbox-dark.rasi"' >> ~/.config/rofi/config.rasi

Launch Rofi with your custom configuration:
```
rofi -show drun
```

Explore additional options and modes by referring to the Rofi documentation and community resources.

Competitor Comparisons

rofi

6,665

A huge collection of Rofi based custom Applets, Launchers & Powermenus.

Pros of rofi (adi1090x)

Extensive collection of pre-configured themes and layouts
Includes additional scripts and plugins for enhanced functionality
More user-friendly for those who prefer ready-to-use configurations

Cons of rofi (adi1090x)

Less frequently updated compared to the original rofi repository
May include unnecessary files for users who prefer a minimal setup
Potential for conflicts with system-wide rofi installations

Code Comparison

rofi (davatorium):

rofi -show run

rofi (adi1090x):

./launcher.sh

The davatorium version uses the standard rofi command, while the adi1090x version typically employs custom launcher scripts for different themes and configurations.

Summary

The adi1090x rofi repository offers a rich set of pre-configured themes and additional scripts, making it attractive for users who want a quick and visually appealing setup. However, it may include more files than necessary for some users and receives less frequent updates compared to the original davatorium repository. The davatorium version provides a more streamlined and regularly maintained base for rofi, allowing users to build their own configurations from scratch.

polybar

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A fast and easy-to-use status bar

Pros of Polybar

Highly customizable status bar with extensive theming options
Built-in support for various system information modules
Active development and community support

Cons of Polybar

Steeper learning curve for configuration
Limited to status bar functionality, not a general-purpose launcher

Code Comparison

Polybar configuration example:

[bar/mybar]
modules-left = i3
modules-center = date
modules-right = cpu memory

Rofi configuration example:

rofi -show run -modi run -location 1 -width 100 \
     -lines 2 -line-margin 0 -line-padding 1

Summary

Polybar excels as a highly customizable status bar for Linux systems, offering extensive theming options and built-in support for various system information modules. It benefits from active development and a supportive community. However, Polybar has a steeper learning curve for configuration and is limited to status bar functionality.

Rofi, on the other hand, is a versatile application launcher and window switcher with a simpler configuration process. It offers broader functionality beyond just a status bar but may lack some of the advanced customization options found in Polybar.

The choice between Polybar and Rofi depends on specific needs: Polybar for a feature-rich status bar, or Rofi for a multi-purpose launcher and window switcher.

albert

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A fast and flexible keyboard launcher

Pros of Albert

More feature-rich with plugins for various functionalities
Sleek, modern interface with customizable themes
Cross-platform support (Linux and macOS)

Cons of Albert

Heavier resource usage due to more complex features
Steeper learning curve for configuration and customization
Less flexible in terms of window management integration

Code Comparison

Albert (C++):

void MainWindow::show()
{
    qApp->setActiveWindow(this);
    QWidget::show();
    if (ui.inputLine->text().isEmpty())
        ui.inputLine->setFocus();
}

Rofi (C):

void rofi_view_show ( RofiViewState *state )
{
    if ( state == NULL ) {
        return;
    }
    if ( !state->window ) {
        rofi_view_create_window ( state );
    }
    rofi_view_update_state ( state );
}

Both projects aim to provide application launchers and switchers for Linux systems. Rofi is lightweight, highly customizable, and integrates well with window managers. Albert offers a more comprehensive set of features and a polished user interface but may require more system resources. The code snippets demonstrate the different approaches in showing the main window, with Albert using Qt framework and Rofi using lower-level X11 calls.

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README

Please match the documentation and scripts to the version of rofi used

Also see the locally installed documentation (manpages).

Rofi

A window switcher, Application launcher and dmenu replacement.

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/84911063/139428874-fe182dd6-82c6-49b8-8da1-920ddda3d1ed.mp4

Rofi started as a clone of simpleswitcher, written by Sean Pringle - a popup window switcher roughly based on superswitcher. Simpleswitcher laid the foundations, and therefore Sean Pringle deserves most of the credit for this tool. Rofi (renamed, as it lost the simple property) has been extended with extra features, like an application launcher and ssh-launcher, and can act as a drop-in dmenu replacement, making it a very versatile tool.

Rofi, like dmenu, will provide the user with a textual list of options where one or more can be selected. This can either be running an application, selecting a window, or options provided by an external script.

What is rofi not?

Rofi is not:

A UI toolkit.
A library to be used in other applications.
An application that can support every possible use-case. It tries to be generic enough to be usable by everybody.
- Specific functionality can be added using scripts or plugins, many exists.
Just a dmenu replacement. The dmenu functionality is a nice 'extra' to rofi, not its main purpose.

Features
Modes
Manpages
Installation
Quickstart
Screenshots
Wiki
Discussion places

Features

Its main features are:

Fully configurable keyboard navigation
Type to filter
- Tokenized: type any word in any order to filter
- Case insensitive (togglable)
- Support for fuzzy-, regex-, prefix-, and glob-matching
UTF-8 enabled
- UTF-8-aware string collating
- International keyboard support (`e -> Ã¨)
RTL language support
Cairo drawing and Pango font rendering
Built-in modes:
- Window switcher mode
  - EWMH compatible WM
  - Work arounds for i3,bspwm
- Application launcher
- Desktop file application launcher
- SSH launcher mode
- File browser
- Combi mode, allowing several modes to be merged into one list
History-based ordering â last 25 choices are ordered on top based on use (optional)
Levenshtein distance or fzf like sorting of matches (optional)
Drop-in dmenu replacement
- Many added improvements
Easily extensible using scripts and plugins
Advanced Theming

Modes

Rofi has several built-in modes implementing common use cases and can be extended by scripts (either called from Rofi or calling Rofi) or plugins.

Below is a list of the different modes:

run: launch applications from $PATH, with option to launch in terminal.
drun: launch applications based on desktop files. It tries to be compliant to the XDG standard.
window: Switch between windows on an EWMH compatible window manager.
ssh: Connect to a remote host via ssh.
filebrowser: A basic file-browser for opening files.
keys: list internal keybindings.
script: Write (limited) custom mode using simple scripts.
combi: Combine multiple modes into one.

Rofi is known to work on Linux and BSD.

Manpage

For more up to date information, please see the manpages. The other sections and links might have outdated information as they have relatively less maintainance than the manpages. So, if you come across any issues please consult manpages, discussion and issue tracker before filing new issue.

Manpages:

Installation

Please see the installation guide for instructions on how to install Rofi.

Quickstart

Usage

This section just gives a brief overview of the various options. To get the full set of options see the manpages section above

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

Or get the options from a script:

    ~/my_script.sh | rofi -dmenu

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 configured modes will be enabled. To only show the run and ssh launcher:

    rofi -modes "run,ssh" -show run

The modes to combine in combi mode. For syntax to -combi-modes , see -modes. To get one merge view, of window,run, and ssh:

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

Configuration

Generate a default configuration file

mkdir -p ~/.config/rofi
rofi -dump-config > ~/.config/rofi/config.rasi

This creates a file called config.rasi in the ~/.config/rofi/ folder. You can modify this file to set configuration settings and modify themes. config.rasi is the file rofi looks to by default.

Please see the configuration guide for a summary of configuration options. More detailed options are provided in the manpages.

Themes

Please see the themes manpages for a detailed description.

The latest bundled themes can be found here.

Screenshots

Rezlooks:

screenshot

Arthur:

screenshot2

Default theme:

default

Wiki

â The Wiki is currently unmaintained and might contain outdated data

Go to wiki .

Discussion places

The GitHub Discussions is the preferred location for discussions.

GitHub Discussions
IRC (#rofi on irc.libera.chat)

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Quick Overview

Pros

Cons

Getting Started

Competitor Comparisons

Pros of rofi (adi1090x)

Cons of rofi (adi1090x)

Code Comparison

Summary

Pros of Polybar

Cons of Polybar

Code Comparison

Summary

Pros of Albert

Cons of Albert

Code Comparison

Convert designs to code with AI

README

Rofi

What is rofi not?

Table of Contents

Features

Modes

Manpage

Installation

Quickstart

Usage

Running rofi

Configuration

Themes

Screenshots

Wiki

Contents

Discussion places

Stargazers over time

Top Related Projects

Convert designs to code with AI