zuranthus / zwm

A minimal tiling window manager for Linux written in Zig

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Zwm is a dwm-inspired minimal tiling window manager for X implemented in Zig programming language.

My main goals for creating Zwm are learning Zig and implementing a minimal window manager for personal use that is easier to hack than dwm. Both goals are work in progress :)

Current state

• Basic tiling layout
• Workspaces (tags)
• Focus and window management commands
• Spawn process command
• Customizable config file
• Hot reloading with persisted state (requires a script)
• Support for external status bar, like Polybar
• Floating windows
• Fullscreen windows
• ICCCM and EWMH support
• "Urgency"/"Demands attention" window state
• Multi-monitor support
• Support for adding new layouts
• More built-in layouts: fullscreen, 3-column, ...
• Iron out issues with focus, window management, and general UX

Installation

You will need at least git and zig installed.

git clone https://github.com/zuranthus/zwm.git
cd zwm
sudo zig build install -p /usr/local

Configuration

Modify src/config.zig before building and installing.

Usage

The easiest way is to start zwm with startx by adding exec zwm to ~/.xinitrc.

Hot Reloading

It is possible to restart zwm while keeping windows and their workspace distribution intact. This makes updating zwm binary a quick and painless process.

Enabling hot reloading is easy: use the following script in ~/.xinitrc instead of a simple exec zwm

while :
do
  zwm
  [[ $? == 42 ]] || break;
done

Now if you build and install a new zwm build, restart zwm with Mod + Shift + Q (configurable in src/config.zig). Voilà: you are running the new build and all windows are alive and in their workspaces.