MARSWM

A modern window manager featuring dynamic tiling (rusty successor to moonwm).

The YAML format is used for configuration with the default file path being ~/.config/marswm/marswm.yaml. You can get the default configuration with marswm print-default-config.

Multi-Monitor Setups and Workspaces

The window manager supports multi-monitor setups, although they are not as well tested as they probably should be for daily usage. Every (non-overlapping) monitor gets its own set of workspaces, which is also exposed as such to other applications like status bars. You can configure the number of the primary monitor and secondary monitors with the primary_workspaces and the secondary_workspaces option respectively.

It is suggested to use a relatively low number of workspaces for secondary monitors as they might clutter your bar otherwise.

Layouts

marswm supports dynamic tiling and takes a lot of inspiration for it from dwm.

Currently the following layouts are supported: * floating - the clients are not automatically tiled in any way and can be freely positioned by the user * stack - other windows are tiled vertically to the right of the main windows * bottom-stack - other windows are tiled horizontally below the main windows * monocle - all window are stacked on top of each other and fill the whole area * deck - other windows are stacked to the right of the main windows on top of each other * dynamic - this one is a little more complicated and is described in more detail down below

You can influence the layout of the windows with different parameters. All of the following options belong in the layout section: * default - specifies the default layout for new workspaces * gap_width - size of the gap between windows and between the windowing area and the screen edge * main_ratio - share of space that the main windows take on the screen * nmain - how many windows the main area contains on a new workspace

Some of these values can be changed at runtime through respective keybindings.

The `dynamic` Layout

As the name suggest the dynamic layout can be used to implement a variety of different layouts. It is configured by these two parameters (also in the layout section of the configuration file): * stack_position - specifies where the stack windows should be placed in relation to the main windows * stack_mode - describes whether the stack windows should be in a split or deck configuration

Theming

You can configure different parts of how marswm looks in the theming section of the configuration file.

These attributes influence the coloring of window borders: * active_color - frame color of currently focused window * inactive_color - frame color of unfocused windows * border_color - color of the inner and outer border around the frame

Note: Although they may look very weird in the output of marswm print-default-config colors can simply be written as hex values (like 0x1a2b3c).

Attributes specifying width are all in pixels: * frame_width - width of the frame (excluding inner and outer borders) * inner_border_width - inner border between the window content and frame * outer_border_width - outer border around the window frame

Keybindings

marswm comes with a set of default key bindings. Call marswm print-default-keybindings to get an overview of them.

In contrast to the other sections of this manual the keybindings are not configured in the default configuration file. Instead they are read from a separate YAML file (usually in ~/.config/marswm/keybindings.yaml). The bindings in that file will overwrite the default bindings. If you wish to just extend the default key bindings by some custom ones you can use the file ~/.config/marswm/keybindings_ext.yaml which will then get merged with the default key bindings.

A key binding entry consists of a list of modifers, the key you want to bind as well as an action to execute as soon as a key is pressed. Here is an example: YAML - modifiers: - Mod4 - Shift key: '1' action: !move-workspace 0