sxiv: Simple (or small or suckless) X Image Viewer

sxiv is a really simple alternative to feh and qiv. Its only dependency besides xlib is imlib2. The primary goal for writing sxiv is to create an image viewer, which only implements the most basic features required for fast image viewing. It works nicely with tiling window managers and its code base should be kept small and clean to make it easy for you to dig into it and customize it for your needs.

Installation

sxiv is built using the commands:

$ make
# make install

Please note, that the latter one requires root privileges. By default, sxiv is installed using the prefix “/usr/local”, so the full path of the executable will be “/usr/local/bin/sxiv”.

You can install it into a directory of your choice by changing the second command to:

# PREFIX="/your/dir" make install

All build-time specific settings can be found in the file “config.h”. Please check and change them, so that they fit your needs.

Usage

sxiv has two modes of operation: image and thumbnail mode. The default is image mode, in which only the current image is shown. In thumbnail mode a grid of small previews is displayed, making it easy to choose an image to open.

sxiv supports the following command-line options:

-a           Display all given files, do not filter out unsupported files
             (shorter startup time for long file list or slow file types)
-d           Scale all images to 100%, but fit large images into window
-F           Use size-hints to make the window fixed/floating
-f           Start in fullscreen mode
-g GEOMETRY  Set window position and size
             (see section GEOMETRY SPECIFICATIONS of X(7))
-p           Pixelize, i.e. turn off image anti-aliasing
-q           Be quiet, disable warnings
-r           Search given directories recursively for images
-s           Scale all images to fit into window
-t           Start in thumbnail mode
-v           Print version information and exit
-Z           Same as `-z 100'
-z ZOOM      Scale all images to current zoom level, use ZOOM at startup

The following key mappings are available; differences between image view and thumbnail mode are denoted via brackets:

q            Quit sxiv
Return       Switch to thumbnail mode [open selected image]

n,Space      Go to the next image
p,Backspace  Go to the previous image
g/G          Go to [select] first/last image
[/]          Go 10 images backward/forward

+,=          Zoom in
-            Zoom out
0            Set zoom level to 100%
w            Fit image into window

h,j,k,l      Pan image [move selection] left/down/up/right
             (also with arrow keys)

<,>          Rotate image (counter-)clockwise by 90 degrees

W            Resize window to fit image
f            Toggle fullscreen mode (requires an EWMH/NetWM compliant
             window manager)

a            Toggle anti-aliasing
A            Toggle visibility of alpha-channel, i.e. transparency
D            Remove image from file list and go to [select] next image
r            Reload image

Additionally, the following mouse mappings are available:

Button1           Go to the next image
                  [select image/open image if it is already selected]
Button2           Drag image with mouse while keeping it pressed
Button3           Go to the previous image
ScrollUp          Pan image up [scroll up one thumbnail row]
ScrollDown        Pan image down [scroll down one thumbnail row]
Shift+ScrollUp    Pan image left
Shift+ScrollDown  Pan image right
Ctrl+ScrollUp     Zoom in
Ctrl+ScrollDown   Zoom out