GWM
Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: Release 4
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NAME
gwm - Generic Window Manager for the X Window System
SYNOPSIS
gwm
[
-f filename
]
[
-p path
]
[
-d display
]
[
-x screens
]
[
-1DstqmFiawWIPr?
]
DESCRIPTION
The
GWM
command is a window manager client application of the X11 window
server specified in the
display
argument (or the
DISPLAY
shell
variable if no argument is given), extensible via a built-in
lisp
interpreter,
WOOL
(Window Object Oriented Lisp) used to build
Wobs
(Window OBjects) which are used to decorate the windows of the other X11
applications running on the display.
GWM
tries to enforce the ICCCM conventions to communicate between X11 clients
and thus should be compatible with any well-behaved X11 application.
- -f filename
-
Names an alternate file as a
GWM
startup file.
Default is
.gwmrc.gwm
(note that the
.gwm
extension is
optional, as for any
WOOL
file).
-
For instance, to use the
Motif
emulation package, type
gwm -f mwm -1
, and to use the
Twm
emulation package, type
gwm -f twm.
- -p path
-
Gives the path to be searched for
WOOL
or bitmap
files when loaded, including the startup file. Overrides the setting by the
environment variable
GWMPATH.
Defaults to
.:$HOME:$HOME/gwm:GWMDIR,
where
GWMDIR
is the local directory
where
GWM
is installed (normally,
/usr/lib/X11/gwm).
-
You can append or prepend a path to the current path by preceding the path
given as argument to the
-p
option by
+
(for appending) or
-
(for prepending). For instance, if you want to search the directory
/usr/local/gwm
before the standard ones (including your homedir),
just say:
-p -/usr/local/gwm.
- -d display
-
Specifies the name of the display whose windows must be
managed, such as
unix:0.
The
-d
is optional, you can type
gwm unix:0.
- -x screens
-
Do not manage the screens given in the comma-separated
list of numbers, as in:
-x 2,5,3.
Normally,
GWM
manages
all
the screens of the given display.
- -1
-
Manages only the given screen, e.g.
gwm -1 foo:0.2
manages
only the third screen of the display number
0
on the
foo
machine. Same as defining the GWM_MONOSCREEN shell variable.
- -I
-
Continues reading interactively Wool expressions from the
standard input and prints their result. Useful for testing interactively code.
- -P
-
When used with -I, makes Gwm issue a simple prompt displaying the
current parenthese level.
- -k process-id
-
Kills a process once initialisation is done. Takes a process id as an
argument. When gwm has finished initializing, it sends a signal (SIGALRM
by default, but this can be changed by -K, see below) to the given process.
So, if you do the following lines:
sleep 15 & pid=$!
gwm -k $pid &
wait $pid
then your init shell script will pause until gwm has finished initializing.
- -K signal
-
sets the signal to use (number) instead of SIGALRM for the -k option above.
- -D
-
Enables debugging mode for
WOOL
files. In this version the only
effect of debug mode is to continue reading a file after a
WOOL
error occurred. Default behavior is to abort reading a file after an error.
Thus, if you modified your profile and introduced an error,
GWM
will
refuse to complete execution, use
gwm -D
to run it anyway.
- -s
-
Synchronize X calls, useful for debugging but slower.
- -r
-
Normally, when gwm starts and sees that another window manager has still the
control of the display, gwm aborts with a warning message. Specifying -r makes
it retrying till it can get control.
- -t
-
Turns tracing on, as if you had done the call
(trace t)
in
your profile.
- -q
-
(Quiet) Does not print startup banner, and sets the
WOOL
gwm-quiet
variable to 1.
- -m
-
Maps all toplevel windows already on screen. Useful after
unmapping some windows by accident.
- -F
-
Does not freeze the server during pop-up menus, move and resize of
the windows, which is the default behavior.
- -i
-
Disables the setting of input focus by
GWM
(set-focus
has no effects, except
(set-focus ()),
which resets the focus to
PointerRoot) on a window, keypresses go to the window under the cursor. Very
useful to debug profiles with only one screen.
- -a
-
Asynchronously handle moves and resizes, do not cancel a
move or a resize operation if the user released the button before the grid
appeared, which is the default behavior.
- -w window_id
-
Makes Gwm decorate only one window, given by its ID, a decimal number
- -W
-
Makes Gwm decorate all windows on screen, even if another window manager
is already in charge.
- -?
-
This, or any invalid option lists the available options and shows the
default path defined at compile time by your local installer.
On startup,
GWM
interprets its profile to build wobs describing how to
decorate user windows, which we will call
Clients.
Then it creates
Windows
around each client window on the screens attached to the
managed display. A Window is made of 4 (optional)
Bars
on the 4 sides of the window. Each of these bars is made of a variable
number of
Plugs,
the most primitive wobs.
Menus
can then be
made with a list of bars. To each of these objects is associated a
fsm
(Finite State Machine) describing their behavior
in terms of
WOOL
code triggered by X or
WOOL
events.
When
GWM
wants to decorate a window, it calls the user-defined
WOOL
function
describe-window
which must return a list of two window
descriptions (one for the window itself, and one for its icon) made by the
window-make
WOOL
primitive describing the window. To build these
descriptions the user can query the client window for any X11 properties and
use the X11 Resource Manager to decide how to decorate it.
The screens must also be described by such a description that
GWM
will find
by calling the user-defined
WOOL
function
describe-screen
for each
managed screen.
A full description of
GWM
is beyond the scope of this manual page. See the
GWM Manual
for a comprehensive description of all the facilities provided by
GWM.
FILES
$HOME/.gwmrc.gwm
$HOME/gwm/.gwmrc.gwm
/usr/lib/X11/gwm/.gwmrc.gwm
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
- DISPLAY
-
This variable is used to determine which X server to use.
- HOME
-
Used to locate
.gwmrc.gwm.
- GWMPATH
-
Used to override default
GWM
path of
.:$HOME:$HOME/gwm:GWMDIR.
- GWM_MONOSCREEN
-
Tells gwm to manage only one screen. This (or
-1)
option is required to run the Motif emulation package.
- NO_KOALA_SPY NO_GWM_LOG
-
By default, gwm sends silently one udp packet when started to the author with the
hostname of the machine as contnts, to maintain some rough statistics of
use. If you dont want this to happen, you can set either of these two
variables to anything, or recompile with either of these preprocesssor symbols
defined.
SEE ALSO
X(1), Xserver(1), xdm(1), xrdb(1)
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1989 GROUPE BULL
Copyright 1989 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided
that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that the name of GROUPE BULL not be used in advertising
or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific,
written prior permission. GROUPE BULL makes no representations about the
suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided ``as is''
without express or implied warranty.
GROUPE BULL disclaims all warranties with regard to this software,
including all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness,
in no event shall GROUPE BULL be liable for any special,
indirect or consequential damages or any damages
whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits,
whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious
action, arising out of or in connection with the use
or performance of this software.
AUTHOR
Colas Nahaboo.
colas@mirsa.inria.fr
KOALA Project
BULL Research c/o INRIA
2004 route des Lucioles
06565 Valbonne Cedex
FRANCE
GWM INTEREST ELECTRONIC MAILING LIST
- gwm@mirsa.inria.fr
-
For questions to gwm maintainer, and for requests to be added to or
removed from the other mailing lists.
- gwm-talk@mirsa.inria.fr
-
General comments, discussion, bug reports, etc. All mails posted to this address
will be redispatched to every member of this list.
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- FILES
-
- ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- COPYRIGHT
-
- AUTHOR
-
- GWM INTEREST ELECTRONIC MAILING LIST
-
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