.TH RATMENU 1 "Oct 10 2001" "Ratpoison Desktop For X"
.SH NAME
ratmenu \- create a menu to run commands
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ratmenu
[
.BI \-display " displayname"
] [
.BI \-font " fname"
] [
.BI \-fg " foreground-color"
] [
.BI \-bg " background-color"
] [
.BI \-io " item-offset"
] [
.BI \-label " name"
] [
.BI \-shell " prog"
] [
.BI \-align " {left|center|right}"
] [
.BI \-style " {snazzy|dreary}"
] [
.BI \-persist
] [
.B \-version
] [
.IR menuitem\ command
]
\&...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I ratmenu
is a simple program that accepts a list of menu item and command
pairs on the command line.
It creates a window that consists of nothing but a menu.
When a particular item is selected, the corresponding command is executed.
.PP
.I ratmenu
does not recognize any usage of the rodent.  It is entirely
keystroke operated.
.PP
Menu items must be followed by a command.  The syntax is based on
that of the
.I dialog
program.
.PP
.I ratmenu
accepts the following command line options.
.RS
.TP
.BI \-display " displayname"
Use the X display
.IR displayname ,
instead of the default display.
.TP
.BI \-font " fname"
(X Resource: font)
Use the font
.IR fname ,
instead of the default font.
.TP
.BI \-label " name"
Change both the window and icon labels of the window to
.IR name .
The default label is the last component of the path used to run
.IR ratmenu ,
typically,
.BR ratmenu .
.TP
.BI \-fg " foreground-color" 
(X Resource: fgcolor)
Set the foreground color to
.IR foreground-color .
By default, the foreground color is black.
.TP
.BI \-bg " background-color" 
(X Resource: bgcolor)
Set the background color to
.IR background-color .
By default, the background color is white.
.TP
.BI \-io " item-offset"
Set the first selected item to
.IR item-offset .
By default, the first item is the top-most one, or item-offset 1.  The next
item down would be at item-offset 2.
.TP
.BI \-style " {snazzy|dreary}" 
(X Resource: style)
The default style is
.IR snazzy ,
where the highlight bar, which shows the currently selected item, remains
stationary while all the menu items are rotated up or down when the cursor
keys are moved.  In
.IR dreary
mode, the highlight bar moves up and down the menu as it does on all conventional
keyboard controlled menus.
.TP
.BI \-align " {left|center|right}" 
(X Resource: align)
Align the text of the menu entries to the left, right, or center.
Defaults to
.IR left .
This is different from
.BR 9menu ,
which defaults to
.IR center .
.TP
.BI \-shell " prog"
Use
.I prog
as the shell to run commands, instead of
.BR /bin/sh .
A popular alternative shell is
.IR rc (1).
If the shell cannot be executed,
.I ratmenu
will
.I silently
fall back to using
.BR /bin/sh .
.TP
.BI \-back " prevmenu"
.I prevmenu
is a command or shell script to run when the back key is pressed, usually a
script that has ratmenu showing the previous menu.  Used to create nested
menus, it gives the user a way to back out and return to the previous menu.
Note that you can use this option for other things too.  The command specified
by the
.B -back
option is executed when the user hits one of the "back" keys.
.TP
.BI \-persist 
(X Resource: persist)
Ordinarily, ratmenu exits if a new window pops up on top of it, or if you
switch to another window.  This option tells ratmenu to hang around, like a
regular window.
.TP
.B \-version
This option prints the version of
.I ratmenu
on the standard output, and then exits with an exit value of zero.
.RE
.SH KEYSTROKES
.PP
The
.BI Up
keystrokes move the selection to the next item up.  The
.BI Down
keystrokes move the selection to the next item down.  When
the selection reaches the top or bottom, it scrolls around
to the other side on pressing of the appropriate keystroke. The
.BI Select
keystrokes execute the command corresponding to the currently
selected menu item, and exit ratmenu.  The
.BI Exit
keystrokes quit ratmenu without doing anything.
.RS
.TP
.BI Up
 'k', Up_arrow, BackSpace, '\-', C\-p
.TP
.BI Down
 'j', Down_arrow, Space, Tab, '+', C\-n, C\-i
.TP
.BI Select
 'l', Right_arrow, Return, C\-f, C\-m, C\-j
.TP
.BI Back
 'h', Left_arrow, C\-b
.TP
.BI Exit
 'q', Escape, C\-g
.RE
.SH CONFIGURATION USING X RESOURCES
.PP
You can configure some items using
.I xrdb
to load appropriate X resources.  There is an example configuration
in the file
.I /usr/share/doc/ratmenu/Xresources.ratmenu
which shows all possible configuration items.  Give it a look; it is
fairly easy to figure out.
.RE
.SH EXAMPLES
.ft B
.nf
ratmenu \-label "Remotes xterm" acme "rsh acme xterm" herman "rsh herman 9term" &
.sp
ratmenu \-label 'X progs' ghostview ghostview xdvi xdvi xeyes xeyes xneko xneko &
.sp
ratmenu \-back ~/bin/mypreviousmenu "X Eyes" xeyes &
.ft
.fi
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR ratpoison (1),
.IR ratpoisonrc (5),
.IR dialog (1)
.IR xrdb (1)
.PP
.IR "Ratpoison Desktop Users Manual" .
.SH AUTHORS
The initial idea for this program was by Arnold Robbins, after having
worked with John Mackin's GWM Blit emulation.
Matty Farrow wrote a version using libXg, from which some ideas were borrowed.
This code was written by David Hogan and Arnold Robbins.
Rich Salz motivated the
.B \-shell
option.
Jonathan Walther modified this code to play nicely with the ratpoison window
manager by removing handling of mouse events and iconification. Zrajm C Akfohg
made many improvements in his ratmen fork, including X resource handling, some
of which were folded back in.