icewm-keys(5) | man

The keys file defines global keybindings to launch applications. A keybinding has three parts: the word key, a double-quoted string with an X11 key combination and a program with its arguments. These are separated by one or more spaces. Empty lines are allowed. Comment lines start with a hash.
For example, the following defines a hotkey to restart icewm:
See the output of xmodmap -pk for a list of the many keystroke names you can use in icewm key definitions. Since IceWM version 3.4.0, bindings can not only be defined by their keystroke name, but also by their key label. In addition, the shifted key is now definable as well. For example, the key with + and = can be bound in either of the following four ways, which are identical:
To bind the mouse, use Pointer_Button1 for button 1, and so on. This only works when the mouse is over the root window. See below for examples.
Sometimes you may want to start an application just once. For this, use the runonce keyword, which accepts an additional resource argument.
The command icesh keys instructs icewm to reload this file.
The syntax of the keys file is as follows:
The word key begins the definition of a keybinding.
A combination of modifiers and a key, like Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Valid modifiers are Alt, AltGr, Ctrl, Hyper, Meta, Shift, Super. Each modifier must be followed by a single plus-sign. The key is either a keystroke name or a key label. Instead of a key, mouse pointer buttons can be specified by Pointer_Button1 and up, like Shift+Pointer_Button3.
program is the name of the executable or its path. It may start with a tilde or an environment variable, which will be expanded. The options are passed as arguments to the program.
Is an alternative to key. Its syntax is:
Here wmclass is the resource name and/or class. The class must be prefixed by a dot. The program is only run when no other application window with the same wmclass exists. Icewm ignores key repeat events for this hotkey.
Is an alternative to key. In this case the program must print on standard output the definition of a dynamic icewm-menu(1). This menu will presented as a popup menu.
To include a double quote literally, as part of your program arguments, escape it with a backslash. A double-quoted string can be continued on the next line using a backslash-newline, but this is unnecessary as lines can be of arbitrary length.
Following is the example keys file that ships with icewm(1):
Following shows how to add mouse button bindings on the root window to change the current workspace rolling the mouse wheel on the desktop:
These are key bindings for single window tile operations to replace the KeyWinArrange key bindings from the preferences file:
Locations for the keys file are as follows:
The locations are searched in the order listed; the first file found is read and the remainder ignored.
IceWM is licensed under the GNU Library General Public License. See the COPYING file in the distribution.