dwm-mitch

This is my version of the dynamic window manager (http://dwm.suckless.org). Get the most current version from https://github.com/mmitch/dwm-mitch Older versions were hosted at http://www.cgarbs.de/dwm-mitch.en.html

dwm-mitch is based on dwm 4.7 from December 2007, so patches from current dwm versions will not apply cleanly, although it is possible to cherry-pick a thing or two without too much hassle.

installation

Use make or make install to install everything. Use make uninstall to remove installed files. Installation probably needs root privileges.

running

After installation, dwm-mitch should show up as an X session type in your login screen.

See the CHEATSHEET for default keybindings.

A running dwm can be restarted by kill -s USR1 $pid_of_dwm. Use this if you have changed your configuration and did a make install to activate your changes without losing your current X session.

configuration

The included file dwm-mitch is a start script that initializes a dmenu-cache, sources your startup script, starts a loop for the status line (showing current time and system load) and runs dwm.

dwm-mitch looks for $HOME/.dwm-startup and, if found, sources and executes it just before starting dwm. This allows you to automatically start some programs after your X session is completely intialized (ssh-agent, session manager etc.) and is useful if your login manager starts dwm-mitch via the dwm-mitch.desktop entry.

If dwm-mitch finds an executable file in $HOME/.dwm-status, it will be run for status line updates instead of the built-in default. To update the status line, change the title of the X root window, e.g. call xsetroot -name $content regularly. See the dwm-mitch script for an example.

The environment variable DMENU_COLORS is used for changing the colors of dmenu on the dwm-choose script. Set it like this: DMENU_COLORS="-fn fixed -nb #336 -nf #ccc -sb #669 -sf #eee"

dmenu uses $HOME/.dmenu-history to save its history. dmenu uses $HOME/.dmenu-cache to cache the list of executables. The list is regenerated with every new dwm session. If you want it to be updated sooner, just delete the cache file. The next dmenu call will regenerate it.

Your personal configuration changes should be kept in a separate branch in your personal dwm-mitch git repository. Edit dwm/config.def.h to your needs and check it into your local branch. Changes to the master branch will might result in merge conflics that you have to clean up, but at least you'll notice that things have changed. My setup does NOT use the dwm/config.h intermediate file like the original dwm.

history

I was a big fan of wmii-2. I liked the dynamic workspaces, but I did not like the tags-approach of wmii-3. Then I came upon dwm, which had all the core functionality of wmii - unluckily of wmii-3 and not of wmii-2. But because dwm is easy to extend, I was able to make dwm behave like my beloved wmii-2.

included dwm patches

add bottom stack layout, written by: Ross Mohn rpmohn@waxandwane.org
add fullscreen layout
add widescreen layout
remove tagging and add dynamic workspaces
allow a different settings (layout, mwidth) on every workspace
remove square boxes in status line
fix display of wide characters
add dwm-mitch patchlevel to dwm version
add dwm reload via SIGUSR1, written by: anydot dfenze@gmail.com, also applied suggestions by: Jukka Salmi j+dwm@2007.salmi.ch
allow different border sizes for floating and non-floating clients
togglemax only works for floating clients, (this allows the same key for zoom and togglemax and it does the right thing[tm] depending on whether the client is floating or not)
add tile layout with stack on the left side
add Xinerama support
read status line from X root window instead of stdin, use xsetroot -name $foo to update
skip keybindings to unknown symbols
move mouse pointer via keyboard across Xinerama screens
switch workspace, layout and window via mousewheel on statusbar
volume control via statusbar text

included dmenu patches

fix display of wide characters
add dmenu-mitch patchlevel to dmenu version

mmitch / dwm-mitch