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Minimal X-window-manager with only one task. Open every window maximized. Zero configuration.

Description

xswm is a stacking and non-reparenting window-manager for X and has only one task. Open every window maximized. Zero configuration required. Due to its limited scope it is very minimal and performant (~340 SLOC). No built-in hotkeys, statusbar, tags, etc. Just a window-manager. Tries to be ICCCM and EWMH compliant insofar it is necessary to make applications and windows work properly.

Installation

make install

Configuration

There is no configuration. xswm opens every window maximized and that's that. Besides that the shell-script $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xswm/autostart.sh can be used to autostart programs. To extend its capabilities use xswm in combination with other programs. The minimum recommendations to make xswm usable are:

  • Hotkey-Daemon like sxhkd
  • Application-Launcher like dmenu
  • Window-Switcher like alttab

Other useful programs might be:

  • xhidecursor to hide the cursor when typing and unhide it when moving the mouse

No status-bar, multi-monitor or -desktop support.

Remote-Control

xswm can be remotely controlled with xswm <cmd>. Currently only two commands are supported:

  • xswm delete to close focused window
  • xswm last to focus the last window

To quit send the SIGTERM signal with pkill xswm. xswm will catch the signal and exit gracefully.