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https://github.com/nwg-piotr/nwg-drawer

Application drawer for wlroots-based Wayland compositors
https://github.com/nwg-piotr/nwg-drawer

hyprland sway

Last synced: 10 days ago
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Application drawer for wlroots-based Wayland compositors

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nwg-drawer




This application is a part of the [nwg-shell](https://nwg-piotr.github.io/nwg-shell) project.



**Nwg-drawer** is an application launcher. It's being developed with [sway](https://github.com/swaywm/sway) and 

[Hyprland](https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland) in mind, but should also work with other wlroots-based Wayland 

compositors.



The `nwg-drawer` command displays the application grid. The search entry allows to look for installed applications,

and for files in XDG user directories. The grid view may also be filtered by categories.



You may pin applications by right-clicking them. Pinned items will appear above the application grid. Right-click

a pinned item to unpin it. The pinned items cache is shared with [nwg-menu](https://github.com/nwg-piotr/nwg-menu).



Below the grid there is the **power bar** - a row of buttons to lock the screen, exit the compositor, reboot, suspend 

and power the machine off. For each button to appear, you need to provide a corresponding command. See "Command line 

arguments" below. If the power bar is present, pressing **Tab** will move focus to its first button.



screenshot



To close the window w/o running a program, you may use the `Esc` key, or right-click the window next to the grid.



## Installation



[![Packaging status](https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/nwg-drawer.svg)](https://repology.org/project/nwg-drawer/versions)



### Dependencies



- go

- gtk3

- gtk-layer-shell

- xdg-utils



Optional (recommended):



- thunar

- foot



You may use another file manager and terminal emulator (see command line arguments), but mentioned above have been

confirmed to work well with the program. Also see **Files** below.



### Steps



1. Clone the repository, cd into it.

2. Install necessary golang libraries with `make get`.

3. `make build`

4. `sudo make install`



## Command line arguments



```text

$ nwg-drawer -h

Usage of nwg-drawer:

  -c uint

    	number of Columns (default 6)

  -d	Turn on Debug messages

  -fm string

    	File Manager (default "thunar")

  -fscol uint

    	File Search result COLumns (default 2)

  -fslen int

    	File Search name LENgth Limit (default 80)

  -ft

    	Force Theme for libadwaita apps, by adding 'GTK_THEME=' env var

  -g string

    	GTK theme name

  -i string

    	GTK icon theme name

  -is int

    	Icon Size (default 64)

  -k	set GTK layer shell Keyboard interactivity to 'on-demand' mode

  -lang string

    	force lang, e.g. "en", "pl"

  -mb int

    	Margin Bottom

  -ml int

    	Margin Left

  -mr int

    	Margin Right

  -mt int

    	Margin Top

  -nocats

    	Disable filtering by category

  -nofs

    	Disable file search

  -o string

    	name of the Output to display the drawer on (sway & Hyprland only)

  -ovl

    	use OVerLay layer

  -pbexit string

    	command for the Exit power bar icon

  -pblock string

    	command for the Lock power bar icon

  -pbpoweroff string

    	command for the Poweroff power bar icon

  -pbreboot string

    	command for the Reboot power bar icon

  -pbsize int

    	power bar icon size (default 64)

  -pbsleep string

    	command for the sleep power bar icon

  -r	Leave the program resident in memory

  -s string

    	Styling: css file name (default "drawer.css")

  -spacing uint

    	icon spacing (default 20)

  -term string

    	Terminal emulator (default "foot")

  -v	display Version information

  -wm string

    	use swaymsg exec (with 'sway' argument) or hyprctl dispatch exec (with 'hyprland') to launch programs

  ```



  *NOTE: the `$TERM` environment variable overrides the `-term` argument.*



## Running



You may use the drawer in two ways:



1. Simply run the `nwg-drawer` command, by adding a key binding to your sway config file, e.g.:



```text

bindsym Mod1+F1 exec nwg-drawer

```



2. Run a resident instance on startup, and use the `nwg-drawer` command to show the window, e.g.:



```text

exec_always nwg-drawer -r

bindsym Mod1+F1 exec nwg-drawer

```



The second line does nothing but `pkill -USR1 nwg-drawer`, so you may just use this command instead. Actually

this should be a little bit faster.



Running a resident instance should speed up use of the drawer significantly. Pay attention to the fact, that you

need to `pkill -f nwg-drawer` and reload the compositor to apply any new arguments!



## Logging



In case you encounter an issue, you may need debug messages. If you use the resident instance, you'll see nothing

in the terminal. Please edit your sway config file:



```text

exec nwg-drawer -r -d 2> ~/drawer.log

```



exit sway, launch it again and include the `drawer.log` content in the GitHub issue. Do not use `exec_always` here: it'll destroy the log file content on sway reload.



## Styling



Edit `~/.config/nwg-drawer/drawer.css` to your taste.



## File search



When the search phrase is at least 3 characters long, your XDG user directories are being searched.



Use the **left mouse button** to open a file with the `xdg-open` command. As configuring file associations for it is

PITA, you may override them, by creating the `~/.config/nwg-panel/preferred-apps.json` file with your own definitions.



### Sample `preferred-apps.json` file content



```json

{

  "\\.pdf$": "atril",

  "\\.svg$": "inkscape",

  "\\.(jpg|png|tiff|gif)$": "swayimg",

  "\\.(mp3|ogg|flac|wav|wma)$": "audacious",

  "\\.(avi|mp4|mkv|mov|wav)$": "mpv",

  "\\.(doc|docx|xls|xlsx)$": "libreoffice"

}

```



Use the **right mouse button** to open the file with your file manager (see `-fm` argument). The result depends

on the file manager you use.



- thunar will open the file location

- pcmanfm will open the file with its associated program

- caja won't open anything, except for directories



I've noy yet tried other file managers.



### File search exclusions



You may want to exclude some paths inside your XDG user directories from searching. If so, define exclusions in the

`~/.config/nwg-panel/excluded-dirs` file, e.g. like this:



```text

# exclude all paths containing 'node_modules'

node_modules

```



## Credits



This program uses some great libraries:



- [gotk3](https://github.com/gotk3/gotk3) Copyright (c) 2013-2014 Conformal Systems LLC,

Copyright (c) 2015-2018 gotk3 contributors

- [gotk3-layershell](https://github.com/dlasky/gotk3-layershell) by [@dlasky](https://github.com/dlasky/gotk3-layershell/commits?author=dlasky) - many thanks for writing this software, and for patience with my requests!

- [go-sway](https://github.com/joshuarubin/go-sway) Copyright (c) 2019 Joshua Rubin

- [go-singleinstance](github.com/allan-simon/go-singleinstance) Copyright (c) 2015 Allan Simon

- [logrus](https://github.com/sirupsen/logrus) Copyright (c) 2014 Simon Eskildsen

- [fsnotify](https://github.com/fsnotify/fsnotify) Copyright (c) 2012-2019 fsnotify Authors