A small, fast tiling window manager for X11, grown out of Nick Welch's TinyWM. It keeps TinyWM's spirit: one C file, plain Xlib, no runtime configuration, nothing running while you aren't interacting with it. On top of that it adds what you need for daily use: master/stack tiling, workspaces, multiple monitors and the common EWMH/ICCCM hints.

It has no bar, no compositor, no animations and no config parser. Configuration is a C header compiled into the binary, as in dwm.

^{Default config, three xterms. The whole window manager uses 3.5 MB of RAM and 0% CPU while idle.}

^{New windows tile automatically. Then: moving focus and swapping windows, resizing the master area, monocle layout, floating a window and dragging it with Super, fullscreen, and switching to workspace 2 (twmx rebuilds in under half a second) and back.}

• Tiling: master/stack layout (dwm-style) and monocle, with configurable gaps.
• Floating: toggle per window. Dialogs, utility/splash/toolbar windows, transients and fixed-size windows float automatically. Window rules match on WM_CLASS.
• Fullscreen: via keybinding or _NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN requests (videos, browsers, games).
• Workspaces: 9 by default. Each monitor shows one workspace.
• Multi-monitor: XRandR 1.5 monitors. Hot-plugging is handled through RandR events; nothing is polled. Connected monitors retain their workspace and workspace history when reordered or resized, matched by RandR name. Newly connected monitors receive an unused workspace.
• Focus: focus-follows-mouse (TinyWM's original behaviour) or click-to-focus. Clicks that focus a window are passed through to it.
• Mouse: Super+drag to move, Super+right-drag to resize (TinyWM's original bindings, now on Super).
• External panels: windows of type _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK (polybar, lemonbar, …) are left alone, and their _NET_WM_STRUT(_PARTIAL) is reserved.
• EWMH: _NET_SUPPORTED, _NET_SUPPORTING_WM_CHECK, _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW, _NET_CLIENT_LIST, _NET_NUMBER_OF_DESKTOPS, _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP, _NET_DESKTOP_NAMES, _NET_WM_DESKTOP, _NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN, _NET_CLOSE_WINDOW, _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE, _NET_WM_STRUT(_PARTIAL).
• ICCCM: WM_DELETE_WINDOW, WM_TAKE_FOCUS, WM_HINTS input, WM_NORMAL_HINTS min/max size, WM_TRANSIENT_FOR, WM_STATE.

Build time:

• A C99 compiler (gcc, clang, tcc)
• make
• Xlib and XRandR headers: libx11, libxrandr (Arch); libx11-dev, libxrandr-dev (Debian/Ubuntu); libX11-devel, libXrandr-devel (Fedora)
• pkg-config (optional; falls back to /usr/X11R6)
• curl or wget (only for install.sh and twmx-update)

Run time:

• libX11, libXrandr
• xterm and dmenu for the default terminal and launcher (both configurable)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/arcbaseproject/twmx/master/install.sh | sh

or, from a checkout, sh install.sh (this also carries over your config.h). The installer:

• offers to install missing build dependencies with your package manager (pacman, apt, dnf, zypper, xbps)
• downloads the source from raw.githubusercontent.com into ~/.local/src/twmx, builds it, and installs twmx and twmx-update into ~/.local/bin, without root and without git
• enables a daily auto-update through a systemd user timer, or cron if there is no systemd

Options: --system installs to /usr/local with the source in /usr/local/src/twmx, a root timer, and a display manager session entry; run it with sudo. --no-auto-update skips the timer, --uninstall removes everything except the source directory, and -y skips the confirmation prompt.

Auto-update. twmx-update downloads the current source files from raw.githubusercontent.com and compares them with the saved copies. When something changed, it builds the new version in a staging directory and installs it only if the build succeeds. A failed build (for example because config.def.h gained a setting your config.h lacks) leaves the installed binary and the saved source untouched. Run it by hand at any time, or use twmx-update --force to rebuild after editing ~/.local/src/twmx/config.h. Your config.h is always kept. Other files in that directory are replaced by updates, so make code changes in a git checkout instead.

The running window manager keeps going; the new build is used the next time you start twmx. Logs: journalctl --user -u twmx-update. Turn it off with systemctl --user disable --now twmx-update.timer.

make                    # creates config.h from config.def.h on first build
sudo make install       # installs to /usr/local/bin/twmx
sudo make uninstall
make clean

Use make PREFIX=/usr or make DESTDIR=... for packaging. For the smallest binary, link stripped: make LDFLAGS=-s.

Super is the Windows/Logo key (Mod4).

Workspaces with multiple monitors: switching to a workspace that is already visible on another monitor moves focus to that monitor. Otherwise the workspace replaces the one on the current monitor.

Edit config.h (created from config.def.h on first build) and run make again. You can set:

• borderpx, normbordercolor, selbordercolor: border width and colours
• gappx: gap between windows and around the screen edge
• focusfollowsmouse: 1 for sloppy focus, 0 for click-to-focus
• wsnames: workspace names; the number of entries is the number of workspaces
• mfact, nmaster, defaultlayout: tiling defaults (0 = tile, 1 = monocle, 2 = floating)
• rules: per-application floating/workspace rules (match on xprop WM_CLASS)
• termcmd, launchercmd: terminal and launcher commands
• keys, buttons, MODKEY: key and mouse bindings

config.h is not tracked by git, so your changes survive updates. Compare it with config.def.h after pulling.

# ~/.xinitrc
xsetroot -solid '#222222' &   # optional background
exec twmx

Then run startx. For a display manager, install a session file such as /usr/share/xsessions/twmx.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=twmx
Exec=twmx
Type=Application

Run make test for the eight bug regression checks on a private Xvfb server. This requires Xvfb in addition to the build dependencies.

Xephyr runs a nested X server in a window, so you can try twmx without leaving your current session. The quickest way:

./xephyr.sh              # build, start Xephyr + twmx + an xterm
./xephyr.sh -2           # same, split into two virtual monitors
./xephyr.sh -s 1600x900  # custom size

Or by hand:

Xephyr -br -ac -noreset -screen 1280x800 :1 &
DISPLAY=:1 ./twmx &
DISPLAY=:1 xterm &

Xephyr grabs the keyboard when you click into it and releases it with Ctrl+Shift. If Super is taken by your host WM, set MODKEY to Mod1Mask (Alt) in config.h for testing.

To simulate two monitors in a single nested screen, use RandR 1.5 virtual monitors (works in Xvfb and Xephyr):

DISPLAY=:1 xrandr --setmonitor left  640/0x800/0+0+0   none
DISPLAY=:1 xrandr --setmonitor right 640/0x800/0+640+0 none

• Windows are not reparented and have no frames; borders are X borders.
• Windows on hidden workspaces are moved offscreen, not unmapped (as in dwm). So any unmap the WM sees came from the client.
• The main loop blocks in XNextEvent. With no input, twmx uses no CPU.
• Memory allocation happens only per managed window, per dock and on monitor changes.

• Java/AWT applications may show blank windows with non-reparenting WMs; set _JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1 in your environment.
• Without RandR 1.5 (X servers older than 1.18) all outputs are treated as one monitor.
• No urgency hints, no _NET_WM_STATE other than fullscreen, no _NET_WORKAREA.
• Size hints (aspect ratio, increments) are not applied to tiled windows. Terminals may leave a few pixels unused.

annotated.c and tinywm.py are the original 2005/2011 TinyWM, about 50 lines that move and resize windows. They are kept for reference: they are still the shortest introduction to Xlib window management.

TinyWM was written by Nick Welch [email protected].

twmx is public domain, like TinyWM. See LICENSE (the Unlicense). It is provided AS IS, with NO WARRANTY.