ICEWM-STARTUP(5)

💅 ICEWM-STARTUP(5) — the icewm-startup girlies' guide

okay so this is section 5 of the manual (the "Standards, Environments and Macros" girlies, iykyk) and it's literally all about icewm-startup, which is the icewm startup configuration file. bestie, this is where you put the stuff that runs the second your window manager wakes up. let's get into it 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

icewm-startup — the icewm startup configuration file. that's it. that's the whole name. slay 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

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

these are the spots, in order, where it'll go looking for your startup file. keep reading, i promise it makes sense 🫶

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so the startup file is literally just a bunch of commands that get executed when icewm starts up. and not like "read and interpreted" — it's an executable script, okay? main character energy only.

typically the commands in there tweak your X11 settings and launch some apps that always need to be active (think your tray icons, your compositor, all your lil background besties). it gets run by icewm-session(1) when icewm starts. so like, icewm-session is the one pressing play on your script ✨

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🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

here's a whole vibe, look:

#!/bin/bash
xset r rate 250 32
flameshot &
volumeicon &
redshift-gtk &
picom -b

and ngl, this is the part where people mess up: remember to chmod +x ~/.icewm/startup. 😭 if it's not executable it's not gonna run, no cap. also the first line must be a hash-bang, followed by the path of your script interpreter or shell. so like #!/bin/bash energy. don't skip that part fr fr.

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🦋 FILES 🦋

okay so the locations for the startup file are as follows:

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

and here's the important bit 👑 — the locations are searched in the order listed. the first file found is executed and the remainder are ignored. so like, first one wins, everyone else gets ghosted 💀

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🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

• icewm-session(1)
• icewm-shutdown(5)

go read those too, bestie, they're the sibling icon behavior 🌈

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⭐ AUTHOR ⭐

Brian Bidulock <mailto:bidulock@openss7.org>. thank you for your service 🫡💜

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🌸 LICENSE 🌸

IceWM is licensed under the GNU Library General Public License. see the COPYING file in the distribution for all the legal details. periodt. 📜

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okay that's the whole page, and before i go — this lovely little manual is from icewm 4.1.0, dated 2026-08-06, and it's page ICEWM-STARTUP(5). mwah, go write yourself a cute startup script 💖🧚‍♀️