sabiniwm

A tiling Wayland compositor, influenced by xmonad

Goals and non-goals

Goal

• Code over configuration: extensible/configurable, like xmonad
• Minimal and clear runtime dependencies (No dependency on, e.g., Haskell.)
• Simple, clean, and maintainable code

Non-goals

• Excessive use of animations
  • Not a priority. Small use of animations might be supported in the future.
• File-based configuration
  • Users can implement it if they need it (like spacemacs for Emacs). Please publish a crate if you implement it.
• Batteries included (default configuration)
  • The author believes that there are no good default values for configuration. Users must configure it themselves.

Status

Alpha; not stable.

In the short-term, you shouldn't expect API stability.

The author, kenoss@, is using it on Asahi Linux, M2 MacBook Air (main machine).

Roadmap

Milestone 1

kenoss@ is 80%-ish satisfied with daily use of it on a private machine, a MacBook Air.

• Fundamental udev support (Touchpad, scaling for HiDPI displays)
• Fundamental tiling features
• Layouts (Tall, Full, Select, Toggle, margins, borders)
• Floating windows
• Manage hook
• Session lock (ext-session-lock-v1)
• Screenshot/screencast

Milestone 2

kenoss@ is 80%-ish satisfied with daily use of it on a corporate machine.

• External (wireless) mouse
  • (I need to look into the [random disconnection issue]).
• Authentication dialog with security keys (Floating windows + manage hooks)
• xrandr (Multiple outputs, external displays)
• Notification
• Screencast with Chrome
• IME

Comparison

xmonad

xmonad is useful, mature, and the source of ideas for sabiniwm. But it lacks Wayland support, and has never supported it, as discussed in [issue 1] [issue 2].

niri

niri is a beautiful and feature-rich tiling Wayland compositor. But it's not xmonad-like.

I recommend you try it if you are not seeking xmonad alternatives. sabiniwm aims in the opposite direction.

waymonad

The project does not appear active [issue].

Other tiling Wayland compositors

Many of them are written in C/C++. They are not easy to read and write.

Dependencies

See .github/workflows/ci.yaml.

Getting started

No documentation is available.

You can start by running and modifying sabiniwm_chocomint/sabiniwm_pistachio.

$ cargo run -- --bin sabiniwm_chocomint
$ cargo run -- --bin sabiniwm_pistachio # If you are a dvorak user.

How to develop

See justfile. For example,

$ # build
$ cargo build
$ # run
$ cargo run
$ # check
$ just check-strict
$ # watch
$ cargo watch -c -s 'cargo build && just check-strict'
$ # install to /usr/share/wayland-sessions/
$ just install-sessions-head

See also the tatarajo educational course.

How to run with udev backend

Run

You can run it with udev backend in the following ways:

• From TTY (i.e., with the display manager turned off): Just cargo run works.
• From display manager: Use just install-sessions-stable and select sabiniwm.

Configuration

sabiniwm is like xmonad.

• xmonad is a framework/library to program your own WM. You don't write a configuration, you write a Haskell program.
• sabiniwm is a library to program your own Wayland compositor. You don't write a configuration, you write a Rust program.

See sabiniwm_chocomint/sabiniwm_pistachio crates. For example, sabiniwm_pistachio (bin crate) uses sabiniwm (lib crate). It configures the behavior by implementing/providing Config, a set of callbacks:

struct Config { ... }

impl ConfigDelegateUnstableI for Config { ... }

fn main() -> eyre::Result<()> {
    let config_delegate = Box::new(Config::new(perfetto_toggle_handle));
    SabiniwmState::run(config_delegate)?;

    Ok(())
}

Another mechanism for adding functionality is Action. An Action is an executable command that can be triggered to perform a specific task. For example, sabiniwm has predefined actions for window management in sabiniwm::action::*, and external crates can define their own, such as sabiniwm_tracing_helper::debug::ActionTraceToggle. This provides a flexible way to define and expose new behaviors.

If you feel there are not enough extension points, please file an issue.

Set up environment

screenshot/screencast

See note/setup-xdg-desktop-portal.md.

IME

Protocols text_input_manager_v3/text_input_v3 are supported.

See https://fcitx-im.org/wiki/Using_Fcitx_5_on_Wayland for example.

TODO

• smithay d4780c5: Consider adding #[inline] for derived operations.
• smithay f5aeb51: Consider adding #[inline] for common operations.

License

This repository is distributed under the terms of both the MIT license and the Apache License (Version 2.0), with portions covered by various BSD-like licenses.

See LICENSE-APACHE, LICENSE-MIT, and COPYRIGHT for details.