Dmenu

Infobox_Software
name = dmenu



caption =
developer = Anselm R. Garbe
latest_release_version = 3.7
latest_release_date = 18 June 2008
programming_language = C
operating_system = Unix-like
genre = Application launcher
license = MIT License
website = [http://www.suckless.org/programs/dmenu.html dmenu Page]

dmenu is a keyboard-driven menu utility developed as part of the dwm project. When invoked, usually by a user-configurable key combination, dmenu displays a horizontal menu of its stdin stream at the top edge of the screen. This is usually used to pipe in a list of executable names from the user's $PATH, but dmenu can be used for any purpose where a menu is required. The user can start typing a program name, and dmenu will narrow the list to show only substring matches for what the user typed. The user can also use the arrow keys to navigate the menu. When a choice is made, dmenu sends the selected text to stdout, which is usually piped into a shell to launch the program.

dmenu is similar in function to Mac OS X utilities such as LaunchBar or Quicksilver in that it allows quick launching of programs from a graphical environment using the keyboard.

ee also

Comparison of application launchers