Skip to content

nikolas/evilwm

Repository files navigation

evilwm 1.1 by Ciaran Anscomb <evilwm@6809.org.uk>

evilwm is a minimalist window manager for the X Window System.

The name evil came from Stuart 'Stuii' Ford, who thinks that any software
I use must be evil and masochistic.  In reality, this window manager is
clean and easy to use.


FEATURES

 * No window decorations apart from a simple 1 pixel border.
 * No icons.
 * Good keyboard control, including repositioning and maximise toggles.
 * Solid window drags (optional - may be slow on old machines).
 * Virtual desktops.
 * Small binary size (even with everything turned on).
 * Reasonable EWMH support (though not yet fully compliant).
 * Configuration file read on startup.


INSTALLATION

Please see the file INSTALL for details on building evilwm.


STARTING EVILWM

If you're using a standard X desktop, you can start evilwm by just
changing your ~/.xinitrc file.  Here's a pretty standard sample file:

-----CUT HERE-----
[ -f $HOME/.Xdefaults ] && xrdb $HOME/.Xdefaults
xsetroot -solid \#400040 -cursor_name top_left_arrow
/usr/bin/evilwm -snap 10 &
exec xclock -digital -padding 2 -g -0+0
-----CUT HERE-----

Note that in this case 'xclock' is the magic process (the one that if
you kill it, your session dies).  You could change it around and have
evilwm be your magic process if you prefer.  Also note that it sets the
cursor shape and background colour with standard X tools (evilwm won't
do this for you - the tools already exist!).

If you use the GNOME session manager, you can configure it to
use evilwm as its window manager.  Run gconf-editor and set the
key /desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager
to "evilwm".


CONTROLS

You can use the mouse to manipulate windows either by click/dragging
the 1 pixel border, or by holding down Alt and doing so anywhere in the
client window.  The controls are:

Button 1       Move window.
Button 2       Resize window.
Button 3       Lower window.

Most keyboard controls are used by holding down Control and Alt, then
pressing a key.  Available functions are:

Return         Spawn new xterm.
Escape         Delete current window.
Insert         Lower current window.
H, J, K, L     Move window left, down, up or right (16 pixels).
               Holding Shift resizes the window instead.
Y, U, B, N     Move window to top-left, top-right, bottom-left or
               bottom-right of screen.
I              Show information about current window.
Equals         Maximise current window vertically (toggle).
X              Maximise current window (toggle).
D              Toggle visible state of docks (e.g., pagers and launch bars).

If compiled with virtual desktop support, these functions are also
available:

F              Fix or unfix window.
1 - 8          Switch virtual desktop.
Left           Previous virtual desktop.
Right          Next virtual desktop.
A              Switch to the most recently unmapped virtual desktop.

In addition to the above, Alt+Tab can be used to cycle through windows
on screen.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The original code base for this project was that of aewm by Decklin
Foster.  His code is very clean and, in later versions, very well
commented.  I'd recommend it if you want to learn more about window
manager theory (or indeed want title bars, etc ;).

http://www.red-bean.com/~decklin/aewm/
               - aewm homepage


LICENCE

evilwm 1.1
Copyright (C) 1999-2015 Ciaran Anscomb <evilwm@6809.org.uk>

This is free software.  You can do what you want to it, but if it
breaks something, you get to pay for the counselling.  The code was
originally based on aewm, so this is distributed under the same terms,
which follow.


AEWM LICENCE

Copyright (c) 1998-2000 Decklin Foster.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS
OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE
HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES CONNECTED WITH THE USE OF THIS PROGRAM.

You are granted permission to copy, publish, distribute, and/or sell
copies of this program and any modified versions or derived works,
provided that this copyright and notice are not removed or altered.

Portions of the code were based on 9wm, which contains this license:

> 9wm is free software, and is Copyright (c) 1994 by David Hogan.
> Permission is granted to all sentient beings to use this software,
> to make copies of it, and to distribute those copies, provided
> that:
>
>     (1) the copyright and licence notices are left intact
>     (2) the recipients are aware that it is free software
>     (3) any unapproved changes in functionality are either
>           (i) only distributed as patches
>       or (ii) distributed as a new program which is not called 9wm
>               and whose documentation gives credit where it is due
>     (4) the author is not held responsible for any defects
>         or shortcomings in the software, or damages caused by it.
>
> There is no warranty for this software.  Have a nice day.

Releases

No releases published

Packages

No packages published