slurp(1) General Commands Manual slurp(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

slurp - select a region in a Wayland compositor

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**slurp** \[options...]

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

slurp is a command-line utility to select a region from Wayland compositors which support the layer-shell protocol. It lets the user hold the pointer to select, or click to cancel the selection.

If the standard input is not a TTY or the -r option is used, slurp will read a list of predefined rectangles for quick selection. Each line must be in the form "<x>,<y> <width>x<height> \[label]". The label is optional and can be any string that doesn't contain newlines. It can be accessed using the "%l" sequence in a format string.

If the *Esc* key is pressed, selection is cancelled. If the *Space* key is held, the selection is moved instead of being resized.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

**-h**

Show help message and quit.

**-d**

Display dimensions of selection.

**-b** *color*

Set background color. See **COLORS** for more detail.

**-c** *color*

Set border color. See **COLORS** for more detail.

**-s** *color*

Set selection color. See **COLORS** for more detail.

**-B** *color*

Set color for highlighting predefined rectangles from standard input when not selected.

**-F** *font family*

Set the font family name when displaying the dimensions box. Only useful when combined with the -d option. The available font family names guaranteed to work are the standard generic CSS2 options: serif, sans-serif, monospace, cursive and fantasy. It defaults to the sans-serif family name.

**-w** *weight*

Set border weight.

**-f** *format*

Set format. See **FORMAT** for more detail.

**-p**

Select a single pixel instead of a rectangle. This mode ignores any predefined rectangles read from the standard input.

**-o**

Add predefined rectangles for all outputs, as if provided on standard input. The label will be the name of the output.

**-r**

Require the user to select one of the predefined rectangles. These can come from standard input, if **-o** is used, the rectangles of all display outputs. This option conflicts with **-p**.

**-a** *width*:*height*

Force selections to have the given aspect ratio. This constraint is not applied to the predefined rectangles specified using **-o**.

# [COLORS](#COLORS)

Colors may be specified in #RRGGBB or #RRGGBBAA format. The # is optional.

# [FORMAT](#FORMAT)

Interpreted sequences are:

%x The x-coordinate of the selection

%y The y-coordinate of the selection

%w The width of the selection

%h The height of the selection

%X The x-coordinate of the selection with coordinates relative to the output

containing the top left corner.

%Y The y-coordinate of the selection with coordinates relative to the output

containing the top left corner.

%W The width of the selection cropped to the output containing the top left

corner.

%H The height of the selection cropped to the output containing the top left

corner.

%l Label included with region from stdin

%o The name of the output containing the top left corner, or "<unknown>" if

not known

The default format is "%x,%y %wx%h\\n".

# [KEYBOARD CONTROLS](#KEYBOARD_CONTROLS)

The following keyboard actions can be used during selection:

**Escape** Cancel the selection and exit slurp

**Space** If currently making a selection, while space is held down, move the entire selection rather than change the selection's size as you move the pointer.

**Shift** Experimental. If the **-a** option wasn't specified, then set the aspect ratio to 1:1 while shift is held down, releasing it restores the un-constrained aspect ratio. **Note:** This behavior may change in the future depending on feedback.

# [AUTHORS](#AUTHORS)

Maintained by Simon Ser <contact@emersion.fr>, who is assisted by other open-source contributors. For more information about slurp development, see https://github.com/emersion/slurp.

2026-08-31

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Document: slurp(1) from slurp 1.5.0-r1 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/emersion/slurp