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DWM - LESS IS MORE!
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<link href="https://cowmonk.github.io" />
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<link href="https://cowmonk.github.io" />
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<link href="https://cowmonk.github.io/atom.xml" rel="self" />
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<link href="https://cowmonk.github.io/atom.xml" rel="self" />
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<id>https://cowmonk.github.io/</id>
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<id>https://cowmonk.github.io/</id>
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<updated>2025-04-01T00:00:00Z</updated>
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<updated>2025-04-29T00:00:00Z</updated>
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<entry>
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<id>https://cowmonk.github.io/blog4.xml#2025-04-29T00:00:00Z</id>
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<updated>2025-04-29T00:00:00Z</updated>
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<title>DWM - Less is More!</title>
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<author><name>cowmonk</name></author>
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<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://cowmonk.github.io/blog4.html" />
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<content type="xhtml">
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<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<article>
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<header>
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<h2>DWM - Less is More!</h2>
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<aside>A quick guide into THE suckless tiling window manager! Including patching!</aside>
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<address>cowmonk</address>
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<time datetime="2025-04-29">2025-04-29</time>
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</header>
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<p>A lot of people when they move into linux will learn of the magic of tiling window managers. </p>
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<p>Generally,
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they are curious, and some find it as a waste of time, others die by it.
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And people will even wonder why in the hell someone would take the time to configure one of these things.</p>
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<p>However, I’m not here to debate whether or not it’s a waste of time, or if it’s worth it. I’m here to help out people who have heard of <a href="https://dwm.suckless.org/">dwm</a> and want to try it out.
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Whether you’ve heard it from a friend, a youtuber, a random, or whomever, people at first find dwm as a scary thing that’s <strong>IMPOSSIBLE</strong> to configure.</p>
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<p>But fret not! For your neighborhood suckless shill is here to help!</p>
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<h2 id="prerequisites">Prerequisites</h2>
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<p>Before you start going ham on the configuring/ricing, this isn’t your average joe i3, Hyprland, or whatever.
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You’ve probably heard that dwm is a “compile from source” configuration, and this just means that
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every change you’re going to make has to be compiled all over again.</p>
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<p>“Woah, woah, woah!” you might be saying. “Compile? Like C code? H4x0r like stuff?”</p>
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<p>Yep, that’s the ticket! But don’t let it scare you off. It’s simpler than it sounds. Think of it like baking a cake.
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You have a recipe (<strong>config.h</strong>), you mix your ingredients (the source code and your changes), and then you bake it (<strong>make</strong>).
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Each time you want a different flavor (a new feature or keybinding), you tweak the recipe and bake it again.
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You will need to kill dwm and re-run it again since the binary that runs is loaded in memory, it doesn’t change in real time.</p>
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<p>A common misconception is an over exaggeration on how tedious the reconfiguration is. Whilst it can be a bit annoying,
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especially in the beginning when you are getting it tailored towards your preferences, it’s definitely overblown.
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See, once you have a working system, there isn’t a need to keep on configuring onwards, a necessary process I would say.</p>
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<p>So, what do you actually <em>need</em>?</p>
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<h1 id="a-c-compiler"><strong>A C Compiler:</strong></h1>
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<p>Most likely, you’ll want <code>gcc</code>. It’s the most common C compiler everyone gets.</p>
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<p>If you’re on a Debian-based system (like Mint), you can usually get this and other essential tools by installing <code>build-essential</code>.</p>
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<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo apt install build-essential
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</code></pre>
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<p>For Arch users (for the “I use Arch btw” furries):</p>
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<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo pacman -S base-devel
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</code></pre>
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<p>And for Fedora folks:</p>
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<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools" "Development Libraries"
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</code></pre>
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<h1 id="make"><strong>Make:</strong></h1>
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<p>This is a build automation tool that will, well, “<em>make</em>” dwm for you. It usually comes with the <code>build-essential</code> or <code>base-devel</code> packages.</p>
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<h1 id="libx11-development-files"><strong>LibX11 development files:</strong></h1>
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<p>DWM interacts with the X Window System, so you’ll need the development headers for it. Often called something like <code>libx11-dev</code> or <code>libX11-devel</code>.</p>
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<p>Debian:</p>
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<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo apt install libx11-dev libxft-dev libxinerama-dev
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</code></pre>
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<p>Arch:</p>
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<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo pacman -S libx11 libxft libxinerama
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</code></pre>
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<p>Fedora:</p>
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<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo dnf install libX11-devel libXft-devel libXinerama-devel
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</code></pre>
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<p><em>(Note: <code>libxft-dev</code> is for font rendering and <code>libxinerama-dev</code> is handy for multi-monitor setups, which you’ll probably want later on!)</em></p>
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<p>Got all that? Sweet!</p>
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<h2 id="getting-the-goods-the-source-code">Getting the Goods (The Source Code!)</h2>
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<p>Alright, let’s grab the dwm source code. The suckless crew hosts their code on their own git server.
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However I recommend personally to get their official <a href="https://dl.suckless.org/dwm/dwm-6.5.tar.gz">tarball releases</a> (this links to the latest of the time of writing this: 6.5) their <a href="https://dwm.suckless.org/">page</a>.</p>
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<pre><code>1. Save the source code to where you want to keep it. A common spot is something like
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~/.config/ or ~/.local/suckless/, just anywhere to hide it out of sight.
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2. Unextract it
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3. Open your terminal & navigate to that directory (using cd and stuff)
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</code></pre>
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<p>Take a peek. You’ll see a bunch of <code>.c</code> files, a <code>Makefile</code>, and the golden goose: <strong>config.def.h</strong>.</p>
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<h2 id="the-infamous-">The Infamous <code>config.h</code></h2>
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<p>This is where the magic happens, folks. <code>config.def.h</code> is the <em>default</em> configuration. You’re not supposed to edit this directly. Instead, you copy it to <code>config.h</code>:
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<code>bash
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$ cp config.def.h config.h
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</code>
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Now, config.h is <strong>your</strong> personal configuration file. Open it up with your favorite text editor. You’ll see C arrays defining your keys, your tags, your fonts, your colors.
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It might look a bit intimidating at first, but it’s surprisingly straightforward.</p>
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<p>For now, don’t change anything. Let’s just get it built!</p>
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<h2 id="the-first-bake-compiling-dwm">The First Bake: Compiling DWM</h2>
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<p>Still in your dwm directory? Good. Time to compile!
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This is the part that sounds scary but is usually super simple thanks to the Makefile.</p>
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<p>To compile and install it system-wide:</p>
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<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo make clean install
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</code></pre>
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<p>Or, if you prefer not to install it system-wide immediately yet (which is a good idea for testing):</p>
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<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ make
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</code></pre>
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<p>If all your prerequisites were met, this should complete without errors. You’ll now have a dwm executable file in the directory (and runnable in your terminal if
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you ran the system wide installation)!</p>
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<p>To run dwm, you’ll typically need to configure your .xinitrc file to launch it.
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For example, you could add this line to your ~/.xinitrc:</p>
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<pre><code class="language-bash"> exec dwm
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</code></pre>
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<p>For the people who run a Display Manager which is more likely (i.e gdm, sddm, lightdm, etc.). You’ll need to create a .desktop file.
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This file basically has the information and stuff for the thing to see and run it. You’ll need to create one in the /usr/share/xsessions/.
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And here’s an example <strong>dwm.desktop</strong> for reference:</p>
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<p>/usr/share/xsessions/dwm.desktop:</p>
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<pre><code>[Desktop Entry]
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Encoding=UTF-8
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Name=dwm
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Comment=Dynamic window manager
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Exec=dwm
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Icon=dwm
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Type=XSession
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</code></pre>
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<p>The default keybinding for the Terminal is <em>Alt+Shift+Return</em>. Any other keybindings can be found in config.h, it shouldn’t be hard to
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understand the giant struct declaration. Comments left by the suckless team are your friends! Read them!</p>
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<h2 id="uh-oh-its-plain-time-for-patches">Uh Oh, It’s Plain! Time for Patches!</h2>
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<p>“Okay,” you say, “this is cool and all, but it’s a bit… barebones. My buddy’s dwm has gaps, a cool status bar, and fancy tag names!”</p>
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<p>Aha! You’ve stumbled upon the next layer of the suckless philosophy: patching.</p>
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<p>Instead of bloating the core dwm code with every feature under the sun, the suckless community maintains a collection of <a href="https://dwm.suckless.org/patches/">patches</a>.
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These are .diff files that you apply to your source code to add specific functionalities.</p>
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<pre><code class="language-bash"> Want gaps between windows? There's a patch for that.
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Want clickable status bar elements? Patch!
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Want windows to swallow terminals? Patch!
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Want your bar at the bottom? You guessed it, patch!
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</code></pre>
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<p>This is where the “do it yourself” ethos really shines. You pick and choose exactly what you want. However it might be daunting for some people.
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And unfortunately, many patches don’t really like to work together. If you want a nice dwm patching experience, I would use <a href="https://github.com/bakkeby/dwm-flexipatch">this one</a>,
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he’s the same creator as <a href="https://github.com/bakkeby/st-flexipatch">st-flexipatch</a> and other “flexipatch” series. Basically, all you do is edit the <strong>patches.h</strong> file
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and you can basically get all the patches you want without too much hassle.</p>
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<p>For those who are the tinkers, continue on…</p>
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<h2 id="how-to-patch-the-basics">How to Patch (The Basics)</h2>
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<p>First of all, you’ll need to download the patch utility if you don’t have it. You can probably guess what it’ll be called when you install it using a
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package manager. Once you’ve done that here are the general steps:</p>
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<ol>
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<li><p>Find a Patch: Head over to the dwm patches page. Find a patch you like. Let’s say you want the autostart patch,
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which allows you to run commands automatically when dwm starts (I highly reccomend this especially if you’re running from a display manager!).</p></li>
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<li><p>Download the Patch: Download the .diff file for the patch. Save it somewhere, perhaps in a patches subdirectory within your dwm source folder.</p></li>
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<li><p>Apply the Patch: In your dwm source directory, use the patch command:
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<code>bash
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patch -Np1 -i patchfile.diff
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</code></p></li>
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<li><p>Resolve Conflicts (If Any): Sometimes, patches might conflict, especially if they modify the same lines of code or if you’re applying a patch meant
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for an older version of dwm. This will result in .rej (rejected) files. You’ll need to manually edit the source files to resolve these conflicts, looking
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at the .rej files to see what couldn’t be applied. This is the trickiest part, but it gets easier with practice. Start with simple, popular patches.</p></li>
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<li><p>Recompile: After applying a patch (and resolving any conflicts), you need to recompile!
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<code>bash
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$ sudo make clean install
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</code></p></li>
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</ol>
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<p>And that’s the patching dance! It can be a bit fiddly, especially when patches conflict, but it gives you incredible control over your window manager.
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Also, a quick note! Some patches might change the config.def.h, add these new changes to your config.h since they are default configs for the new patches.</p>
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<h2 id="next-steps-the-suckless-mentality">Next Steps & The Suckless Mentality</h2>
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<p>From here, the world is your oyster:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Explore config.h:</strong> Seriously, dive in. Change your mod key (Alt is default, many prefer the Super/Windows key, just change the MODKEY definition from Mod1Mask to Mod4Mask).
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Change your fonts, colors, and tag names. Recompile after every change.</li>
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<li><strong>Browse More Patches:</strong> Get those gaps (vanitygaps), add a systray, try different layouts (fibonacci, centeredmaster).</li>
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<li><strong>Status Bar:</strong> Dwm’s status bar is typically populated by setting the root window’s name. You’ll often use a separate shell script or program (like slstatus or a custom script)
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that periodically updates this. The autostart patch is great for launching such scripts. You can also decide to change out the bar to something like <a href="https://polybar.github.io/">polybar</a> or something.</li>
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<li><strong>Embrace Simplicity:</strong> The core idea of suckless is to keep things simple and understandable. If a patch seems overly complex or breaks things too often, maybe it’s not for you.
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The beauty is in building your ideal, minimal environment.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Don’t be afraid to break things! If you mess up your config.h or a patch goes horribly wrong, you can always run a <em>patch -R -i file.patch</em>. And for the config.h, the config.def.h
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will always be there as the default to save you.</p>
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<p>It’s a journey, not a race. You’ll learn a bit about C, a bit about how window managers work, and a lot about what you really want from your desktop.</p>
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<p>So go forth, compile, patch, and make dwm your own! It’s less about having a flashy setup (though you can certainly make it look nice) and more about having a tool that’s perfectly
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tailored to you. Less is indeed more, especially when you’re the one deciding what that “less” consists of.</p>
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<p>Happy Hacking!</p>
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<p>– cowmonk</p>
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</article></div>
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<id>https://cowmonk.github.io/blog3.xml#2025-04-01T00:00:00Z</id>
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<id>https://cowmonk.github.io/blog3.xml#2025-04-01T00:00:00Z</id>
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<updated>2025-04-01T00:00:00Z</updated>
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<updated>2025-04-01T00:00:00Z</updated>
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</span>
|
||||||
|
</nav>
|
||||||
|
</header>
|
||||||
|
<section>
|
||||||
|
<h3 style="color:yellow;">DWM - Less is More!</h3>
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
<q>A quick guide into THE suckless tiling window manager! Including patching!</q>
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>
|
||||||
|
Published by
|
||||||
|
<span class="name">cowmonk</span>
|
||||||
|
on
|
||||||
|
<time datetime="2025-04-29">2025-04-29</time>
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
<article data-sblg-article="1" data-sblg-tags="guide suckless tutorial">
|
||||||
|
<header>
|
||||||
|
<h2>DWM - Less is More!</h2>
|
||||||
|
<aside>A quick guide into THE suckless tiling window manager! Including patching!</aside>
|
||||||
|
<address>cowmonk</address>
|
||||||
|
<time datetime="2025-04-29">2025-04-29</time>
|
||||||
|
</header>
|
||||||
|
<p>A lot of people when they move into linux will learn of the magic of tiling window managers. </p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Generally,
|
||||||
|
they are curious, and some find it as a waste of time, others die by it.
|
||||||
|
And people will even wonder why in the hell someone would take the time to configure one of these things.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>However, I’m not here to debate whether or not it’s a waste of time, or if it’s worth it. I’m here to help out people who have heard of <a href="https://dwm.suckless.org/">dwm</a> and want to try it out.
|
||||||
|
Whether you’ve heard it from a friend, a youtuber, a random, or whomever, people at first find dwm as a scary thing that’s <strong>IMPOSSIBLE</strong> to configure.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>But fret not! For your neighborhood suckless shill is here to help!</p>
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="prerequisites">Prerequisites</h2>
|
||||||
|
<p>Before you start going ham on the configuring/ricing, this isn’t your average joe i3, Hyprland, or whatever.
|
||||||
|
You’ve probably heard that dwm is a “compile from source” configuration, and this just means that
|
||||||
|
every change you’re going to make has to be compiled all over again.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>“Woah, woah, woah!” you might be saying. “Compile? Like C code? H4x0r like stuff?”</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Yep, that’s the ticket! But don’t let it scare you off. It’s simpler than it sounds. Think of it like baking a cake.
|
||||||
|
You have a recipe (<strong>config.h</strong>), you mix your ingredients (the source code and your changes), and then you bake it (<strong>make</strong>).
|
||||||
|
Each time you want a different flavor (a new feature or keybinding), you tweak the recipe and bake it again.
|
||||||
|
You will need to kill dwm and re-run it again since the binary that runs is loaded in memory, it doesn’t change in real time.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>A common misconception is an over exaggeration on how tedious the reconfiguration is. Whilst it can be a bit annoying,
|
||||||
|
especially in the beginning when you are getting it tailored towards your preferences, it’s definitely overblown.
|
||||||
|
See, once you have a working system, there isn’t a need to keep on configuring onwards, a necessary process I would say.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>So, what do you actually <em>need</em>?</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="a-c-compiler"><strong>A C Compiler:</strong></h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>Most likely, you’ll want <code>gcc</code>. It’s the most common C compiler everyone gets.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>If you’re on a Debian-based system (like Mint), you can usually get this and other essential tools by installing <code>build-essential</code>.</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo apt install build-essential
|
||||||
|
</code></pre>
|
||||||
|
<p>For Arch users (for the “I use Arch btw” furries):</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo pacman -S base-devel
|
||||||
|
</code></pre>
|
||||||
|
<p>And for Fedora folks:</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo dnf groupinstall "Development Tools" "Development Libraries"
|
||||||
|
</code></pre>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="make"><strong>Make:</strong></h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>This is a build automation tool that will, well, “<em>make</em>” dwm for you. It usually comes with the <code>build-essential</code> or <code>base-devel</code> packages.</p>
|
||||||
|
<h1 id="libx11-development-files"><strong>LibX11 development files:</strong></h1>
|
||||||
|
<p>DWM interacts with the X Window System, so you’ll need the development headers for it. Often called something like <code>libx11-dev</code> or <code>libX11-devel</code>.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Debian:</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo apt install libx11-dev libxft-dev libxinerama-dev
|
||||||
|
</code></pre>
|
||||||
|
<p>Arch:</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo pacman -S libx11 libxft libxinerama
|
||||||
|
</code></pre>
|
||||||
|
<p>Fedora:</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo dnf install libX11-devel libXft-devel libXinerama-devel
|
||||||
|
</code></pre>
|
||||||
|
<p><em>(Note: <code>libxft-dev</code> is for font rendering and <code>libxinerama-dev</code> is handy for multi-monitor setups, which you’ll probably want later on!)</em></p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Got all that? Sweet!</p>
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="getting-the-goods-the-source-code">Getting the Goods (The Source Code!)</h2>
|
||||||
|
<p>Alright, let’s grab the dwm source code. The suckless crew hosts their code on their own git server.
|
||||||
|
However I recommend personally to get their official <a href="https://dl.suckless.org/dwm/dwm-6.5.tar.gz">tarball releases</a> (this links to the latest of the time of writing this: 6.5) their <a href="https://dwm.suckless.org/">page</a>.</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre><code>1. Save the source code to where you want to keep it. A common spot is something like
|
||||||
|
~/.config/ or ~/.local/suckless/, just anywhere to hide it out of sight.
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
2. Unextract it
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
3. Open your terminal & navigate to that directory (using cd and stuff)
|
||||||
|
</code></pre>
|
||||||
|
<p>Take a peek. You’ll see a bunch of <code>.c</code> files, a <code>Makefile</code>, and the golden goose: <strong>config.def.h</strong>.</p>
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="the-infamous-">The Infamous <code>config.h</code></h2>
|
||||||
|
<p>This is where the magic happens, folks. <code>config.def.h</code> is the <em>default</em> configuration. You’re not supposed to edit this directly. Instead, you copy it to <code>config.h</code>:
|
||||||
|
<code>bash
|
||||||
|
$ cp config.def.h config.h
|
||||||
|
</code>
|
||||||
|
Now, config.h is <strong>your</strong> personal configuration file. Open it up with your favorite text editor. You’ll see C arrays defining your keys, your tags, your fonts, your colors.
|
||||||
|
It might look a bit intimidating at first, but it’s surprisingly straightforward.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>For now, don’t change anything. Let’s just get it built!</p>
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="the-first-bake-compiling-dwm">The First Bake: Compiling DWM</h2>
|
||||||
|
<p>Still in your dwm directory? Good. Time to compile!
|
||||||
|
This is the part that sounds scary but is usually super simple thanks to the Makefile.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>To compile and install it system-wide:</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ sudo make clean install
|
||||||
|
</code></pre>
|
||||||
|
<p>Or, if you prefer not to install it system-wide immediately yet (which is a good idea for testing):</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre><code class="language-bash"> $ make
|
||||||
|
</code></pre>
|
||||||
|
<p>If all your prerequisites were met, this should complete without errors. You’ll now have a dwm executable file in the directory (and runnable in your terminal if
|
||||||
|
you ran the system wide installation)!</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>To run dwm, you’ll typically need to configure your .xinitrc file to launch it.
|
||||||
|
For example, you could add this line to your ~/.xinitrc:</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre><code class="language-bash"> exec dwm
|
||||||
|
</code></pre>
|
||||||
|
<p>For the people who run a Display Manager which is more likely (i.e gdm, sddm, lightdm, etc.). You’ll need to create a .desktop file.
|
||||||
|
This file basically has the information and stuff for the thing to see and run it. You’ll need to create one in the /usr/share/xsessions/.
|
||||||
|
And here’s an example <strong>dwm.desktop</strong> for reference:</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>/usr/share/xsessions/dwm.desktop:</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre><code>[Desktop Entry]
|
||||||
|
Encoding=UTF-8
|
||||||
|
Name=dwm
|
||||||
|
Comment=Dynamic window manager
|
||||||
|
Exec=dwm
|
||||||
|
Icon=dwm
|
||||||
|
Type=XSession
|
||||||
|
</code></pre>
|
||||||
|
<p>The default keybinding for the Terminal is <em>Alt+Shift+Return</em>. Any other keybindings can be found in config.h, it shouldn’t be hard to
|
||||||
|
understand the giant struct declaration. Comments left by the suckless team are your friends! Read them!</p>
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="uh-oh-its-plain-time-for-patches">Uh Oh, It’s Plain! Time for Patches!</h2>
|
||||||
|
<p>“Okay,” you say, “this is cool and all, but it’s a bit… barebones. My buddy’s dwm has gaps, a cool status bar, and fancy tag names!”</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Aha! You’ve stumbled upon the next layer of the suckless philosophy: patching.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Instead of bloating the core dwm code with every feature under the sun, the suckless community maintains a collection of <a href="https://dwm.suckless.org/patches/">patches</a>.
|
||||||
|
These are .diff files that you apply to your source code to add specific functionalities.</p>
|
||||||
|
<pre><code class="language-bash"> Want gaps between windows? There's a patch for that.
|
||||||
|
Want clickable status bar elements? Patch!
|
||||||
|
Want windows to swallow terminals? Patch!
|
||||||
|
Want your bar at the bottom? You guessed it, patch!
|
||||||
|
</code></pre>
|
||||||
|
<p>This is where the “do it yourself” ethos really shines. You pick and choose exactly what you want. However it might be daunting for some people.
|
||||||
|
And unfortunately, many patches don’t really like to work together. If you want a nice dwm patching experience, I would use <a href="https://github.com/bakkeby/dwm-flexipatch">this one</a>,
|
||||||
|
he’s the same creator as <a href="https://github.com/bakkeby/st-flexipatch">st-flexipatch</a> and other “flexipatch” series. Basically, all you do is edit the <strong>patches.h</strong> file
|
||||||
|
and you can basically get all the patches you want without too much hassle.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>For those who are the tinkers, continue on…</p>
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="how-to-patch-the-basics">How to Patch (The Basics)</h2>
|
||||||
|
<p>First of all, you’ll need to download the patch utility if you don’t have it. You can probably guess what it’ll be called when you install it using a
|
||||||
|
package manager. Once you’ve done that here are the general steps:</p>
|
||||||
|
<ol>
|
||||||
|
<li><p>Find a Patch: Head over to the dwm patches page. Find a patch you like. Let’s say you want the autostart patch,
|
||||||
|
which allows you to run commands automatically when dwm starts (I highly reccomend this especially if you’re running from a display manager!).</p></li>
|
||||||
|
<li><p>Download the Patch: Download the .diff file for the patch. Save it somewhere, perhaps in a patches subdirectory within your dwm source folder.</p></li>
|
||||||
|
<li><p>Apply the Patch: In your dwm source directory, use the patch command:
|
||||||
|
<code>bash
|
||||||
|
patch -Np1 -i patchfile.diff
|
||||||
|
</code></p></li>
|
||||||
|
<li><p>Resolve Conflicts (If Any): Sometimes, patches might conflict, especially if they modify the same lines of code or if you’re applying a patch meant
|
||||||
|
for an older version of dwm. This will result in .rej (rejected) files. You’ll need to manually edit the source files to resolve these conflicts, looking
|
||||||
|
at the .rej files to see what couldn’t be applied. This is the trickiest part, but it gets easier with practice. Start with simple, popular patches.</p></li>
|
||||||
|
<li><p>Recompile: After applying a patch (and resolving any conflicts), you need to recompile!
|
||||||
|
<code>bash
|
||||||
|
$ sudo make clean install
|
||||||
|
</code></p></li>
|
||||||
|
</ol>
|
||||||
|
<p>And that’s the patching dance! It can be a bit fiddly, especially when patches conflict, but it gives you incredible control over your window manager.
|
||||||
|
Also, a quick note! Some patches might change the config.def.h, add these new changes to your config.h since they are default configs for the new patches.</p>
|
||||||
|
<h2 id="next-steps-the-suckless-mentality">Next Steps & The Suckless Mentality</h2>
|
||||||
|
<p>From here, the world is your oyster:</p>
|
||||||
|
<ul>
|
||||||
|
<li><strong>Explore config.h:</strong> Seriously, dive in. Change your mod key (Alt is default, many prefer the Super/Windows key, just change the MODKEY definition from Mod1Mask to Mod4Mask).
|
||||||
|
Change your fonts, colors, and tag names. Recompile after every change.</li>
|
||||||
|
<li><strong>Browse More Patches:</strong> Get those gaps (vanitygaps), add a systray, try different layouts (fibonacci, centeredmaster).</li>
|
||||||
|
<li><strong>Status Bar:</strong> Dwm’s status bar is typically populated by setting the root window’s name. You’ll often use a separate shell script or program (like slstatus or a custom script)
|
||||||
|
that periodically updates this. The autostart patch is great for launching such scripts. You can also decide to change out the bar to something like <a href="https://polybar.github.io/">polybar</a> or something.</li>
|
||||||
|
<li><strong>Embrace Simplicity:</strong> The core idea of suckless is to keep things simple and understandable. If a patch seems overly complex or breaks things too often, maybe it’s not for you.
|
||||||
|
The beauty is in building your ideal, minimal environment.</li>
|
||||||
|
</ul>
|
||||||
|
<p>Don’t be afraid to break things! If you mess up your config.h or a patch goes horribly wrong, you can always run a <em>patch -R -i file.patch</em>. And for the config.h, the config.def.h
|
||||||
|
will always be there as the default to save you.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>It’s a journey, not a race. You’ll learn a bit about C, a bit about how window managers work, and a lot about what you really want from your desktop.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>So go forth, compile, patch, and make dwm your own! It’s less about having a flashy setup (though you can certainly make it look nice) and more about having a tool that’s perfectly
|
||||||
|
tailored to you. Less is indeed more, especially when you’re the one deciding what that “less” consists of.</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>Happy Hacking!</p>
|
||||||
|
<p>– cowmonk</p>
|
||||||
|
</article>
|
||||||
|
<p class="tags">
|
||||||
|
Tags: <span class="sblg-tag">guide</span><span class="sblg-tag">suckless</span><span class="sblg-tag">tutorial</span>.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
</section>
|
||||||
|
<nav>
|
||||||
|
<span class="prevnext ">
|
||||||
|
<a href="blog1.html"><-newer</a>
|
||||||
|
</span>
|
||||||
|
<span class="prevnext sblg-next-has">
|
||||||
|
<a href="blog3.html">older-></a>
|
||||||
|
</span>
|
||||||
|
</nav>
|
||||||
|
<footer>
|
||||||
|
<a href="https://www.vim.org/"><img src="https://cyber.dabamos.de/88x31/vim.vialle.love.anim.gif" alt="description" height="31" /></a> <img src="https://88x31.kate.pet/madeon_linux.gif" height="31" /> <img src="https://cyber.dabamos.de/88x31/javascript-zero.gif" height="31" />
|
||||||
|
</footer>
|
||||||
|
</body>
|
||||||
|
</html>
|
||||||
13
index.html
13
index.html
|
|
@ -19,6 +19,19 @@
|
||||||
</p>
|
</p>
|
||||||
</header>
|
</header>
|
||||||
<nav data-sblg-nav="1" data-sblg-navcontent="1"><ul><li>
|
<nav data-sblg-nav="1" data-sblg-navcontent="1"><ul><li>
|
||||||
|
<h2><a href="blog4.html">DWM - Less is More!</a></h2>
|
||||||
|
<div>
|
||||||
|
<address>cowmonk</address>,
|
||||||
|
<time datetime="2025-04-29">2025-04-29</time>
|
||||||
|
</div>
|
||||||
|
<p>A quick guide into THE suckless tiling window manager! Including patching!</p>
|
||||||
|
<p class="tags">
|
||||||
|
Tags: <span class="sblg-tag">guide</span><span class="sblg-tag">suckless</span><span class="sblg-tag">tutorial</span>.
|
||||||
|
</p>
|
||||||
|
<nav>
|
||||||
|
<a href="blog4.html">Read more-></a>
|
||||||
|
</nav>
|
||||||
|
</li><li>
|
||||||
<h2><a href="blog3.html">The Ultimate Abstraction: Trading ./configure for Click-to-Install</a></h2>
|
<h2><a href="blog3.html">The Ultimate Abstraction: Trading ./configure for Click-to-Install</a></h2>
|
||||||
<div>
|
<div>
|
||||||
<address>cowmonk</address>,
|
<address>cowmonk</address>,
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
Loading…
Add table
Add a link
Reference in a new issue