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https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm

A small dynamic tiling window manager for X11.
https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm

Last synced: 5 days ago
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A small dynamic tiling window manager for X11.

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README 

        
spectrwm

========



spectrwm is a small, dynamic tiling and reparenting window manager for X11. It

tries to stay out of the way so that valuable screen real estate can be used

for much more important stuff. It has sane defaults, and it does not require one to

learn a language to do any configuration. spectrwm is written by hackers for hackers,

and it strives to be small, compact, and fast.



spectrwm was largely inspired by [xmonad](http://xmonad.org) and

[dwm](http://dwm.suckless.org). Both are fine products, but they suffer from things

like: crazy-unportable-language syndrome, silly defaults, asymmetrical window

layout, the 'how hard can it be?' (to code efficiently) problem, and good old NIH.  Nevertheless,

[dwm](http://dwm.suckless.org) was a phenomenal resource, and good ideas

and code were borrowed from it. On the other hand, [xmonad](http://xmonad.org)

has great defaults and key bindings, plus xinerama support, but it is crippled by not

being written in C.



spectrwm is a beautiful pearl! For it, too, was created by grinding irritation.

Nothing is a bigger waste of time either than moving windows around until they are the

right size-ish or having just about any relevant key combination be eaten

by some task one never performs. The path of agony is too long to quote, and, in

classic [OpenBSD](http://www.openbsd.org) fashion (put up, or hack up), a

brand new window manager was whooped up to serve no other purpose than to obey

its masters.



spectrwm is released under the ISC license. Patches can be accepted, provided that they are also licensed with ISC.



## Building and installation

[Click here for current installation guide](https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm/wiki/Installation)



## Feedback and questions

You can and come chat with us on IRC. We use the [OFTC](https://www.oftc.net)

channel #spectrwm.



## Major features

* Dynamic RandR support (multi-head)

* Navigation anywhere on all screens with either the keyboard or mouse

* Customizable status bar

* Human readable configuration file

* Restartable without losing state

* Quick launch menu

* Many screen layouts possible with a few simple key strokes

* Windows can be added or removed from master area

* Windows can be moved to any workspace or within a region

* Resizable master area

* Move/resize floating windows

* Drag-to-float

* Extended Window Manager Hints (EWMH) Support

* Configureable tiling

* Adjustable tile gap allows for a true one pixel border.

* Customizable colors and border width.

* User definable regions

* User definable modkey & key bindings

* User definable quirk bindings

* User definable key bindings to launch applications

* Multi OS support (\*BSD, Linux, OSX, Windows/cygwin)

* Reparenting window manager



## Documentation

[Click here for current man page](https://htmlpreview.github.io/?https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm/blob/master/spectrwm.html)



## License



spectrwm is ISC licensed unless otherwise specified in individual files.



## Screenshots

![Vertical stack](https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm/wiki/Scrotwm1.png)



![Horizontal stack](https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm/wiki/Scrotwm2.png)



![Horizontal stack](https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm/wiki/Scrotwm3.png)



![Vertical stack with floater and extra window in master area](https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm/wiki/Scrotwm4.png)



![mplayer, resized and moved](https://github.com/conformal/spectrwm/wiki/Scrotwm5.png)