1[(Basic Usage) Next >](basic-usage.md) 2 3*** 4 5An overview of pekwm 6==================== 7 8pekwm is a fast, functional, and flexible window manager which aims to 9be usable, even without a mouse. 10 11**Table of Contents** 12 131. [An Introduction to pekwm](#an-introduction-to-pekwm) 141. [Getting pekwm](#getting-pekwm) 151. [Compiling pekwm](#compiling-pekwm) 16 17An Introduction to pekwm 18------------------------ 19 20pekwm, a window manager written by Claes Nästén that was once based on 21the aewm++ window manager, but has since evolved enough that it no 22longer resembles aewm++ at all. It also has an expanded feature-set, 23including window grouping (similar to ion, pwm, or fluxbox), auto 24properties, Xinerama support and keygrabber that supports keychains, 25and much more. 26 27### Why pekwm? 28 29"Why make another window manager?", some ask. This may confuse some 30people, but the best answer is "Why not?". There are arguments out 31there that it's better to have a single standard desktop environment, 32so that our mothers can find their way around, but in all honestly, if 33most of us wanted the same environment as our mothers, we probably 34wouldn't be reading this anyway. The same can also be applied to Your 35sister, your roommate, your wife, even your cat. 36 37"Why should I use pekwm?", others ask. Nobody ever said you 38should. However, we use it. And you're welcome to as well. You should 39use the environment most suited to you. For a better answer to this 40question, Check out the [pekwm Features](#pekwm-features) 41section below. 42 43### pekwm Features 44 45Here's a short list of some of the features included in pekwm: 46 47- Possibility to group windows in a single frame 48- Configurable keygrabber that supports keychains 49- Configurable mouse actions 50- Configurable root- and window-menus and keybindings for all menus 51- Dynamic menus that regenerate on every view from a script output 52- Multi-screen support both via RandR and Xinerama 53- Configurable window placement 54- Theming support with images, shaping and configurable buttons. 55- Autoproperties (Automatic properties such as a window's sticky state, etc.) 56 57 58Getting pekwm 59------------- 60 61Now that you've decided to try it out, you need to get it. You're left 62with two options. The first is to download and compile the source, and 63the second is finding a pre-compiled package. 64 65### Getting the pekwm source 66 67The source code is available from Github at https://github.com/pekdon/pekwm. 68 69Release tabralls are named pekwm-0.2.0.tar.gz and 70pekwm-0.2.0.tar.bz2. Although it doesn't matter which you get, keep in 71mind that the .bz2 is smaller. 72 73Generally pekwm from GIT is stable enough for everyday use and should 74in most cases be a safe bet to get all the latest functionality. 75 76### Getting prebuilt pekwm packages 77 78pekwm is available as a package on many Linux and BSD distributions, 79see your distribution for details. 80 81Compiling pekwm 82--------------- 83 84This chapter will help you get pekwm compiled. 85 86### Unpacking the Archive 87 88The first step to compiling pekwm is to unpack the archive. Unpacking 89it depends on which version you downloaded: 90 91``` 92tar -zxvf pekwm-0.2.0.tar.gz 93tar -zjvf pekwm-0.2.0.tar.bz2 94``` 95 96> The '-j' option works normally on most linux systems, and as of the 97> current GNU tar development version, is part of GNU tar. If your 98> system does not support the -j option, you can use two things: 99> **bzip2 -dc pekwm-0.2.0.tar.bz2 | tar -xvf -** or **bzip2 -d 100> pekwm-0.2.0.tar.bz2** followed by **tar -xvf pekwm-0.2.0.tar**. This 101> also works for the .tar.gz version using **gzip -dc** or **gzip 102> -d**. 103 104The 'v' options are optional, they show you the filenames as they're 105being extracted. at this point, you should have a pekwm-0.2.0 106directory. Use **cd pekwm-0.2.0** to get there. 107 108### Installing build dependencies 109 110Before building pekwm a C++ compiler with support for C++11 needs to 111be available on the system, the CMake build system and a set of X11 112and image libraries. 113 114The below sections details how to install the required packages for 115different OSes and Linux distributions. 116 117#### Alpine 118 119Development tools using the GCC C++ compiler: 120 121``` 122# apk add cmake g++ make 123``` 124 125Build dependencies: 126 127``` 128# apk add fontconfig-dev jpeg-dev libxext-dev libpng-dev libxft-dev libxpm-dev libxrandr-dev libxinerama-dev 129``` 130 131#### Debian 132 133Development tools using the GCC C++ compiler: 134 135``` 136# apt install cmake g++ make 137``` 138 139Build dependencies: 140 141``` 142# apt install libfontconfig1-dev libjpeg-dev libxext-dev libpng-dev libxft-dev libxpm-dev libxrandr-dev libxinerama-dev 143``` 144 145#### Void 146 147Development tools using the GCC C++ compiler: 148 149``` 150# xbps-install cmake make gcc 151``` 152 153Build dependencies: 154 155``` 156# xbps-install fontconfig-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel libXext-devel libpng-devel libXft-devel libXpm-devel libXrandr-devel libXinerama-devel 157``` 158 159#### OpenBSD 160 161OpenBSD comes with X11 and a compatible C++ compiler. To add the 162required packages run: 163 164``` 165# pkg_add cmake jpeg png 166``` 167 168#### OS X (homebrew) 169 170OS X does not come with a X11 installation by default so first 171[XQuartz](https://www.xquartz.org/) needs to be installed. 172 173The development tools are not installed by default but can be 174installed using the following command: 175 176``` 177xcode-select --install 178``` 179 180Assuming homebrew is installed, the only package required to build 181pekwm after install XQuartz and the development tools is CMake: 182 183``` 184$ brew install cmake 185``` 186 187### Setting up a build directory 188 189The first thing to do is to setup a build directory and configure 190pekwm using CMake: 191 192``` 193mkdir build && cd build 194cmake .. 195``` 196 197Pekwm support a few configuration options, each option is specified on 198the cmake command line as: 199 200``` 201-DOPTION=ON 202``` 203 204 205### Common options 206 207| Option | Default | Description | 208|----------------------|------------|---------------------------------------------------------------| 209| CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX | /usr/local | It may be useful to use a custom prefix to install the files. | 210| CMAKE_INSTALL_SYSCONFDIR | /usr/etc/pekwm | It may be useful to use a custom prefix to install the config files. | 211| CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE | | Set to Debug to enable debug outputs and code | 212| PEDANTIC | OFF | Turn on extra compiler warnings | 213| TESTS | OFF | Enable compilation of unit test programs | 214 215### Options to reduce the size 216 217| Option | Default | Description | 218|-------------------|---------|----------------------------------------------------------------------| 219| ENABLE_SHAPE | ON | Enables the use of the Xshape extension for non-rectangular windows. | 220| ENABLE_XINERAMA | ON | Enables Xinerama multi screen support | 221| ENABLE_RANDR | ON | Enables RandR multi screen support | 222| ENABLE_XFT | ON | Enables Xft font support in pekwm (themes). | 223| ENABLE_IMAGE_XPM | ON | XPM image support using libXpm. | 224| ENABLE_IMAGE_JPEG | ON | JPEG image support using libjpeg. | 225| ENABLE_IMAGE_PNG | ON | PNG image support using libpng. | 226 227### Building and installing 228 229After running cmake with any configuration options you need, run **make**. 230This should only take a few minutes. After that, become root (unless you 231used a prefix in your home directory, such as 232-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/you/pkg) and type **make install** 233 234Adding **exec pekwm** to ~/.xinitrc if you start X running **startx** 235or ~/.xsession if you use a display manager should usually be enough 236to get pekwm running. 237 238That's it! pekwm is installed on your computer now. Next you should 239read the [Getting Started](basic-usage.md#getting-started) chapter. 240 241*** 242 243[(Basic Usage) Next >](basic-usage.md) 244