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Warning: echinus is not maintained anymore. See the README in the repository.

Related articles

- dmenu
- Window manager

echinus is a simple and lightweight tiling and floating window manager for X11. Started as a dwm fork with easier configuration, echinus became a full-featured reparenting window manager with EWMH support.

Unlike dwm, echinus does not need to be re-compiled after changes have been made to the config. It supports Xft (freetype) out of the box and has the option of configurable titlebars.

## Installing

Install echinusAUR. You might also want to install ouricoAUR, a lightweight EWMH taskbar, originally designed for echinus (also in AUR), and dmenu.

After successfully installing, copy all files from `/etc/xdg/echinus` to `~/.echinus`(for user).

## Configuring

echinus is configured in one simple text file, in Xresources format: `~/.echinus/echinusrc`. Details for all of the configuration options are in `/usr/share/doc/echinus/README`. A section of a sample configuration file looks like:

    Echinus*selected.border: #404040
    Echinus*selected.button: #d3d7cf
    Echinus*selected.bg: #262626
    Echinus*selected.fg: #d3d7cf

### Rules

Rules can be set up to spawn applications in specific tags. The following rule, for example, would open firefox in the "web" tag:

    Echinus*rule0: firefox.* web 0 1

Opening applications in a terminal requires that you explicitly set the -title tag when spawning them so that echinus can manage them:

    Echinus*spawn0: CA + m = urxvtc -title mutt -e mutt

Similarly, when spawning dmenu, you will need to declare the requisite properties, like so:

    Echinus*spawn1: Menu = dmenu_run -fn "-*-dina-medium-r-*-*-*-100-*-*-*-*-*-*" -nb "#1A1A1A" -nf "#696969" -sb "#1A1A1A" -sf "#D3D7Cf"

## Starting echinus

To start echinus with startx or the SLiM login manager, simply append the following to `~/.xinitrc`:

    exec echinus

## Using echinus

After making changes to `echinusrc`, you can reload the configuration without recompiling by restarting echinus, with `Alt+Shift+q`. This keybinding, and any other, can be customized to suit your preference or muscle-memory.

Further details for manipulating windows are in the manpage and the `README`.

### Panels & Pagers

echinus supports some parts of EWMH - the following are known to work:

- tint2
- fbpanel
- ipager
- ouricoAUR

## See also

- echinus website
- GitHub repository

### Screenshots

- https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonwryan/5270660692/lightbox/
- http://plhk.ru/gallery/echinus-0.4.6.png
- http://plhk.ru/gallery/profont.png
- http://plhk.ru/gallery/echinus027.png

Category:

- Dynamic window managers