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:
44 * Christophe-Marie Duquesne
51 * Rasmus Wriedt Larsen
63 ## Installation/removal
65 You can use the `autorandr.py` script as a stand-alone binary. If you'd like to
66 install it as a system-wide application, there is a Makefile included that also
67 places some configuration files in appropriate directories such that autorandr
68 is invoked automatically when a monitor is connected or removed, the system
69 wakes up from suspend, or a user logs into an X11 session. Run `make install`
70 as root to install it.
72 If you prefer to have a system wide install managed by your package manager,
75 * Use the [official Arch package](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/any/autorandr/).
76 * Use the [official Debian package](https://packages.debian.org/sid/x11/autorandr) on sid
77 * Use the [ebuild from zugaina](https://gpo.zugaina.org/x11-misc/autorandr) on Gentoo.
79 [nix package](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/modules/services/misc/autorandr.nix)
82 [guix package](https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git/log/gnu/packages/xdisorg.scm?qt=grep&q=autorandr)
84 * Use the [SlackBuild](https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/desktop/autorandr/) on Slackware.
85 * Use the automated nightlies generated by the
86 [openSUSE build service](https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:phillipberndt/autorandr)
87 for various distributions (RPM and DEB based).
88 * Use the [X binary package system](https://wiki.voidlinux.eu/XBPS)' on Void Linux
89 * Build a .deb-file from the source tree using `make deb`.
90 * Build a .rpm-file from the source tree using `make rpm`.
92 We appreciate packaging scripts for other distributions, please file a pull
93 request if you write one.
95 If you prefer `pip` over your package manager, you can install autorandr with:
97 sudo pip install "git+http://github.com/phillipberndt/autorandr#egg=autorandr"
101 sudo pip install autorandr
103 if you prefer to use a stable version.
107 Save your current display configuration and setup with:
109 autorandr --save mobile
111 Connect an additional display, configure your setup and save it:
113 autorandr --save docked
115 Now autorandr can detect which hardware setup is active:
121 To automatically reload your setup:
125 To manually load a profile:
127 $ autorandr --load <profile>
131 $ autorandr <profile>
133 autorandr tries to avoid reloading an identical configuration. To force the
136 $ autorandr --load <profile> --force
138 To prevent a profile from being loaded, place a script call _block_ in its
139 directory. The script is evaluated before the screen setup is inspected, and
140 in case of it returning a value of 0 the profile is skipped. This can be used
141 to query the status of a docking station you are about to leave.
143 If no suitable profile can be identified, the current configuration is kept.
144 To change this behaviour and switch to a fallback configuration, specify
145 `--default <profile>`. The system-wide installation of autorandr by default
146 calls autorandr with a parameter `--default default`. There are three special,
147 virtual configurations called `horizontal`, `vertical` and `common`. They
148 automatically generate a configuration that incorporates all screens
149 connected to the computer. You can symlink `default` to one of these
150 names in your configuration directory to have autorandr use any of them
151 as the default configuration without you having to change the system-wide
154 You can store default values for any option in an INI-file located at
155 `~/.config/autorandr/settings.ini`. In a `config` section, you may place any
156 default values in the form `option-name=option-argument`.
158 A common and effective use of this is to specify default `skip-options`, for
159 instance skipping the `gamma` setting if using
160 [`redshift`](https://github.com/jonls/redshift) as a daemon. To implement
161 the equivalent of `--skip-options gamma`, your `settings.ini` file should look
173 Three more scripts can be placed in the configuration directory
174 (as defined by the [XDG spec](https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html),
175 usually `~/.config/autorandr` or `~/.autorandr` if you have an old installation
176 for user configuration and `/etc/xdg/autorandr` for system wide configuration):
178 - `postswitch` is executed *after* a mode switch has taken place. This can be
179 used to notify window managers or other applications about the switch.
180 - `preswitch` is executed *before* a mode switch takes place.
181 - `postsave` is executed after a profile was stored or altered.
182 - `predetect` is executed before autorandr attempts to run xrandr.
184 These scripts must be executable and can be placed directly in the configuration
185 directory, where they will always be executed, or in the profile subdirectories,
186 where they will only be executed on changes regarding that specific profile.
188 Instead (or in addition) to these scripts, you can also place as many executable
189 files as you like in subdirectories called `script_name.d` (e.g. `postswitch.d`).
191 If a script with the same name occurs multiple times, user configuration
192 takes precedence over system configuration (as specified by the
193 [XDG spec](https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html))
194 and profile configuration over general configuration.
196 As a concrete example, suppose you have the files
198 - `/etc/xdg/autorandr/postswitch`
199 - `~/.config/autorandr/postswitch`
200 - `~/.config/autorandr/postswitch.d/notify-herbstluftwm`
201 - `~/.config/autorandr/docked/postswitch`
203 and switch from `mobile` to `docked`. Then
204 `~/.config/autorandr/docked/postswitch` is executed, since the profile specific
205 configuration takes precedence, and
206 `~/.config/autorandr/postswitch.d/notify-herbstluftwm` is executed, since
207 it has a unique name.
209 If you switch back from `docked` to `mobile`, `~/.config/autorandr/postswitch`
210 is executed instead of the `docked` specific `postswitch`.
212 If you experience issues with xrandr being executed too early after connecting
213 a new monitor, then you can use a `predetect` script to delay the execution.
214 Write e.g. `sleep 1` into that file to make autorandr wait a second before
219 Some of autorandr's state is exposed as environment variables
220 prefixed with `AUTORANDR_`, such as:
221 - `AUTORANDR_CURRENT_PROFILE`
222 - `AUTORANDR_CURRENT_PROFILES`
223 - `AUTORANDR_PROFILE_FOLDER`
224 - `AUTORANDR_MONITORS`
226 with the intention that they can be used within the hook scripts.
228 For instance, you might display which profile has just been activated by
229 including the following in a `postswitch` script:
231 notify-send -i display "Display profile" "$AUTORANDR_CURRENT_PROFILE"
234 The one kink is that during `preswitch`, `AUTORANDR_CURRENT_PROFILE` is
235 reporting the *upcoming* profile rather than the *current* one.
237 ### Wildcard EDID matching
239 The EDID strings in the `~/.config/autorandr/*/setup` files may contain an
240 asterisk to enable wildcard matching: Such EDIDs are matched against connected
241 monitors using the usual file name globbing rules. This can be used to create
242 profiles matching multiple (or any) monitors.
244 ### udev triggers with NVidia cards
246 In order for `udev` to detect `drm` events from the native NVidia driver, the
247 kernel parameter `nvidia-drm.modeset` must be set to 1. For example, add a file
248 `/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-drm-modeset.conf`:
251 options nvidia_drm modeset=1
257 * *2021-12-22* Fix `--match-edid` (see #273)
260 * *2021-12-16* Switch default interpreter to Python 3
261 * *2021-12-16* Add `--list` to list all profiles
262 * *2021-12-16* Add `--cycle` to cycle all detected profiles
263 * *2021-12-16* Store display properties (see #204)
266 * *2020-05-23* Handle empty sys.executable
267 * *2020-06-08* Fix Python 2 compatibility
268 * *2020-10-06* Set group membership of users in batch mode
271 * *2020-05-04* Revert making the launcher the default (fixes #195)
274 * *2020-04-23* Fix hook script execution order to match description from readme
275 * *2020-04-11* Handle negative gamma values (fixes #188)
276 * *2020-04-11* Sort approximate matches in detected profiles by quality of match
277 * *2020-01-31* Handle non-ASCII environment variables (fixes #180)
278 * *2019-12-31* Fix output positioning if the top-left output is not the first
279 * *2019-12-31* Accept negative gamma values (and interpret them as 0)
280 * *2019-12-31* Prefer the X11 launcher over systemd/udev configuration
284 * *2019-11-10* Count closed lids as disconnected outputs
285 * *2019-10-05* Do not overwrite existing configurations without `--force`
286 * *2019-08-16* Accept modes that don't match the WWWxHHH pattern
287 * *2019-03-22* Improve bash autocompletion
288 * *2019-03-21* Store CRTC values in configurations
289 * *2019-03-24* Fix handling of recently disconnected outputs (See #128 and #143)
293 * *2019-03-18* Removed mandb call from Makefile
297 * *2019-02-17* Add an X11 daemon that runs autorandr when a display connects (by @rliou92, #127)
298 * *2019-02-17* Replace width=0 check with disconnected to detect disconnected monitors (by @joseph-jones, #139)
299 * *2019-02-17* Fix handling of empty padding (by @jschwab, #138)
300 * *2019-02-17* Add a man page (by @somers-all-the-time, #133)
304 * *2018-09-25* Fix FB size computation with rotated screens (by @Janno, #117)
308 * *2018-04-19* Bugfix: Do not load default profile unless --change is set
309 * *2018-04-30* Added a `AUTORANDR_MONITORS` variable to hooks (by @bricewge, #106)
310 * *2018-06-29* Fix detection of current configuration if extra monitors are active
311 * *2018-07-11* Bugfix in the latest change: Correctly handle "off" minitors when comparing
312 * *2018-07-19* Do not kill spawned user processes from systemd unit
313 * *2018-07-20* Correctly handle "off" monitors when comparing -- fixup for another bug.
317 * *2018-01-03* Add --version
318 * *2018-01-04* Fixed vertical/horizontal/clone-largest virtual profiles
319 * *2018-03-07* Output all non-error messages to stdout instead of stderr
320 * *2018-03-25* Add --detected and --current to filter the profile list output
321 * *2018-03-25* Allow wildcard matching in EDIDs
325 * *2017-12-22* Fixed broken virtual profile support
326 * *2017-12-14* Added support for a settings file
327 * *2017-12-14* Added a virtual profile `off`, which disables all screens
331 * *2017-11-13* Add a short form for `--load`
332 * *2017-11-21* Fix environment stealing in `--batch` mode (See #87)
336 * *2017-07-16* Skip `--panning` unless it is required (See #72)
337 * *2017-10-13* Add `clone-largest` virtual profile
341 * *2017-06-07* Call systemctl with `--no-block` from udev rule (See #61)
342 * *2017-01-20* New script hook, `predetect`
343 * *2017-01-18* Accept comments (lines starting with `#`) in config/setup files
347 * *2016-12-07* Tag the current code as version 1.0.0; see github issue #54
348 * *2016-10-03* Install a desktop file to `/etc/xdg/autostart` by default