berry

A healthy, bite-sized window manager written in C over the XLib library.

Table of Contents

• Description
• Installation
• Usage
  • Basic
  • Commands
  • Monitors
  • Themes
  • Fonts
• Credits
• Screenshots

Description

berry is a floating window manager that responds to X events and manages window decorations.

berryc is a small client that sends X events to manage windows and configuration settings.

Much like bspwm and windowchef, berry does not handle keyboard inputs. Instead, a program like sxhkd is needed to translate input events to berryc commands.

Installation

First, install the XLib and Xft C headers on your distribution. On Ubuntu/Debian, install the following packages:

libx11-dev
libxft-dev

Clone the repository and make it

git clone https://github.com/JLErvin/berry
cd berry
make
sudo make install

Copy the sample configuration files (assuming your are in the berry directory)

mkdir $HOME/.config/berry
cp example/sxhkdrc $HOME/.config/berry/sxhkdrc
cp example/autostart $HOME/.config/berry/autostart

If you are not using a display manager add the following to your .xinitrc

sxhkd -c $HOME/.config/berry/sxhkdrc &
exec berry

If you are using a display manager (lightdm, etc), create a file berry.desktop in /usr/share/xsessions/

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=berry
Comment=berry - a small window manager
Exec=berry
Type=XSession

Arch Linux users can download via the AUR: berry

yay -S berry-git

Usage

Basic

berry is controlled by its client program berryc. Upon startup, berry will run the file autostart, located by default in XDG_CONFIG_HOME/berry/autostart. A sample autostart has been included to help you, please see the installation section.

Commands

berry does not handle keyboard input on its own. Instead, a program like sxhkd is needed to translate keypress events into commands. berry is controlled through its client, berryc. The window manager can be controlled using the following commands:

• window_move x y
  • move the current window by x and y, relatively
• window_move_absolute x y
  • move the current window to x and y
• window_resize w h
  • resize the current window by w and h, relatively
• window_resize_absolute w h
  • resize the current window to w and h
• window_raise
  • raise the given window
• window_monocle
  • set the current window to fill the screen, maintains decorations
• window_close
  • close the current window
• window_center
  • center the current window, maintains current size
• switch_workspace i
  • switch view to the given workspace
• send_to_workspace i
  • send the current window the given workspace
• fullscreen
  • set the current window to fill the screen, removes decorations
• snap_left
  • snap the given window to the left side of the screen and fill vertically
• snap_right
  • snap the given window to the left side of the screen and fill vertically
• cardinal_focus 1/2/3/4
  • change focus to the client in the specified direction
• toggle_decorations
  • toggle decorations for the current client
• cycle_focus
  • change focus to the next client in the stack
• pointer_focus
  • focus the window under the current pointer (used by sxhkd)
• smart_place 0/1
  • place newly created windows in unoccupied regions of the screen. Otherwise center the client.

All of these commands can also be viewed on your system via man berryc

Monitors

berry supports the use of multiple monitors. Monitors are associated with workspaces. To associate a monitor with a specific workspace, using the following berryc command:

• save_monitor i j
  • Associate the ith workspace to the jth monitor

The number associated with each monitor can be determined through an application like xrandr. The following command will list all monitors and their associated numbers:

xrandr --listmonitors

Themes

berryc also controls the appearance of berry. The following commands are available:

• focus_color XXXXXX
  • Set the color of the outer border for the focused window
• unfocus_color XXXXXX
  • Set the color of the outer border for all unfocused windows
• inner_focus_color XXXXXX
  • Set the color of the inner border and title bar for the focused window
• inner_unfocus_color XXXXXX
  • Set the color of the inner border and title bar for all unfocused windows
• text_focus_color XXXXXX
  • Set the color of the title bar text for the focused window
• text_unfocus_color XXXXXX
  • Set the color of the title bar text for the unfocused window
• border_width XXXXXX
  • Set the border width, in pixels, of the outer border
• inner_border_width XXXXXX
  • Set the border width, in pixels, of the inner border
• title_height XXXXXX
  • Set the height of the title bar, does not include border widths
• top_gap XXXXXX
  • Set the offset at the top of the monitor (usually for system bars)

Please note that for the previous commands, XXXXXX represents a hex color without the leading #.

All of these commands can also be viewed on your system via man berryc

Fonts

berry now supports title bar text that describes the contents of its respective window. By default, this font is defined by font-config's default monospace font. To check what font this is, you can simply run:

fc-match monospace

Due to limitations on the X server, the font cannot be changed from berryc. If you wish to use a font other than the default monospace one, simply change the DEFAULT_FONT value located inside of src/config.h and recompile berry. Upon logging out/back into an X session, you should see the changes.

Features

• Multiple desktops
• Keyboard-drive resizing and movement
• Command line client to control windows and decorations
• Double borders
• Title bars with text
• Left/right snapping
• Fullscreen/monocle mode

Credits

Although I wrote berry on my own, it was inspired by people much smarter than I. A very special thanks to the following people for writing great code and open-sourcing it!

• Tudurom's windowchef
• Vain's katriawm

Contributors

Special thanks to the following people for contributing:

• Kyle G: AUR Package Maintainer

Additional Screenshots

Double borders with titlebars:

Monocle Mode