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 key bindings.

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).

To show a window's title at the top of its frame use these settings: * show_title - a boolean value determining whether the title is shown or not * font - the font that is used for drawing the title

Attributes specifying width are all in pixels: * frame_width - tuple describing the width of the frame on each side (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 * title_vpadding - vertical padding for title * title_hpadding - horizontal padding for title

There is also a sub-section for the border configuration of windows that usually don't want to be decorated. It is part of the general theming section and is called no_decoration. The values frame_width, inner_border_width and outer_border_width are available and work the same as with normal windows.

Key Bindings

marswm comes with a set of default key bindings. Call marswm print-default-keys 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

The actions are sadly not documented yet, but you can take a look at the source code.

Button Bindings

Button actions can be configured similarly to key bindings in the files ~/.config/marswm/buttonbindings.yaml and ~/.config/marswm/buttonbindings_ext.yaml respectively. marswm print-default-buttons tells you the button bindings installed by default.

The targets field specifies which window areas should be used for the button event. Possible values are window, frame and root. The actions are the same as used for key bindings.

Here is an example: YAML - modifiers: [Mod4, Shift] button: 2 targets: [WindowFrame, ClientWindow] action: close-client

Window Rules

It is possible to configure the state of newly mapped windows with window rules. The file ~/.config/marswm/rules.yaml may contain a list of such rules. The rules consist of an identifier part as well as configuration options and a list of actions to apply on matching windows.

For example: YAML - identifiers: application: 'thunderbird' actions: [ !move-workspace 5 ]

Identifiers:

Configuration Options: