3 Automatically select a display configuration based on connected devices
7 This is a compatible Python rewrite of
8 [wertarbyte/autorandr](https://github.com/wertarbyte/autorandr). Contributions
9 for bash-completion, fd.o/XDG autostart, Nitrogen, pm-utils, and systemd can be
10 found under [contrib](contrib/).
12 The original [wertarbyte/autorandr](https://github.com/wertarbyte/autorandr)
13 tree is unmaintained, with lots of open pull requests and issues. I forked it
14 and merged what I thought were the most important changes. If you are searching
15 for that version, see the [`legacy` branch](https://github.com/phillipberndt/autorandr/tree/legacy).
16 Note that the Python version is better suited for non-standard configurations,
17 like if you use `--transform` or `--reflect`. If you use `auto-disper`, you
18 have to use the bash version, as there is no disper support in the Python
19 version (yet). Both versions use a compatible configuration file format, so
20 you can, to some extent, switch between them. I will maintain the `legacy`
21 branch until @wertarbyte finds the time to maintain his branch again.
23 If you are interested in why there are two versions around, see
24 [#7](https://github.com/phillipberndt/autorandr/issues/7),
25 [#8](https://github.com/phillipberndt/autorandr/issues/8) and
27 [#12](https://github.com/phillipberndt/autorandr/issues/12)
28 if you are unhappy with this version and would like to contribute to the bash
31 ## License information and authors
33 autorandr is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License
36 Contributors to this version of autorandr are:
45 * Christophe-Marie Duquesne
52 * Rasmus Wriedt Larsen
65 ## Installation/removal
67 You can use the `autorandr.py` script as a stand-alone binary. If you'd like to
68 install it as a system-wide application, there is a Makefile included that also
69 places some configuration files in appropriate directories such that autorandr
70 is invoked automatically when a monitor is connected or removed, the system
71 wakes up from suspend, or a user logs into an X11 session. Run `make install`
72 as root to install it.
74 If you prefer to have a system wide install managed by your package manager,
77 * Use the [official Arch package](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/any/autorandr/).
78 * Use the [official Debian package](https://packages.debian.org/sid/x11/autorandr) on sid
79 * Use the [FreeBSD Ports Collection](https://www.freshports.org/x11/autorandr/) on FreeBSD.
80 * Use the [official Gentoo package](https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/x11-misc/autorandr).
82 [nix package](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/modules/services/misc/autorandr.nix)
85 [guix package](https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/log/gnu/packages/xdisorg.scm?qt=grep&q=autorandr)
87 * Use the [SlackBuild](https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/desktop/autorandr/) on Slackware.
88 * Use the automated nightlies generated by the
89 [openSUSE build service](https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:phillipberndt/autorandr)
90 for various distributions (RPM and DEB based).
91 * Use the [X binary package system](https://wiki.voidlinux.eu/XBPS)' on Void Linux
92 * Build a .deb-file from the source tree using `make deb`.
93 * Build a .rpm-file from the source tree using `make rpm`.
95 We appreciate packaging scripts for other distributions, please file a pull
96 request if you write one.
98 If you prefer `pip` over your package manager, you can install autorandr with:
100 sudo pip install "git+http://github.com/phillipberndt/autorandr#egg=autorandr"
104 sudo pip install autorandr
106 if you prefer to use a stable version.
110 Save your current display configuration and setup with:
112 autorandr --save mobile
114 Connect an additional display, configure your setup and save it:
116 autorandr --save docked
118 Now autorandr can detect which hardware setup is active:
124 To automatically reload your setup:
128 To manually load a profile:
130 $ autorandr --load <profile>
134 $ autorandr <profile>
136 autorandr tries to avoid reloading an identical configuration. To force the
139 $ autorandr --load <profile> --force
141 To prevent a profile from being loaded, place a script call _block_ in its
142 directory. The script is evaluated before the screen setup is inspected, and
143 in case of it returning a value of 0 the profile is skipped. This can be used
144 to query the status of a docking station you are about to leave.
146 If no suitable profile can be identified, the current configuration is kept.
147 To change this behaviour and switch to a fallback configuration, specify
148 `--default <profile>`. The system-wide installation of autorandr by default
149 calls autorandr with a parameter `--default default`. There are three special,
150 virtual configurations called `horizontal`, `vertical` and `common`. They
151 automatically generate a configuration that incorporates all screens
152 connected to the computer. You can symlink `default` to one of these
153 names in your configuration directory to have autorandr use any of them
154 as the default configuration without you having to change the system-wide
157 You can store default values for any option in an INI-file located at
158 `~/.config/autorandr/settings.ini`. In a `config` section, you may place any
159 default values in the form `option-name=option-argument`.
161 A common and effective use of this is to specify default `skip-options`, for
162 instance skipping the `gamma` setting if using
163 [`redshift`](https://github.com/jonls/redshift) as a daemon. To implement
164 the equivalent of `--skip-options gamma`, your `settings.ini` file should look
176 Three more scripts can be placed in the configuration directory
177 (as defined by the [XDG spec](https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html),
178 usually `~/.config/autorandr` or `~/.autorandr` if you have an old installation
179 for user configuration and `/etc/xdg/autorandr` for system wide configuration):
181 - `postswitch` is executed *after* a mode switch has taken place. This can be
182 used to notify window managers or other applications about the switch.
183 - `preswitch` is executed *before* a mode switch takes place.
184 - `postsave` is executed after a profile was stored or altered.
185 - `predetect` is executed before autorandr attempts to run xrandr.
187 These scripts must be executable and can be placed directly in the configuration
188 directory, where they will always be executed, or in the profile subdirectories,
189 where they will only be executed on changes regarding that specific profile.
191 Instead (or in addition) to these scripts, you can also place as many executable
192 files as you like in subdirectories called `script_name.d` (e.g. `postswitch.d`).
193 The order of execution of scripts in these directories is by file name, you can
194 force a certain ordering by naming them `10-wallpaper`, `20-restart-wm`, etc.
196 If a script with the same name occurs multiple times, user configuration
197 takes precedence over system configuration (as specified by the
198 [XDG spec](https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html))
199 and profile configuration over general configuration.
201 As a concrete example, suppose you have the files
203 - `/etc/xdg/autorandr/postswitch`
204 - `~/.config/autorandr/postswitch`
205 - `~/.config/autorandr/postswitch.d/notify-herbstluftwm`
206 - `~/.config/autorandr/docked/postswitch`
208 and switch from `mobile` to `docked`. Then
209 `~/.config/autorandr/docked/postswitch` is executed, since the profile specific
210 configuration takes precedence, and
211 `~/.config/autorandr/postswitch.d/notify-herbstluftwm` is executed, since
212 it has a unique name.
214 If you switch back from `docked` to `mobile`, `~/.config/autorandr/postswitch`
215 is executed instead of the `docked` specific `postswitch`.
217 If you experience issues with xrandr being executed too early after connecting
218 a new monitor, then you can use a `predetect` script to delay the execution.
219 Write e.g. `sleep 1` into that file to make autorandr wait a second before
224 Some of autorandr's state is exposed as environment variables
225 prefixed with `AUTORANDR_`, such as:
226 - `AUTORANDR_CURRENT_PROFILE`
227 - `AUTORANDR_CURRENT_PROFILES`
228 - `AUTORANDR_PROFILE_FOLDER`
229 - `AUTORANDR_MONITORS`
231 with the intention that they can be used within the hook scripts.
233 For instance, you might display which profile has just been activated by
234 including the following in a `postswitch` script:
236 notify-send -i display "Display profile" "$AUTORANDR_CURRENT_PROFILE"
239 The one kink is that during `preswitch`, `AUTORANDR_CURRENT_PROFILE` is
240 reporting the *upcoming* profile rather than the *current* one.
242 ### Wildcard EDID matching
244 The EDID strings in the `~/.config/autorandr/*/setup` files may contain an
245 asterisk to enable wildcard matching: Such EDIDs are matched against connected
246 monitors using the usual file name globbing rules. This can be used to create
247 profiles matching multiple (or any) monitors.
249 ### udev triggers with NVidia cards
251 In order for `udev` to detect `drm` events from the native NVidia driver, the
252 kernel parameter `nvidia-drm.modeset` must be set to 1. For example, add a file
253 `/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-drm-modeset.conf`:
256 options nvidia_drm modeset=1
261 Before running autorandr will check the environment for the `WAYLAND_DISPLAY`
262 variable to check if the program is running in a Wayland session. This is to
263 avoid issues between usage of xrandr in Wayland environments.
265 If you need to run autorandr in a Wayland environment, one workaround is to
266 unset the `WAYLAND_DISPLAY` variable before running the program, such as:
269 WAYLAND_DISPLAY= autorandr
275 * *2023-01-24* Revert udev rule to rely on "change" event (see #324)
278 * *2023-01-23* Fix autostart in KDE (see #320)
279 * *2023-01-23* Match add/remove rather than change in udev rule (see #321)
280 * *2023-01-23* Fix wildcard use in EDIDs (see #322)
281 * *2023-01-23* Do a final xrandr call to set the frame buffer size (see #319)
284 * *2023-01-16* Fix bug with Version comparison
287 * *2023-01-15* Add reversed horizontal/vertical profiles
288 * *2023-01-15* Fix distutils deprecation warning
289 * *2023-01-15* Print error when user script fails
290 * *2022-12-01* Support `--skip-options set` to skip setting properties
293 * *2021-12-22* Fix `--match-edid` (see #273)
296 * *2021-12-16* Switch default interpreter to Python 3
297 * *2021-12-16* Add `--list` to list all profiles
298 * *2021-12-16* Add `--cycle` to cycle all detected profiles
299 * *2021-12-16* Store display properties (see #204)
302 * *2020-05-23* Handle empty sys.executable
303 * *2020-06-08* Fix Python 2 compatibility
304 * *2020-10-06* Set group membership of users in batch mode
307 * *2020-05-04* Revert making the launcher the default (fixes #195)
310 * *2020-04-23* Fix hook script execution order to match description from readme
311 * *2020-04-11* Handle negative gamma values (fixes #188)
312 * *2020-04-11* Sort approximate matches in detected profiles by quality of match
313 * *2020-01-31* Handle non-ASCII environment variables (fixes #180)
314 * *2019-12-31* Fix output positioning if the top-left output is not the first
315 * *2019-12-31* Accept negative gamma values (and interpret them as 0)
316 * *2019-12-31* Prefer the X11 launcher over systemd/udev configuration
320 * *2019-11-10* Count closed lids as disconnected outputs
321 * *2019-10-05* Do not overwrite existing configurations without `--force`
322 * *2019-08-16* Accept modes that don't match the WWWxHHH pattern
323 * *2019-03-22* Improve bash autocompletion
324 * *2019-03-21* Store CRTC values in configurations
325 * *2019-03-24* Fix handling of recently disconnected outputs (See #128 and #143)
329 * *2019-03-18* Removed mandb call from Makefile
333 * *2019-02-17* Add an X11 daemon that runs autorandr when a display connects (by @rliou92, #127)
334 * *2019-02-17* Replace width=0 check with disconnected to detect disconnected monitors (by @joseph-jones, #139)
335 * *2019-02-17* Fix handling of empty padding (by @jschwab, #138)
336 * *2019-02-17* Add a man page (by @somers-all-the-time, #133)
340 * *2018-09-25* Fix FB size computation with rotated screens (by @Janno, #117)
344 * *2018-04-19* Bugfix: Do not load default profile unless --change is set
345 * *2018-04-30* Added a `AUTORANDR_MONITORS` variable to hooks (by @bricewge, #106)
346 * *2018-06-29* Fix detection of current configuration if extra monitors are active
347 * *2018-07-11* Bugfix in the latest change: Correctly handle "off" minitors when comparing
348 * *2018-07-19* Do not kill spawned user processes from systemd unit
349 * *2018-07-20* Correctly handle "off" monitors when comparing -- fixup for another bug.
353 * *2018-01-03* Add --version
354 * *2018-01-04* Fixed vertical/horizontal/clone-largest virtual profiles
355 * *2018-03-07* Output all non-error messages to stdout instead of stderr
356 * *2018-03-25* Add --detected and --current to filter the profile list output
357 * *2018-03-25* Allow wildcard matching in EDIDs
361 * *2017-12-22* Fixed broken virtual profile support
362 * *2017-12-14* Added support for a settings file
363 * *2017-12-14* Added a virtual profile `off`, which disables all screens
367 * *2017-11-13* Add a short form for `--load`
368 * *2017-11-21* Fix environment stealing in `--batch` mode (See #87)
372 * *2017-07-16* Skip `--panning` unless it is required (See #72)
373 * *2017-10-13* Add `clone-largest` virtual profile
377 * *2017-06-07* Call systemctl with `--no-block` from udev rule (See #61)
378 * *2017-01-20* New script hook, `predetect`
379 * *2017-01-18* Accept comments (lines starting with `#`) in config/setup files
383 * *2016-12-07* Tag the current code as version 1.0.0; see github issue #54
384 * *2016-10-03* Install a desktop file to `/etc/xdg/autostart` by default