ntwm v1.2.6

A tiny, frameless, keyboard-driven tiling window manager with multimonitor support.

ntwm was written from scratch using Xlib and was inspired by dwm, 2bwm, and other minimal window managers.

Screenshot

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Size Comparison

All of the following window managers have multimonitor support.

ntwm	19kb
2bwm	36kb
dwm	46kb
i3	343kb

(Note: these values are approximate and may be subject to change)

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Compiling, Running, Debugging, and Installing

Prerequisites:

libX11, libXrandr
gcc, make

gcc is not necessarily required (tcc or clang can take its place)

To Compile:

$ make

Or:

$ make debug

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To Test (requires Xephyr and xinit):

$ ./xephyr/run.sh

Or (requires gdb and xterm in addition to Xephyr and xinit):

$ ./xephyr/run_debug.sh

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To Install:

$ sudo make install

To Uninstall:

$ sudo make uninstall

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Using ntwm

Without a Display Manager

If not using a login/display manager, simply put

ntwm

into your ~/.xinitrc and start X using startx or xinit.

With a Display Manager (such as LightDM)

First, add an X session by putting this:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=ntwm
Comment=A tiny, frameless, grid-tiling window manager with multimonitor support, written in plain C.
Exec=ntwm
TryExec=ntwm
Type=Application

into /usr/share/xsessions/ntwm.desktop.

If your greeter has no option to change the default X session (i.e. not the GTK greeter) edit the XSession line in /var/lib/AccountsService/users/[username] to read:

XSession=ntwm

(Note: these instructions have only been tested with LightDM)

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Default Keybinds

Note: The default modifier key is Alt

Key Combination	Action
Mod+Shift+E	Exit ntwm
Mod+Enter	Start terminal
Mod+Shift+Q	Kill focused window
Mod+F	Toggle gaps
Mod+Shift+F	Toggle fullscreen
Mod+Shift+Right	Move window to next monitor
Mod+Shift+Left	Move window to previous monitor
Mod+O	Next tiling mode
Mod+Right	Focus next window
Mod+Left	Focus previous window
Mod+U	Reset tiling (for "ghost windows")

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Configuration

All configuration is done through config/config.h, and provided options should be relatively self-explanatory.

Autostart

ntwm supports running any shell command or script at startup through the autostartcmd variable in config.h.

Tiling Modes

By default, ntwm supports the following tiling modes (with more coming):

• Grid

• Dualstack

• Fibonacci

• Bottomstack

To edit the order in which these modes are selected, adjust the modes variable in config.h.

However, if you'd like to shrink the size of the output binary, you may remove support for additional modes by removing the corresponding ENABLE_* preprocessor definition.

Logging

To further decrease filesize, ntwm supports compilation without stdio.h, resulting in a save of approximately 4kb. To enable this, define LOGGING_NO_STDIO in config.h.

Memory Usage

With v1.2.6, ntwm now supports user-configurable memory usage through the MAX_MONITORS, MAX_WINDOWS, and MAX_BARS directives - ensuring ntwm will use exactly the amount of memory required to hold the given amounts of each.

Tune these to your system, but ensure they are not overly constraining - exceeding them will invoke unwanted behavior.

Towards an Even Smaller Binary

In no particular order:

• Run sstrip (19kb -> 17kb)
• Compile with musl or dietlibc (requires Xlib and any other userland X applications to be compiled from source)
• Compile a 32-bit binary (requires 32-bit Xlib)

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Changelog

v1.2.6

• Replace linked list implementation with libspool.h, increasing filesize but treating memory more responsibly and executing more quickly
• Allow for the disabling of certain tiling modes, decreasing filesize
• Fix monitor movement functionality

v1.2.5

• Add support for two types of client message (NET_WM_STATE_ABOVE and NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN) with more to come
• Add global "above" window which supersedes per-monitor fullscreen
• Move from -O3 optimization to -Os by default
• Remove several unused dependencies, add option to compile without stdio.h
• Move all Xlib utility functions into x.h
• Move files into appropriate folders, cleaning up the appearance of the repository
• Add above_enabled check to avoid X error
• Add support for logging without stdio.h (error messages are somewhat less specific, but still useful)

v1.2.0

• Add support for pre-mapped windows being tiled, thereby greatly improving the reset command
• Fix signal trapping
• Replace blocking XNextEvent with non-blocking XCheckMaskEvent
• Fix multihead support by explicitly checking for screenchange events (while remaining non-blocking)
• Fix minor memory leaks
• Fix high CPU usage (ironically caused by use of XCheckMaskEvent)
• Fix reset command

v1.1.2

• Fix ghost windows (such as in gimp)
• Fix some dialogs not taking focus (chromium)
• Fix GTK dialogs not centering
• Fix newly-opened GTK windows not tiling correctly
• Add Mod+left/right keybinds to change focus without the mouse
• Add DIALOG_RATIO directive in config.h, allow for changes to the size of a dialog on the screen
• Add -ansi and -pedantic compiler flags, modify code accordingly
• Add reset command in config, fix bars being ignored after reset

v1.1.1

• Add (legitimate) bar support
• Add (partial) support for splash screens and dialogs
• Set _NET_WM_NAME atom (meaning neofetch no longer displays ntwm as a de)

v1.1.0

• Add "nwin" and "pwin" commands in config.h (for cycling through windows)
• Add bottomstack tiling mode
• Add support for changing the tiling mode only on the currently focused monitor
• Add BAR_HEIGHT directive in config.h
• Add comments
• Move from -Os to -O3 optimization (makes very little difference)
• Remove unnecessary pkg-config dependency
• Replace which calls with executable paths in Makefile
• Add (impressively mediocre) logo

v1.0.1

• Add support for switching tiling modes on-the-fly
• Allow for windows to be moved from monitor to monitor (cursor follows)
• Fix toggleable gaps and fullscreen
• Rewrite linked list functions, removing unnecessary loops and fixing infinite loop after opening and closing windows rapidly
• Add support for Xlib atoms, meaning windows closed with Alt+Shift+Q are killed rather than simply unmapped
• Set cursor
• Add dualstack and fibonacci tiling modes
• Add signal trapping
• Add install and uninstall targets in Makefile
• Remove tmux from debug environment
• Add license (GPL v2)

v1.0.0

• Massively improve stability, especially on multimonitor systems
• Fix invalid pointer error on exit
• Consolidate (and refactor) linked list implementations
• Improve logging utilities
• Add support for changing the Xrandr configuration on-the-fly (screenchange events)
• Remove xcb dependency, replace with a pure-Xlib/Xrandr solution
• Fix xephyr testing/debugging environments

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To-Do

• Clean up tiling functionality
• Fix support for dual bars
• Fix incongruency between client-toggled and window manager-wide fullscreen
• Add more robust error handling/checking
• Consolidate header files
• Remove use of Xlib keysyms

What Will (Likely) Never be Implemented

• Workspaces
• Full/more complete EWMH/ICCCM support
• Floating mode