Musca

From ArchWiki

Jump to: navigation, search


Contents

Introduction

Musca A simple dynamic window manager for X, with features nicked from ratpoison and dwm:

Installation

Method 1: AUR (Recommended)

Musca is available from the Arch User Community Repositories.

Method 2: From Source

Grab the source from the musca web page. Extract the source from the tar ball and run make. Copy the resulting binary into your PATH.


Whichever method you choose, you can either modify the config.h file in the source or use a .musca_start file to set your keybindings and to startup your applications. Using a .musca_start file has the advantage of not having to keep changing the config file on every update.

Tips & Tricks

Musca has quite detailed information on its webpage. This section is only to highlight some of the important features that might not be obvious. Only a subset of features are listed here. For more detailed information, check the musca webpage, especially the documentation which lists all the musca commands and keyboard controls etc.

Sample .musca_start file

#unset all default Musca keybindings.
bind off all

#set Musca keybindings
bind on Mod4+Shift+h hsplit 1/2
bind on Mod4+Shift+v vsplit 1/2
bind on Mod4+Shift+r remove
bind on Mod4+Shift+o only
bind on Mod4+Shift+k kill
bind on Mod1+F4 kill
bind on Mod4+Shift+c cycle
bind on Mod1+Tab cycle
bind on Mod4+Left focus left
bind on Mod4+Right focus right
bind on Mod4+Up focus up
bind on Mod4+Down focus down
bind on Mod4+Tab use (next)
bind on Mod4+Shift+Tab use (prev)
bind on Mod4+Shift+w switch window
bind on Mod4+Shift+g switch group
bind on Mod4+x shell
bind on Mod4+Shift+x command
bind on Mod4+Shift+d dedicate flip
bind on Mod4+Shift+a catchall flip
bind on Mod4+Shift+u undo
bind on Mod4+Shift+s stack flip
bind on Mod4+Shift+Left swap left
bind on Mod4+Shift+Right swap right
bind on Mod4+Shift+Up swap up
bind on Mod4+Shift+Down swap down
bind on Mod4+Control+Left resize left
bind on Mod4+Control+Right resize right
bind on Mod4+Control+Up resize up
bind on Mod4+Control+Down resize down
bind on Mod4+Shift+q quit
bind on Mod4+Shift+b border flip


#bindings to switch between groups
bind on Mod4+0 use 0
bind on Mod4+1 use 1
bind on Mod4+2 use 2
bind on Mod4+3 use 3
bind on Mod4+4 use 4
bind on Mod4+5 use 5
bind on Mod4+6 use 6
bind on Mod4+7 use 7
bind on Mod4+8 use 8
bind on Mod4+9 use 9

bind on Mod4+Shift+0 move 0
bind on Mod4+Shift+1 move 1
bind on Mod4+Shift+2 move 2
bind on Mod4+Shift+3 move 3
bind on Mod4+Shift+4 move 4
bind on Mod4+Shift+5 move 5
bind on Mod4+Shift+6 move 6
bind on Mod4+Shift+7 move 7
bind on Mod4+Shift+8 move 8
bind on Mod4+Shift+9 move 9

 
# dmenu settings
#set dmenu dmenu -b -i -nb '#333333' -nf '#a8a3f7' -fn 'terminus-10'
set dmenu dmenu -b -i -nb grey20 -nf '#a1b5cd' -fn '-*-dina-medium-r-normal-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*'
#set dmenu dmenu -b -i -nb '#0A0A0A' -nf '#A0A0A0' -fn 'helvetica 9' -sb '#285577' -sf '#FFFFFF'

 
manage off stalonetray
manage off Conky 

set window_open_frame empty
set window_open_focus 0
set group_close_empty 1 

pad 0 0 0 16
exec stalonetray
exec xbindkeys
exec conky 

vsplit 40%
hsplit 20%
exec skype

The above .musca_start uses "Mod4+Shift+key" as the default keybinding so that "Mod4+key" can be used to start applications or for anything else. You can change the default keybindings to anything that you prefer.

Commands

1) musca -c - This command allows you to run any musca command on the fly.

2) hook - This can be extremely useful for chaining Musca commands together or firing off scripts on certain events. For eg.

hook on ^add pad 0 0 0 16 

The above will always run the 'pad' command whenever a new group is added using the 'add' command. Therefore, when you 'add' a new group, it will automatically pad it with the given values.

3) Musca has a list of settings that can be altered on the fly using the following command:

set <name> <value>

Other Resources

  • Musca -- the official website of Musca
  • dmenu -- a simple application launcher from the developers of dwm

The musca home page offers a lot of information on the usage and configuration of Musca.

Personal tools