- OXWM — DWM but Better (and oxidized)
- Installation
- Configuration
- Contributing
- Key Bindings
- Features
- Testing with Xephyr
- Project Structure
- Architecture Notes
- Current Todo List:
- Development Roadmap
- License
A dynamic window manager written in Rust, inspired by dwm but designed to evolve on its own. Configuration is done in Rust source code, keeping with the suckless philosophy of “edit + recompile.”, but with sane defaults and no arbitrary elitism enforcing bad variable names and bad file structure topology.
Add oxwm to your flake.nix inputs:
{
inputs = {
nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
oxwm.url = "github:tonybanters/oxwm";
oxwm.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
};
outputs = { self, nixpkgs, oxwm, ... }: {
nixosConfigurations.yourhost = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
system = "x86_64-linux";
modules = [
./configuration.nix
oxwm.nixosModules.default
];
};
};
}Add this to your configuration.nix:
{ config, pkgs, ... }:
{
services.xserver = {
enable = true;
windowManager.oxwm.enable = true;
};
# Recommended: Install a display manager
services.xserver.displayManager.lightdm.enable = true;
# Or use another display manager like sddm, gdm, etc.
}After rebuilding your system with sudo nixos-rebuild switch, log in via your display manager.
On first launch, your initial config file will be automatically created and placed in ~/.config/oxwm/config.ron. Edit it and reload with Mod+Shift+R.
If you want to pin or customize the oxwm package:
{
services.xserver.windowManager.oxwm = {
enable = true;
# Use a specific version or build with custom options
package = oxwm.packages.${pkgs.system}.default;
};
}For development, use the provided dev shell:
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/tonybanters/oxwm
cd oxwm
# Enter the development environment
nix develop
# Build and test
cargo build
just testInstall dependencies:
sudo pacman -S rust cargo libx11 libxft freetype2 fontconfig pkg-configgit clone https://github.com/tonybanters/oxwm
cd oxwm
cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/oxwm /usr/local/bin/Or use the justfile:
just installAdd the following to your ~/.xinitrc:
exec oxwmThen start X with:
startxIf using a display manager (LightDM, GDM, SDDM), OXWM should appear in the session list after installation.
OXWM was inspired by dwm, but ditched the suckless philosophy. This philosophy quite literally discourages users from using the software for the sake of ‘elitism’. I find that quite nonsensical, so I went ahead and created this project to be user friendly. The configuration is done by editing ~/.config/oxwm/config.ron and the binary can be reloaded with a hotkey (Super+Shift+R by efault).
Edit ~/.config/oxwm/config.ron to customize:
- Keybindings
- Colors and appearance
- Status bar blocks
- Gaps and borders
- Terminal and applications
After making changes, reload OXWM with Mod+Shift+R
When contributing to OXWM:
- Never commit your personal
~/.config/oxwm/config.ron - Only modify
templates/config.ronif adding new configuration options - Test your changes with
just testusing Xephyr/Xwayland - Document any new features or keybindings
Default keybindings (customizable in config.rs):
| Binding | Action |
|---|---|
| Super+Return | Spawn terminal |
| Super+J/K | Cycle focus down/up |
| Super+Q | Kill focused window |
| Super+Shift+Q | Quit WM |
| Super+Shift+R | Hot reload WM |
| Super+1-9 | View tag 1-9 |
| Super+Shift+1-9 | Move window to tag 1-9 |
| Super+S | Screenshot (maim) |
| Super+D | dmenu launcher |
| Super+A | Toggle gaps |
| Super+Shift+F | Toggle fullscreen |
| Super+Shift+Space | Toggle floating |
- Dynamic tiling layout with master/stack
- Tag-based workspaces (9 tags by default)
- Configurable gaps between windows
- Status bar with modular block system
- Battery, RAM, datetime, shell commands
- Custom colors and update intervals
- Click-to-switch tags
- Window focus cycling
- Hot reload without restarting X
- Persistent window tags across restarts
- Mouse hover to focus
- Border indicators for focused windows
- Fullscreen mode
Test OXWM in a nested X server without affecting your current session:
just testThis starts Xephyr on display :1 and launches OXWM inside it.
Or manually:
Xephyr -screen 1280x800 :1 &
DISPLAY=:1 cargo runsrc/
├── main.rs
│ └── main()
│ └── Creates WindowManager and calls .run()
│
├── window_manager.rs [CORE - X11 event handling]
│ ├── struct WindowManager
│ │ ├── connection: RustConnection [X11 connection]
│ │ ├── windows: Vec<Window> [All managed windows]
│ │ ├── focused_window: Option<Window>
│ │ ├── layout: Box<dyn Layout>
│ │ ├── window_tags: HashMap<Window, TagMask>
│ │ ├── selected_tags: TagMask
│ │ └── bar: Bar [Status bar]
│ │
│ ├── new() [Initialize WM, grab root, restore tags, scan windows]
│ ├── run() [Main event loop with block updates]
│ ├── handle_event() [Route X11 events]
│ │ ├── MapRequest → add window, apply layout, update bar, save tag
│ │ ├── UnmapNotify → remove window, update bar
│ │ ├── DestroyNotify → remove window, update bar
│ │ ├── KeyPress → get action, handle it (includes Restart)
│ │ ├── ButtonPress → handle bar clicks
│ │ └── Expose → redraw bar
│ ├── handle_key_action() [Execute keyboard actions]
│ ├── get_saved_selected_tags() [Restore selected tags from _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP]
│ ├── save_selected_tags() [Persist selected tags to root window]
│ ├── get_saved_tag() [Restore window tag from _NET_CLIENT_INFO]
│ ├── save_client_tag() [Persist window tag to window property]
│ ├── scan_existing_windows() [Manage windows on startup]
│ ├── remove_window() [Remove from Vec, reapply layout]
│ ├── set_focus() [Focus window, update visuals]
│ ├── cycle_focus() [Move focus to next/prev window]
│ ├── view_tag() [Switch to tag/workspace, update visibility]
│ ├── move_to_tag() [Move window to tag]
│ ├── update_bar() [Calculate occupied tags, redraw bar]
│ ├── update_focus_visuals() [Set border colors]
│ ├── update_window_visibility() [Map/unmap windows based on tags]
│ └── apply_layout() [Position all windows below bar]
│
├── config.rs [CONFIGURATION - all settings here]
│ ├── BORDER_WIDTH, BORDER_FOCUSED, BORDER_UNFOCUSED
│ ├── FONT [XFT font string]
│ ├── TAG_COUNT, TAGS [Workspace configuration]
│ ├── TERMINAL, MODKEY
│ ├── ColorScheme [Foreground, background, border colors]
│ ├── SCHEME_NORMAL, SCHEME_OCCUPIED, SCHEME_SELECTED
│ ├── KEYBINDINGS [All keybinds as const array]
│ └── STATUS_BLOCKS [Block configurations with format, command, interval]
│
├── bar/
│ ├── mod.rs [Re-exports: Bar, BlockCommand, BlockConfig]
│ ├── bar.rs
│ │ ├── struct Bar [Status bar window with XFT support]
│ │ ├── new() [Create bar X11 window, load font, init blocks]
│ │ ├── draw() [Render tags + blocks with underlines]
│ │ ├── update_blocks() [Update block content based on intervals]
│ │ ├── handle_click() [Detect which tag was clicked]
│ │ └── invalidate() [Mark bar as needing redraw]
│ ├── font.rs
│ │ ├── struct Font [XFT font wrapper]
│ │ ├── struct FontDraw [XFT drawing context]
│ │ └── draw_text() [Render text with color]
│ └── blocks/
│ ├── mod.rs [Block trait, BlockConfig, BlockCommand enum]
│ ├── battery.rs [Battery status block]
│ ├── datetime.rs [Date/time formatting block]
│ └── shell.rs [Shell command execution block]
│
├── keyboard/
│ ├── mod.rs [Re-exports]
│ ├── keycodes.rs [Key constants: Q, J, RETURN, etc]
│ └── handlers.rs
│ ├── enum KeyAction [Spawn, KillClient, FocusStack, ViewTag, Restart, etc]
│ ├── enum Arg [None, Int, Str, Array]
│ ├── struct Key [Keybinding definition]
│ ├── setup_keybinds() [Register keys with X11]
│ └── handle_key_press() [Parse KeyPressEvent → KeyAction]
│
└── layout/
├── mod.rs [Layout trait definition]
└── tiling.rs
└── TilingLayout::arrange() [Calculate window positions]Tags are implemented as bitmasks (TagMask = u32), allowing windows to belong to multiple tags simultaneously. Each window has an associated TagMask stored in a HashMap. Tags persist across WM restarts using X11 properties (_NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP for selected tags, _NET_CLIENT_INFO for per-window tags).
The bar uses a performance-optimized approach with a modular block system:
- Only redraws when invalidated
- Pre-calculates tag widths on creation
- Blocks update independently based on their configured intervals
- Supports custom colors and underline indicators
- Easily extensible - add new block types in src/bar/blocks/
The tiling layout divides the screen into a master area (left half) and stack area (right half). The master window occupies the full height of the master area, while stack windows split the stack area vertically. Gaps are configurable and can be toggled at runtime.
- [ ] Convert keycodes to keysyms for cross-keyboard compatibility
- Current hardcoded keycodes only work on specific keyboards
- Need to use XKeysymToKeycode() for runtime conversion
- Follow DWM’s approach: keysym → keycode conversion
- [ ] Fix fullscreen to persist across tags
- Fullscreen state should be maintained when switching tags
- Window should remain fullscreen when returning to its tag
- [ ] Add keybindings to increase/decrease window size
- Master area resize (Mod+H / Mod+L)
- Individual window resize for floating windows
- [ ] Fix cursor on hover for bar
- Bar should show pointer cursor on hover
- Indicate clickable tag areas
- [ ] Add guess_terminal() function to default config.rs
- Auto-detect available terminal emulator
- Priority order: st → alacritty → kitty → wezterm → xterm
- Fallback to xterm if none found
- [ ] Create AUR package
- Write PKGBUILD
- Submit to AUR
- Add installation instructions to README
- Multi-monitor support
- Additional layouts (monocle, floating)
- Master area resizing
- Window swapping in layout
- Per-window floating behavior
- Per-program rules (auto-tag assignment, floating rules)
- External bar support (polybar, lemonbar)
- Scratchpad functionality
- Window minimize/restore