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dwm - dynamic window manager - atego's build

my build my build2

A heavily customized build of dwm, focused on keyboard-driven window management, integrated scripts, DockApps, dynamic theming, and a WindowMaker-inspired desktop mode.

The configuration is designed to provide a complete desktop workflow while retaining dwm's lightweight and configurable architecture.

Overview

This build extends dwm with:

  • Vanity gaps
  • Multiple layouts
  • Multi-monitor support
  • Sticky windows
  • Fullscreen handling
  • Dynamic Xresources/pywal colours
  • dwmblocks statusbar
  • Automatic application rules
  • Custom application keybinds
  • Screenshot and recording utilities
  • Audio and input switching
  • Hardware brightness controls
  • Integrated DockApps
  • Custom startup services
  • Emacs daemon integration
  • MPD and audio-device status monitoring
  • WindowMaker-inspired Maximalist Mode

The configuration is primarily controlled through config.h.

Getting Started

Mod Key

Mod refers to the Super/Windows key.

dwm is primarily operated through keyboard shortcuts. The most important controls are:

Keybind Action
Mod + Enter Open kitty
Mod + P Launch dmenu
Mod + Q Close focused window
Mod + J / K Navigate the window stack
Mod + 1-9 Switch tags
Mod + Shift + J / K Push focused window in stack
Mod + Shift + Space Toggle floating
Mod + F Toggle fullscreen
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + M Toggle Maximalist Mode
Mod + Alt + M Toggle spawn-at-max-size

Window Management

dwm automatically arranges windows according to the active layout.

The default configuration uses a master/stack arrangement with:

  • 55% master area factor
  • 1 master window
  • 20px inner horizontal gap
  • 20px inner vertical gap
  • 20px outer horizontal gap
  • 30px outer vertical gap

Master Area

Keybind Action
Mod + H Decrease master area / previous corner
Mod + L Increase master area / next corner
Mod + Shift + I Increase master window count
Mod + Ctrl + I Decrease master window count
Mod + Ctrl + Space Focus master window

Floating Window Resize

Keybind Action
Mod + Ctrl + Right Expand right edge outward
Mod + Ctrl + Left Shrink right edge back in
Mod + Ctrl + Down Expand bottom edge outward
Mod + Ctrl + Up Shrink bottom edge back in
Mod + Shift + Left Expand left edge outward
Mod + Shift + Right Shrink left edge back in
Mod + Shift + Up Expand top edge outward
Mod + Shift + Down Shrink top edge back in

Window State

Keybind Action
Mod + F Toggle fullscreen
Mod + Shift + Space Toggle floating
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + L Toggle sticky window
Mod + R Toggle shade (notch)
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + F Toggle focus-on-hover

Tags

This configuration provides nine tags.

Keybind Action
Mod + 1-9 View tag
Mod + Ctrl + 1-9 Toggle tag in current view
Mod + Shift + 1-9 Move focused window to tag
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + 1-9 Toggle focused window on tag
Mod + 0 View all tags
Mod + Shift + 0 Move focused window to all tags
Mod + Tab Switch to previously viewed tag

Gaps

Vanity gaps are enabled by default.

Keybind Action
Mod + G Decrease gaps by 3px
Mod + Shift + G Increase gaps by 3px

The default gap configuration is:

Gap Size
Inner horizontal 20px
Inner vertical 20px
Outer horizontal 20px
Outer vertical 30px

Mod + Middle Click on a client resets the default gaps.

Multi-Monitor

Keybind Action
Mod + Alt + H Move window to previous monitor
Mod + Alt + L Move window to next monitor
Mod + Alt + J Focus next monitor
Mod + Alt + K Focus previous monitor

Maximalist Mode

Maximalist Mode is a custom WindowMaker-inspired environment integrated directly into this dwm build.

It is intended to combine dwm's window management with the traditional floating desktop and DockApp workflow associated with WindowMaker.

Keybind Action
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + M Toggle Maximalist Mode
Mod + Shift + M Grow focused window
Mod + Ctrl + M Shrink focused window
Mod + Alt + M Toggle spawn-at-max-size

When enabled, dwm launches:

~/.config/scripts/wm-dock.sh

The script manages the DockApp environment.

DockApps receive dedicated window rules that can provide:

  • Floating behaviour
  • Sticky behaviour
  • Always-below behaviour
  • Focus exclusion
  • Fullscreen exclusion
  • Maximalist-mode exclusion
  • Persistent positioning

Configured DockApps include:

  • wmbatteries
  • wmcpuload
  • wmmemload
  • wmnetload
  • wmclockmon
  • wmtz
  • wmweather+
  • wminfo
  • wmail
  • WMmp

This allows Maximalist Mode to function as a WindowMaker-style desktop environment while retaining dwm as the underlying window manager.

Layouts

The build contains the following layouts:

Layout Function
Tile Standard tiled layout
Floating Floating layout
Monocle Single-window fullscreen layout
Spiral Spiral tiling
Dwindle Dwindle tiling

The direct layout-switching keybinds are currently disabled in config.h.

Applications

Keybind Application / Function
Mod + M opencode (in kitty)
Mod + B Helium browser
Mod + D Discord (concord)
Mod + Shift + D Vesktop
Mod + E Emacs client (large, floating)
Mod + Ctrl + E Emacs Everywhere
Mod + Shift + B System stats (ptui in kitty)
Mod + C Camera preview
Mod + Shift + F Nautilus
Mod + Shift + R Screen recording
Mod + Shift + W Wallpaper picker
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + W OnlyOffice
Mod + T Toggle kitty transparency
Mod + Shift + T Toggle trackpad
Mod + Right Shift Power menu

Audio & Input

Keybind Action
Mod + O Switch audio output
Mod + I Switch audio input
Volume Mute Toggle output mute
Volume Down Decrease volume by 5%
Volume Up Increase volume by 5%
Mic Mute Toggle microphone mute

Audio changes trigger a dwmblocks refresh.

Screenshots & Recording

Keybind Action
Mod + Shift + S Full screenshot
Mod + Ctrl + S Selection screenshot
Mod + F2 Screenshot
Mod + Shift + R Toggle screen recording

Brightness

Key Action
Brightness Up Increase brightness by 1%
Brightness Down Decrease brightness by 1%

Statusbar

The build uses dwmblocks for the statusbar.

Keybind Action
Mod + Ctrl + B Toggle top bar
Mod + Ctrl + T Toggle dwmblocks status text
Mod + Ctrl + X Reload Xresources colours

The colour scheme can be restored dynamically through the configured pywal/Xresources integration.

Gmail

Keybind Action
Mail Open Gmail
Mod + F9 Open Gmail

Mouse Controls

Input Action
Mod + Left Click Move client
Mod + Middle Click Reset gaps
Mod + Right Click Resize client
Middle Click on window title Promote client
Middle Click on root window Toggle bar
Left Click on tag View tag
Right Click on tag Toggle tag
Mod + Left Click on tag Move client to tag
Mod + Right Click on tag Toggle client on tag

System Controls

Keybind Action
Mod + BackSpace Lock screen
Mod + Shift + BackSpace Exit dwm
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + Q Restart/refresh dwm

Startup

The configuration automatically starts and manages the following components:

  • pywal colour restoration
  • Wallpaper restoration
  • picom
  • dwmblocks
  • Theme restoration
  • numlock
  • Dark mode
  • dunst
  • Battery monitoring
  • Emacs daemon
  • MPD player monitoring
  • Audio-device monitoring
  • Microphone monitoring
  • XDG desktop portal

This allows the desktop session to be restored automatically when dwm starts.

Window Rules

Applications can be assigned specific behaviour through the rules[] section of config.h.

Rules can control properties such as:

  • Floating state
  • Monitor assignment
  • Sticky state
  • Focus behaviour
  • Fullscreen behaviour
  • Border behaviour
  • Always-on-top behaviour (.istop — drawn over all windows; when several have it, the newest spawn wins)
  • Maximalist Mode behaviour
  • DockApp behaviour

This build contains dedicated rules for its custom applications, utilities, media applications, Emacs windows, and DockApps.

Configuration

dwm is configured primarily through config.h.

The configuration contains:

  • Appearance settings
  • Fonts
  • Colours
  • Tags
  • Layouts
  • Keybinds
  • Mouse bindings
  • Application commands
  • Window rules
  • Startup applications
  • Maximalist Mode configuration

Changes to config.h require rebuilding dwm. (doing "sudo make clean install")

The custom refresh keybind is:

Mod + Ctrl + Shift + Q

Quick Reference

Keybind Action
Mod + Enter Terminal
Mod + P dmenu
Mod + Q Kill focused window
Mod + Shift + Q Kill unfocused windows
Mod + J / K Navigate windows
Mod + Shift + J / K Move windows in stack
Mod + Tab Previous tag view
Mod + 1-9 Switch tag
Mod + Shift + 1-9 Move window to tag
Mod + Ctrl + 1-9 Toggle tag
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + 1-9 Toggle window on tag
Mod + 0 View all tags
Mod + Shift + 0 Move window to all tags
Mod + H / L Master area size / corner
Mod + Shift + I Increase master count
Mod + Ctrl + I Decrease master count
Mod + Ctrl + Space Focus master
Mod + Shift + Space Toggle floating
Mod + F Fullscreen
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + L Sticky window
Mod + R Toggle shade (notch)
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + F Toggle focus-on-hover
Mod + G Decrease gaps
Mod + Shift + G Increase gaps
Mod + Alt + H / L Move window between monitors
Mod + Alt + J / K Change monitor focus
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + M Maximalist Mode
Mod + Shift + M Grow focused window (maximalist)
Mod + Ctrl + M Shrink focused window (maximalist)
Mod + Alt + M Toggle spawn-at-max-size
Mod + Ctrl + B Toggle bar
Mod + Ctrl + T Toggle status text
Mod + Ctrl + X Reload colours
Mod + BackSpace Lock screen
Mod + Shift + BackSpace Exit dwm
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + Q Restart/refresh dwm

External Files

External files mentioned in config.h will be all placed in a folder called CONFIG This file will mimic my $HOME directory, for ease of acces to the files and no need to look into other dotfiles

Dependencies

Build-time (to compile dwm)

  • A C compiler (cc / gcc / clang)
  • make
  • Development packages for:
    • libX11 — core X11 protocol (Xlib.h)
    • libXinerama — multi-monitor support
    • libXft, fontconfig, FreeType — font rendering
    • libX11-xcb, libxcb, libxcb-res — xcb support / system trays
  • X11 headers under /usr/X11R6/include and /usr/include/freetype2

Runtime libraries

  • libX11
  • libXinerama
  • libXft
  • libxcb, libxcb-res, libX11-xcb
  • fontconfig, FreeType

Companion programs wired into config.h

Core window-manager environment:

  • dmenu — application launcher
  • kitty — default terminal
  • dwmblocks — statusbar
  • picom — compositor
  • dunst — notifications
  • pywal (wal) + xrdb — dynamic colours
  • feh — wallpaper
  • slock — lock screen
  • numlockx, xset, xinput

Audio / media:

  • pactl — volume, mute, mic, sink/source switching (PulseAudio / PipeWire-pulse)
  • brightnessctl — screen brightness
  • mpc + MPD — player-change watcher
  • qmmp — WMmp dockapp bridge

Applications launched via keybinds:

  • opencode
  • helium-browser (also used for the Gmail bind)
  • concord (Discord client)
  • vesktop
  • nautilus
  • onlyoffice-desktopeditors
  • ptui (system stats, run inside kitty)
  • emacs + emacsclient (emacs-everywhere)

Startup / desktop services:

  • xdg-desktop-portal-gtk
  • gsettings (GNOME dark-mode)

DockApps (WindowMaker-style, spawned by ~/.config/scripts/wm-dock.sh in Maximalist Mode):

  • wmbatteries
  • wmcpuload
  • wmmemload
  • wmnetload
  • wmclockmon
  • wmclock
  • wmtz
  • wmweather+
  • wminfo
  • wmail
  • WMmp

External scripts referenced from config.h live in ~/.config/scripts/ (mirrored in the CONFIG/ folder) and pull in their own tooling (screenshot/recording utilities, etc.).

Fonts

  • Iosevka Nerd Font
  • Noto Color Emoji

About

My Personal Dwm Config

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