xmonad: A Tiling Window Manager
xmonad is a tiling window manager for X. Windows are arranged automatically to tile the screen without gaps or overlap, maximising screen use. Window manager features are accessible from the keyboard: a mouse is optional. xmonad is written, configured and extensible in Haskell. Custom layout algorithms, key bindings and other extensions may be written by the user in config files. Layouts are applied dynamically, and different layouts may be used on each workspace. Xinerama is fully supported, allowing windows to be tiled on several physical screens.
Quick Start
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From hackage:
cabal update cabal install xmonad xmonad-contrib
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Alternatively, build from source using the following repositories:
For the full story, read on.
Building
Building is quite straightforward, and requires a basic Haskell toolchain. On many systems xmonad is available as a binary package in your package system (e.g. on Debian or Gentoo). If at all possible, use this in preference to a source build, as the dependency resolution will be simpler.
For tool-specific guides see INSTALL.md.
We'll now walk through the complete list of toolchain dependencies.
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GHC: the Glasgow Haskell Compiler
You first need a Haskell compiler. Your distribution's package system will have binaries of GHC (the Glasgow Haskell Compiler), the compiler we use, so install that first. If your operating system's package system doesn't provide a binary version of GHC and the
cabal-install
tool, you can install both using the Haskell Platform.It shouldn't be necessary to compile GHC from source -- every common system has a pre-build binary version. However, if you want to build from source, the following links will be helpful:
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X11 libraries:
Since you're building an X application, you'll need the C X11 library headers. On many platforms, these come pre-installed. For others, such as Debian, you can get them from your package manager:
# for xmonad $ apt-get install libx11-dev libxinerama-dev libxext-dev libxrandr-dev libxss-dev # for xmonad-contrib $ apt-get install libxft-dev
Then build and install with:
$ cabal install
Running xmonad
If you built XMonad using cabal
then add:
exec $HOME/.cabal/bin/xmonad
to the last line of your .xsession
or .xinitrc
file.
Configuring
There is a full tutorial available in TUTORIAL.md. Additionally, see the CONFIG document, as well as the example configuration file.
XMonadContrib
There are many extensions to xmonad available in the XMonadContrib (xmc) library. Examples include an ion3-like tabbed layout, a prompt/program launcher, and various other useful modules. XMonadContrib is available at:
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Latest release: http://hackage.haskell.org/package/xmonad-contrib
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Git version: https://github.com/xmonad/xmonad-contrib
Other Useful Programs
A nicer xterm replacement, that supports resizing better:
For custom status bars:
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taffybar: https://github.com/travitch/taffybar
For a program dispatch menu:
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XMonad.Prompt.Shell: (from XMonadContrib)
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gmrun: (in your package system)
Authors
- Spencer Janssen
- Don Stewart
- Jason Creighton