ndwm

NDWM is a fully-featured and simple dynamic window manager for X11.

The purpose of NDWM is to be a simple yet powerful window manager with sensible defaults and the essential features you would expect in a window manager. The user should also be able to easily modify the window manager's behavior. Configuration is done by hacking into the source code.

NDWM uses libx11 to communicate with the X server.

Dependencies

• C99 Compiler
• GNU Make
• libx11
• libxft

Installation

First, make sure you have all the dependencies installed.

Enter the following command to build and install (as root):

make clean install

By default, the program is installed under /usr/local/bin.

Configuration

You should configure ndwm by manualy editing the file config.h to match your preferences, then recompile the program.

Usage

Put "ndwm" in your .xinitrc file or other startup script to start the window manager. It's also recommended to use ndwm with a status bar, such as sblocks. If you choose to do so, your .xinitrc file should look something like this:

sblocks &
exec ndwm

Features

• System tray support
• Fullscreen mode on windows
• Configurable keybindings
• Sane defaults
• Configurable behaviour
• Configurable color scheme

TODO

• Color scheme configuration needs to be simplified.
• Configuration should be done in a .toml file.

Behavior

By default there are 9 tags you can navigate to. The window model is master-stack. A new window will always be the master window, while the existing ones will be pushed upon a stack* on the right side of the screen.

+------+----------------------------------+--------+
| tags | title                            | status |
+------+---------------------+------------+--------+
|                            |                     |
|                            |                     |
|                            |                     |
|                            |                     |
|          master            |        stack        |
|                            |                     |
|                            |                     |
|                            |                     |
|                            |                     |
+----------------------------+---------------------+

You can move around, change the master window, rotate the position of the windows, etc. Windows are tiled, but you can make them float by pressing MODKEY + Left Mouse Button, then drag the window.

Default keybindings

By default, MODKEY is the Super button (or Windows button).

Keybinding	Action
MODKEY + d	Open dmenu
MODKEY + Enter	Open terminal (st)
AudioMute	Mute audio volume
AudioRaiseVolume	Raise volume
AudioLowerVolume	Lower audio volume
MonBrightnessUp	Increase the monitor brightness
MonBrightnessDown	Decrease the monitor brightness
MODKEY + [1-9]	Go to tag [1-9]
MODKEY + k	Focus the previous window in the stack
MODKEY + j	Focus the next window in the stack
MODKEY + f	Toggle fullscreen mode
MODKEY + q	Close window
MODKEY + Space	Toggle floating mode
MODKEY + Left	Go to the left tag
MODKEY + Right	Go to the right tag
MODKEY + Shift + Left	Move window to left tag
MODKEY + Shift + Right	Move window to right tag
MODKEY + v	Move the client to the next position in the stack
MODKEY + r	Rotate clients
MODKEY + l	Increase the width of the master window
MODKEY + h	Decrease the width of the master window
MODKEY + z	Turn the focused into the master window
MODKEY + Shift + r	Quit ndwm