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Versatile Wayland Window Manager

A dwl-based tiling compositor with an infinite canvas, directional focus, and a keyboard-driven workflow.

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What is vwwm?

vwwm is a Wayland compositor / tiling window manager forked from dwl. It keeps the suckless philosophy intact — everything is configured at compile-time via config.h — while layering several powerful additions on top:

• 🗺️ Infinite canvas per tag — pan across an unbounded workspace in floating layout
• 🧭 Directional focus & move — navigate and reorder windows spatially with arrow keys
• 🪟 Configurable gaps between tiled windows
• 🏷️ 9 tags (virtual desktops), each with its own independent canvas state
• 🖥️ Multi-monitor support with per-monitor rules and transforms
• 🔒 Session locking via ext-session-lock-v1
• 🖱️ Rich trackpad support — tap-to-click, natural scroll, drag lock, and more
• ⌨️ XWayland support (optional, compile-time flag)

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Feature Highlights

🗺️ Infinite Canvas

In floating layout each tag gets an infinite canvas: a coordinate space larger than your screen. Pan the viewport with keyboard shortcuts (Alt+Shift+Arrows) or drag with the mouse (Alt+Shift+Left Click). Jump back to the origin any time with Alt+R.

Each tag remembers its own canvas offset independently — switching tags seamlessly saves and restores the pan position.

🧭 Directional Navigation

Focus the nearest window in any cardinal direction with Alt+Ctrl+Arrows. In tiling mode, Alt+Ctrl+Shift+Arrows moves a window relative to its neighbors by reordering the client list. In floating mode the same binding nudges the window by a fixed pixel step.

🏗️ Layouts

Symbol	Name	Description
[]=	Tile	Classic master/stack tiling with gaps
><>	Float	Free-floating with infinite canvas
[M]	Monocle	Maximized single window, count in symbol

Switch layouts on the fly — vwwm preserves canvas positions when toggling between float and tile.

📡 Wayland Protocol Coverage

vwwm implements an extensive set of Wayland protocols:

Protocol	Purpose
xdg-shell v6	Application windows
wlr-layer-shell v3	Panels, bars, overlays
ext-session-lock-v1	Screen locking
wp-cursor-shape-v1	Themed cursor shapes
wp-fractional-scale-v1	HiDPI fractional scaling
xdg-decoration-unstable-v1	Server-side decorations
pointer-constraints-v1	Mouse confinement (games)
relative-pointer-v1	FPS mouse input
wlr-output-power-management	Display sleep/wake
wlr-virtual-pointer	Virtual pointer devices
linux-drm-syncobj-v1	GPU explicit sync
alpha-modifier-v1	Per-surface transparency
wlr-screencopy-v1	Screenshot tools
wlr-data-control-v1	Clipboard managers
ext-data-control-v1	Extended clipboard control

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Dependencies

Dependency	Version
wlroots	0.19.x
wayland-server	latest
libinput	any
xkbcommon	any
wayland-protocols	any
xcb, xcb-icccm	XWayland only

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Building

git clone https://github.com/Skartorion/vwwm
cd vwwm/vwwm
cp config.def.h config.h   # copy default config — edit to taste
make
sudo make install

To enable XWayland support, uncomment the relevant lines in config.mk:

XWAYLAND = -DXWAYLAND
XLIBS    = xcb xcb-icccm

Then rebuild:

make clean && make

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Configuration

All configuration lives in config.h (generated from config.def.h). Recompile after editing.

Appearance

static const unsigned int borderpx = 1;    /* border width in pixels */
static const unsigned int gappx    = 5;    /* gap between tiled windows */
static const int sloppyfocus       = 1;    /* focus follows mouse */

static const float rootcolor[]    = COLOR(0x222222ff);
static const float bordercolor[]  = COLOR(0x444444ff);
static const float focuscolor[]   = COLOR(0x005577ff);
static const float urgentcolor[]  = COLOR(0xff0000ff);

Infinite Canvas

static const int canvasstep = 120;  /* pixels per canvas pan keypress */

Window Rules

static const Rule rules[] = {
    /* app_id        title   tags mask   isfloating  monitor */
    { "firefox",     NULL,   1 << 8,     0,          -1 },  /* tag 9 */
    { "mpv",         NULL,   0,          1,          -1 },  /* always float */
};

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Default Keybindings

MODKEY = Alt

Windows

Keybinding	Action
Mod + Shift + Return	Spawn terminal (foot)
Mod + p	Open app launcher (wmenu-run)
Mod + Shift + c	Kill focused window
Mod + j / k	Focus next / prev in stack
Mod + Return	Zoom (promote to master)
Mod + Shift + Space	Toggle floating
Mod + e	Toggle fullscreen
Mod + Shift + d	Center window on canvas

Directional Focus & Move

Keybinding	Action
Mod + Ctrl + ←/→/↑/↓	Focus nearest window in direction
Mod + Ctrl + Shift + ←/→/↑/↓	Move window in direction

Infinite Canvas (floating layout)

Keybinding	Action
Mod + Shift + ←/→/↑/↓	Pan canvas in direction
Mod + Shift + Left Click drag	Pan canvas with mouse
Mod + r	Reset canvas to origin

Layouts

Keybinding	Action
Mod + t	Tiling layout
Mod + f	Floating layout
Mod + m	Monocle layout
Mod + Space	Toggle last two layouts
Mod + h / l	Adjust master width factor
Mod + i / d	Increase / decrease master count

Tags & Monitors

Keybinding	Action
Mod + 1–9	Switch to tag
Mod + Shift + 1–9	Move window to tag
Mod + Ctrl + 1–9	Toggle tag view
Mod + 0	View all tags
Mod + , / .	Focus left / right monitor
Mod + Shift + Q	Quit vwwm

Mouse Buttons (hold Mod)

Button	Action
Left Click	Move window
Right Click	Resize window
Middle Click	Toggle floating

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Running

Start vwwm from a TTY or display manager:

# bare start
vwwm

# with a startup command
vwwm -s "waybar & foot"

# enable debug logging
vwwm -d

A .desktop file is installed to /usr/local/share/wayland-sessions/vwwm.desktop for display manager integration.

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Repository Layout

vwwm/
├── vwwm/           — main compositor source
│   ├── vwwm.c      — compositor core (~3000 lines)
│   ├── client.h    — client/window abstraction
│   ├── config.def.h — default configuration
│   ├── config.mk   — build flags & paths
│   ├── Makefile
│   ├── util.c/h    — utility helpers
│   ├── protocols/  — bundled Wayland XML protocols
│   └── vwwm.1      — man page
├── dwl-main/       — upstream dwl reference
└── vxwm-main/      — vxwm reference

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License

vwwm is distributed under the GPL-3.0 license, with portions under the MIT license from dwm (LICENSE.dwm), sway (LICENSE.sway), and tinywl (LICENSE.tinywl).

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