river/README.md
2020-06-01 21:25:24 +02:00

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# river
river is a dynamic wayland compositor that takes inspiration from
[dwm](https://dwm.suckless.org) and
[bspwm](https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm).
*Note: river is currently early in development and may lack some
features. If there are specific features blocking you from using river,
don't hesitate to
[open an issue](https://github.com/ifreund/river/issues/new)*
## Design goals
- Simplicity and minimalism, river should not overstep the bounds of a
window manger.
- Dynamic window management based on a stack of views and tags like dwm.
- Scriptable configuration and control through a separate binary,
`riverctl`, like bspwm. This works using the custom
[river-control](protocol/river-control-unstable-v1.xml) protocol.
## Building
To compile river first ensure that you have the following dependencies
installed:
- [zig](https://github.com/ziglang/zig) 0.6.0
- wayland
- wayland-protocols
- [wlroots](https://github.com/swaywm/wlroots) 0.10.1
- xkbcommon
- pixman
- pkg-config
*Note: NixOS users should refer to the
[Building on NixOS wiki page](https://github.com/ifreund/river/wiki/Building-on-NixOS)*
Then run, for example, `sudo zig build --prefix /usr/local install` to build
and install the `river` and `riverctl` binaries to `/usr/local/bin`. To enable
experimental Xwayland support pass the `-Dxwayland=true` option.
## Usage
River can either be run nested in an X11/wayland session or directly
from a tty using KMS/DRM.
River has no keybindings by default; mappings can be created using the `map`
command of `riverctl`. Generally, creating mappings and other configuration is
done with a shell script. River will execute any arbitrary shell command passed
with the `-c` flag during startup. For example:
```
river -c /path/to/config.sh
```
An example script with sane defaults is provided [here](contrib/config.sh) in
the contrib directory.
Some configuration options are still hardcoded in [config.zig](src/config.zig).
Eventually all configuration will be moved to the `riverctl` binary.
## Development
Check out the [roadmap](https://github.com/ifreund/river/issues/1)
if you'd like to see what has been done and what is left to do.
If you are interested in the development of river, please join our
matrix channel: [#river:matrix.org](https://matrix.to/#/#river:matrix.org).
You should also read [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) if you intend
to submit patches.
I can often be found in the `#sway-devel` IRC channel with the
nick `ifreund` on irc.freenode.net as well, or reached by email at
[ifreund@ifreund.xyz](mailto:ifreund@ifreund.xyz).
## Licensing
river is released under the GNU General Public License version 3, or (at your
option) any later version.
The protocols in the `protocol` directory are released under various licenses by
various parties. You should refer to the copyright block of each protocol for
the licensing information. The protocols prefixed with `river` and developed by
this project are released under the ISC license (as stated in their copyright
blocks).