.TH sxwm 1 "June 2025" "sxwm 1.6" "User Commands" .SH NAME sxwm \- minimal, fast, and configurable tiling window manager for X11 .SH SYNOPSIS .B sxwm [\fIOPTION\fR] .SH DESCRIPTION sxwm is a lightweight and efficient tiling window manager for X11, designed to be fast, minimal, and easy to configure. It supports workspaces, floating windows, mouse operations, and dynamic configuration reloading. .SH FEATURES Tiling and floating layouts. Nine workspaces with full bar support. Live configuration reload without restart. Human-friendly configuration file requiring no recompilation. DWM-style master-stack layout. Mouse support for moving, resizing, and swapping windows. Depends only on libX11, Xinerama, and XCursor. Extremely lightweight (single C file). Multi-monitor support via Xinerama. Works well with external bars such as sxbar. Zero dependencies beyond X11 libraries. Fast and low resource usage. .SH LAUNCH ARGUMENTS .TP .B \-v, \-\-version Displays current sxwm version .TP .B \-b, \-\-backup Uses default config along side the custom sxwmrc .SH CONFIGURATION The configuration file is located at .B ~/.config/sxwmrc It uses a simple key : value format. Lines starting with `#` are treated as comments. General options include: .TP .B mod_key Sets the primary modifier key ("alt", "super", or "ctrl"). Default is "super". .TP .B gaps Pixels between windows and screen edges. Default is 10. .TP .B border_width Thickness of window borders in pixels. Default is 1. .TP .B focused_border_colour Border color for the focused window. Default is "#c0cbff". .TP .B unfocused_border_colour Border color for unfocused windows. Default is "#555555". .TP .B swap_border_colour Border color highlight when selecting a window to swap with. Default is "#fff4c0". .TP .B master_width Percentage of screen width allocated to the master window. Default is 60. .TP .B resize_master_amount Percentage to increase or decrease master width when resizing. Default is 1. .TP .B resize_stack_amount How many pixels to increase/decrease stack windows by. Default is 20. .TP .B snap_distance Pixels from screen edge before a floating window snaps to the edge. Default is 5. .TP .B motion_throttle Target updates per second for mouse drag operations (move, resize, swap). Default is 60. .TP .B should_float Lets you change which windows should float by default when opening them. Multiple entries should be comma-separated. Optionally, entries can be enclosed in quotes. Default is "st". .TP .B new_win_focus Whether newly opened windows should automatically gain focus. Default is true. .TP .B warp_cursor If true, warps the mouse cursor to the center of newly focused windows. Default is true. .TP .B exec Command to run on startup (e.g., "sxbar", "picom", "autostart", etc.). .TP .B can_swallow Windows that can swallow other windows. Default is "st". .TP .B can_be_swallowed Windows that can be swallowed by others. Default is "mpv". .SH KEYBINDINGS Keybindings associate key combinations with actions, either running external commands or internal sxwm functions. They follow this syntax: .TP .B bind : modifier + modifier + ... + key : action Modifiers can be mod, shift, ctrl, alt, or super. The key is the final key name (e.g., Return, q, 1, equal, space). Actions can be either a quoted external command or an internal function name. .TP .B workspace : modifier + modifier + ... + key : move n .TP .B workspace : modifier + modifier + ... + key : swap n For workspace switching and moving windows. n is the workspace number (1-9). Example bindings: .TP .B bind : mod + Return : "st" Open the st terminal. .TP .B bind : mod + shift + q : close_window Close any window that is selected. .TP .B workspace : mod + 3 : move 3 Go to workspace 3. .TP .B workspace : mod + shift + 5 : swap 5 Move selected window to workspace 5. .SH AVAILABLE FUNCTIONS The following internal functions are available for keybindings: .TP .B close_window Closes the currently focused window. .TP .B decrease_gaps Decreases the gap size between windows. .TP .B focus_next Shifts focus to the next window in the stack. .TP .B focus_previous Shifts focus to the previous window in the stack. .TP .B focus_next_mon Switches focus to the next monitor. .TP .B focus_prev_mon Switches focus to the previous monitor. .TP .B move_next_mon Moves the focused window to the next monitor. .TP .B move_prev_mon Moves the focused window to the previous monitor. .TP .B increase_gaps Increases the gap size between windows. .TP .B master_next Moves the focused window down the master/stack order. .TP .B master_prev Moves the focused window up the master/stack order. .TP .B quit Exits sxwm. .TP .B reload_config Reloads the sxwmrc configuration file. .TP .B master_increase Increases the width allocated to the master area. .TP .B master_decrease Decreases the width allocated to the master area. .TP .B stack_increase Increases the height of stack window. .TP .B stack_decrease Decreases the height of stack window. .TP .B toggle_floating Toggles the floating state of the focused window. .TP .B global_floating Toggles the floating state for all windows on the current workspace. .TP .B fullscreen Toggles fullscreen mode for the focused window. .TP .B focus_next_mon Switches focus to the next monitor. .TP .B focus_prev_mon Switches focus to the previous monitor. .TP .B move_next_mon Moves the focused window to the next monitor. .TP .B move_prev_mon Moves the focused window to the previous monitor. .TP .B change_ws1 ... change_ws9 Switches focus to the specified workspace (1 to 9). .TP .B moveto_ws1 ... moveto_ws9 Moves the focused window to the specified workspace (1 to 9). .SH DEFAULT KEYBINDINGS Window Management: .TP .B Mouse Click Focus window under cursor. .TP .B MOD + Left Mouse Move window with mouse. .TP .B MOD + Right Mouse Resize window with mouse. .TP .B MOD + Return Launch terminal (default: st). .TP .B MOD + b Launch browser (default: firefox). .TP .B MOD + p Run launcher (default: dmenu_run). .TP .B MOD + Shift + q Close focused window. .TP .B MOD + Shift + e Quit sxwm. .TP .B MOD + r Reload configuration. .TP .B MOD + 1 to 9 Switch to workspace 1 through 9. .TP .B MOD + Shift + 1 to 9 Move focused window to workspace 1 through 9. .TP .B MOD + j / k Focus next or previous window. .TP .B MOD + Shift + j / k Move window up or down in the master stack. .TP .B MOD + h / l Resize master area (decrease/increase). .TP .B MOD + Ctrl + h / l Resize stack area (decrease/increase). .TP .B MOD + Space Toggle floating mode for focused window. .TP .B MOD + Shift + Space Toggle floating mode for all windows. .TP .B MOD + = / - Increase or decrease gaps. .TP .B MOD + Shift + f Toggle fullscreen mode. .TP .B MOD + . / , Focus next/previous monitor. .TP .B MOD + Shift + . / , Move focused window to next/previous monitor. .SH DEPENDENCIES sxwm requires the following libraries: .TP .B libX11 Xorg client library .TP .B libXinerama Multi-monitor support .TP .B libXcursor Cursor support .TP .B GCC or Clang & Make For building from source .SH FILES Configuration file: .B ~/.config/sxwmrc .SH EXAMPLES Example configuration snippets: .RS .nf # Set gaps and borders gaps : 15 border_width : 2 focused_border_colour : "#ff6b6b" # Custom keybindings bind : mod + Return : "alacritty" bind : mod + d : "rofi -show drun" # Workspace switching workspace : mod + 1 : move 1 workspace : mod + shift + 1 : swap 1 # Window swallowing can_swallow : Alacritty can_be_swallowed : sxiv, mpv, zathura .fi .RE .SH AUTHOR Written by Abhinav Prasai (uint23), 2025. .SH SEE ALSO sxbar(1), dmenu(1), st(1), X(7) .SH LICENSE MIT License. See the LICENSE file for full details. .SH BUGS Report bugs at: https://github.com/uint23/sxwm/issues .SH INSPIRATION sxwm draws inspiration from dwm, i3, sowm, and tinywm.