ICEWM-PREFOVERRIDE(5)

📦
version 4.1.0 · 17 versions
, in arch rolling

🎀 icewm-prefoverride 🎀

okay so real talk, bestie — this is icewm-prefoverride, and it lives in section 5 of the manual, the Standards, Environments and Macros girly. she's a config file, she's iconic, and she's about to fix your whole theme situation. let's get into it 💅

✨ NAME ✨

icewm-prefoverride — literally the file that overrides your themable preferences. that's the whole vibe. 👑

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

the places she might be living (in order, no cap):

$ICEWM_PRIVCFG/prefoverride
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/icewm/prefoverride
$HOME/.icewm/prefoverride
/usr/etc/icewm/prefoverride
/usr/share/icewm/prefoverride

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the tea, bestie: these are the settings that override the settings coming from a theme. some of the icewm preferences that control the look can totally be set by the theme itself — that's the theme's whole moment. BUT. the settings in this prefoverride file? they override that. periodt. 💅

it is safe to leave this file empty at first, fr fr — nothing bad happens, she's just chilling. 🙈

⚠️ but heads up: this file is meant for themable preferences only. a few icewm startup settings cannot be set here — like "Splash". no exceptions, she said what she said. 💀

🧚 FILES 🧚

the locations for the prefoverride file are as follows, bestie:

  • $ICEWM_PRIVCFG/prefoverride
  • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/icewm/prefoverride
  • $HOME/.icewm/prefoverride
  • /usr/etc/icewm/prefoverride
  • /usr/share/icewm/prefoverride

✨ the locations are searched in the order listed — first file found gets read, and the remainder are ignored (sorry not sorry to the rest of them 😭). so order matters, iykyk.

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

go read those too, they're giving main character energy 🫶

⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Brian Bidulock <mailto:bidulock@openss7.org>. yes, the icon himself. 👑

🌈 LICENSE 🌈

IceWM is licensed under the GNU Library General Public License. see the COPYING file in the distribution for the full deets 🎀

okay that's the whole page, you ate that 🍓 this lovely little manual page is from icewm 4.1.0, dated 2026-08-06 — and it's the ICEWM-PREFOVERRIDE(5) girlies' time to shine. mwah 💖✨

📦 where this page comes from