9wm(1)

✨ 9wm - rio-like Window Manager for X ✨

okay bestie, the manual name is 9wm, the section is 1 (General Commands), and it's a rio-like window manager for X 🦋 so buckle up, it's giving Plan 9 energy 💅

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

9wm [ -border ] [ -cursor cursor ] [ -version ] [ -font fname ] [ -term
termprog ] [ -active color ] [ -inactive color ] [ exit|restart ]

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so 9wm is a window manager for X 🖥️ and its whole goal is to copy the window management vibes of Plan 9's rio window manager 💖 it's giving authentic.

9wm is click-to-type ✨ it keeps track of a current window (usually the one on top) and that window's border is always darkened 🌑 keyboard characters go to the current window, and mouse clicks outside of it get swallowed up by 9wm 🙈 to make another window the current one, just click on it with button 1 👆

ngl this is the part that's so iconic: unlike other X window managers, 9wm does mouse focus 🔥 mouse events only get sent to the current window. no leaking, no drama 💅

👑 OPTIONS 👑

• -border — shrinks the window borders so they look more like Plan9 🦋
• -cursor cursor — picks one of two custom Plan9-style cursors: v1 or blit ✨ use this one if you want maximum authenticity 💜
• -font fname — sets the font in 9wm's menu to fname, replacing the default 🎀
• -term termprog — tells 9wm which program to run when you pick the New menu item 🍓
• -active color — sets the color of the active window border (default is black) 🖤
• -inactive color — sets the color of the inactive window border (default is white) 🤍
• -version — prints the current version to standard error, then exits 🫶

🍓 MENU 🍓

a menu of window operations pops up when you press button 3 outside the current window 💅

• New — tries to spawn an xterm process (unless you used the -term argument) 🧚

all of the next operations turn your cursor into a target 🎯 and then you click button 3 on one of the windows to select it for the operation. at this stage, clicking button 1 or 2 will abort the whole thing 😭

• Resize — you get prompted to sweep out the new outline with button 3 📐
• Move — keep the button held down after the initial click that selected the window, then drag it to the right spot before releasing 🦋 in either case, button 1 or 2 will abort the operation 🙅‍♀️
• Delete — the window gets deleted when the button is released 💀 this typically kills the client that owns the window, so be careful bestie ⚠️
• Hide — makes the window invisible 🫥 while hidden, the window's name shows up at the bottom of the button 3 menu, and selecting that item brings the window back (unhides it) ✨ this replaces the iconification feature you'd find in other window managers 🌈

⚠️ to make 9wm exit, you have to run 9wm exit on the command line. there is no exit menu item, so don't go looking for one 🙈

🐛 BUGS 🐛

• is not completely compatible with rio 😬
• there is currently a compiled-in limit of 32 hidden windows 🔒

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

9term(1), xterm(1) 💜

ok that's the whole tea, 9wm(1) 💖 from the General Commands Manual, 9wm v... wait, the footer just says 9wm(1), so bye bestie, you're literally the best 🧚✨🫶