Xmonad/Notable changes since 0.9

This page is for keeping a record of significant changes in darcs xmonad and xmonad-contrib since the 0.9 releases. See darcs changes in the source repositories for the patches and more details covering documentation and bug fixes not noted here. Xmonad 0.9 was released on 26 October 2009, and Xmonad 0.10 on 18 November 2011.

(0.9.1 was a maintenance release, with no changes to user functionality. 0.9.1 builds against haskell X11-1.5.0.0 while 0.9 requires 1.4.6.1. Otherwise the only changes were a few documentation updates, automatic detection of numlockMask, and a minor bug fix for forked processes.)

The idea is to put here a list of things which a user upgrading from 0.9 to 0.10 might like to know.

Updates that require changes in xmonad.hs

numlockMask is now set automatically

Users explicitly setting numlockMask in their configs should remove those references. XConfig no longer has a numlockMask field.

If for some reason this detection isn't correct, you could still set it in the startupHook (or elsewhere), using this function:

setNumLockMask :: KeyMask -> X ()
setNumLockMask m = modify (\x -> x { numberlockMask = m })

Simplified interface for X.A.SpawnOn and X.H.DynamicHooks

Since contrib modules can now store custom state in XState, the additional IORef parameters are no longer required: Users have to remove the first parameter to the respective functions. The functions mkSpawner and initDynamicHooks are also no longer necessary and have been removed. The same applies to XMonad.Hooks.DynamicHooks. See below for examples.

MultiToggle

All instances of Transformer need to add another argument to k to provide a way to undo the modifier:

Old

instance Transformer StdTransformers Window where
    transform NBFULL       x k = k (noBorders Full)
    transform MIRROR       x k = k (Mirror x      )

New

instance Transformer StdTransformers Window where
    transform NBFULL       x k = k (noBorders Full) (\_ -> x)
    transform MIRROR       x k = k (Mirror x      ) (\(Mirror x') -> x')

X.A.GridSelect changes

gs_navigate changed incompatibly. There is no straightforward translation: just start over with your customization with reference to documentation in the module.

X.A.OnScreen changes

The type of onScreen has been changed to allow more general onScreen functions. The new onScreen takes any function that modifies the stack and runs it on the given screen. An onScreen' to run in X is also provided. Since XMonad can not guess what you'd like to do with the focus after running this function, onScreen also accepts a Focus data which tells XMonad how to act. See below for detailed examples. The more common "end user" functions like viewOnScreen and greedyViewOnScreen didn't change in their interface though.

Optional or obscure changes

Changes unlikely to affect most xmonad users.

• X.Hooks.DynamicLog urgency Urgency formatting now takes precedence over all other formatting, so xmobarStrip and dzenStrip are no longer needed. Multi-head users that distinguish urgent current from urgent visibles will need custom pretty printers but default behaviour is unchanged.

• The X.Util.XUtils paintAndWrite utility's parameter types have changed to allow printing multiple strings. Configs using it will need to be updated to use [Align] and [String].

Changes to the xmonad core

• XState now supports state extensions in xmonad-contrib. See darcs source or documentation.

• xmonad --verbose-version flag added to provide more detailed information about the xmonad build useful for troubleshooting.

• xmonad --replace flag added to attempt to replace compliant window managers.

• <+> is `mappend` and composeAll mconcat for any Monoid now, not just ManageHook. Thus it can be used with keybindings, handleEventHook, X (a -> a), and more. Also (-->) works withing any Monad rather than being restricted to Query, and doF any Query(Endo a) rather than only Endo WindowSet.

• The GenerateManpage script now uses the GPL'd pandoc to generate html and man versions of the manpage.

• spawn works for non-ascii commands by assuming the user locale is utf8. Previously users would have had to use (spawn . Codec.Binary.UTF8.String.encodeString)

Changes to xmonad-contrib

Throughout xmonad-contrib many monadic computations have been generalized to work in any MonadIO, i.e. in X or directly in main in IO.

Updated modules

Actions

• CycleWS now allows cycling within WSTagGroups, e.g. from "tag2:baz" with `workspaces = ["tag1:foo","tag1:bar","tag2:foo","tag2:baz","tag2:yow" ]' only tag2's foo, baz, and yow workspaces would cycle. Toggle actions now allow filtering out some workspaces, for example "NSP".

• DynamicWorkspaces includes several bug fixes and improvements.

• GridSelect has a new interface and exports numerous new helpers. Changes to xmonad.hs will be needed, see changes in xmonad.hs for details.

• OnScreen has improved several functions and offers greater flexibility; some interfaces have changed. See changes in xmonad.hs for details.

• PhysicalScreens added the exports onPrevNeighbour and onNextNeighbour.

• Search has added new predefined searches.

• SpawnOn uses extensible state rather than IORefs. See changes in xmonad.hs for details.

• TopicSpace added defaultTopicConfig for easier setup, manages its history via extensible state rather than U.StringProp, and also added reverseLastFocusedTopics.

• WindowBringer can use a custom menu command in place of dmenu. (The old dmenu actions haven't changed.)

• WindowMenu added the ability to use custom colors in its GridSelect menu.

Hooks

• DynamicHooks uses extensible state rather than IORefs. See changes in xmonad.hs for details.

• DynamicLog includes xmonadPropLog to output data via root window properties rather than via pipes. See also scripts/xmonadpropread.hs included with XMonadContrib source. For configs using X.H.UrgencyHook, enabling urgency on current or visible will override ppCurrent or ppVisible formatting and use the urgency formatting instead whenever a workspace contains urgent windows, similarly it ignores ppHidden formatting, eliminating the need for the dzen and xmobar format strippers.

• EwmhDesktops added fullscreenEventHook to full float windows requesting fullscreen via _NET_WM_STATE. See X.Layout.Fullscreen for a more flexible Layout Modifier approach to fullscreen requests.

• ManageDocks avoidStruts has been extended to behave more sensibly with over under multi-head configurations, i.e. allowing the use of xmobar at the bottom of a screen positioned over another xinerama screen. Note that current wm specifications do not support per screen struts, although it is under discussion, so many applications won't set struts at an interior screen edge.

• ManageHelpers has new currentWS query enabling per workspace differences in manageHooks.

Layout

• BorderResize modifies layouts supporting the SetGeometry message to allow resizing windows by dragging their corners (without needing to press a modifier key). It is best used with X.L.PositionStoreFloat or the complete X.C.Bluetile, however it can also be used with X.L.WindowArranger.

• Decoration has internal changes to support bluetile additions, including new windowTitleAddons and windowTitleIcons fields in Theme.

• GridVariants has added messages to further adjust layout behaviour.

• IndependentScreens now exports additional helpers to convert to and from its representation of workspaces assigned to each physical screen. It has also added marshallPP to make a pretty-printer aware of IndependentScreens.

• LayoutHints now exports hintsEventHook to refresh the screen immediately when a window's hints change, rather than waiting for a focus change.

• LayoutScreens now exports layoutSplitScreen to split the current screen into multiple workspaces based on some pure layout (versus layoutScreens which affects all screens.)

• Mastered can now add more than one window tiled vertically in the column it adds to some layout.

• MouseResizableTile now allows setting default window sizes similar to ResizableTile, while still resizing when dragging window splits.

• NoBorders is configurable, allowing the user to customize the presence of window borders in several different contexts.

• WindowSwitcherDecoration can use image buttons created with X.Layout.ImageButtonDecoration or the original bluetile buttons.

Prompt

• X.Prompt exports setInput and getInput for use in custom keymaps. copyString has been removed. The default quit bindings are Esc, C-[, and C-q. C-g is no longer bound.

Util

• Dzen has an improved interface including many new helper functions useful for creating custom notifications or message popups.

• XSelection putSelection has been removed. See Issue 317.

• XUtils paintAndWrite now prints multiple strings, taking [Align] and [String] parameters in place of Align and String.

New contrib modules

Actions

• BluetileCommands are the X.H.ServerMode commands used by the bluetile gtk2hs dock. Most of them can also be used with other interfaces to ServerMode if you have enabled the appropriate layout extensions from X.C.Bluetile.

• DynamicWorkspaceGroups implements switching groups of workspaces all at once on all monitors. It uses a prompt interface to select, add, and delete groups. It also exports helpers to work with these actions directly.

• DynamicWorkspaceOrder creates a custom ordering of workspaces for use with X.Actions.CycleWS.

• GroupNavigation provides methods for cycling through groups of windows across workspaces, ignoring windows that do not belong to this group. A group consists windows matching a user-provided boolean query. It also enables jumping back to the last used window in a group, (an action of special interest to mod-Tab recent window users.)

• KeyRemap allows remapping keymaps to, for example, switch between typing in Dvorak or US while keeping your xmonad keybindings in US layout

• WorkspaceNames without changing the config workspace list, WorkspaceNames allows dynamic workspace renaming, translation from workspaceID to name for use in dynamic log, and swapping workspaces by name. It persists across restarts. See also X.Layout.WorkspaceDir.

Config

• Bluetile enables the bluetile extensions minus the greeter and dock. See the bluetile project page for more details.

Hooks

• CurrentWorkspaceOnTop is a logHook used to restack floating layouts, ensuring dragged windows stay on top. It is used by bluetile config.

• DebugKeyEvents debugging module to track and print key events.

• FadeWindows is a more flexible and general interface for working with compositors than FadeInactive.

• FloatNext exports helpers for working with manage hooks that float spawned windows. See the X.Hooks.ToggleHook module for more flexible tools doing this and more.

• ICCCMFocus is a partial implentation of ICCCM focus support, mainly designed to improve java application user experience during focus changes. See also tracker Issue 177.

• ManageDocks no longer requires a focus change to trigger avoiding docks.

• Minimize implements an event hook handling minimize and restore hints. It's used with X.Layout.Minimize.

• PositionStoreHooks provides a manageHook and an eventHook to store and maintain position and size data, used by bluetile config. It added an argument to positionStoreManageHook to take window decorations (such as tabs) into account.

• ScreenCorners runs actions when you touch a screen corner with your mouse.

• ToggleHook toggles manageHooks on and off, or between two manageHooks, for example between doFloat and doRectFloat. It also provides helpers to show hook toggle state via dynamicLog. It's more general than X.Hooks.FloatNext.

Layout

• ButtonDecoration provides window decoration with clickable menu, minimize, maximize, close buttons. Requires use of X.L.Minimize, X.L.Maximize and X.L.DecorationAddons.

• DecorationAddons exports extra utilities to make decorations more useful.

• DraggingVisualizer is a helper for X.L.WindowSwitcherDecoration to make dragged windows follow the mouse cursor.

• Drawer is a layout modifier putting some windows into a "drawer" that expands or contracts depending on whether one of its windows has focus.

• Fullscreen provides hooks and helpers to send fullscreen messages to layouts, along with layout modifier examples that respond to these messages.

• Groups is a two-level layout that nests layout groups within a user provided layout that manages the nested groups.

• Groups.Examples shows two examples of Groups layouts.

• Groups.Helpers exports focus, swap, move and split helpers for use with Groups layouts.

• Groups.Wmii is another example Groups layout inspired by wmii's window management.

• ImageButtonDecoration lets you define your own xbm-like buttons to display on window decorations, and define actions to run when a button is clicked.

• LayoutBuilderP is a layout combiner similar to LayoutBuilder, but sends windows to rectangles by predicate rather than sending n windows to one rectangle and the rest to another.

• MultiColumns allows you to use as many columns as you'd like with as many windows in each column as you'd like.

• PositionStoreFloat is the main bluetile floating layout designed for dual-head, should be used along with X.L.NoFrillsDecoration and X.L.BorderResize. (Currently requires use of mouse to move and resize floating windows.)

• Renamed replaces the deprecated X.Layout.Named module. It provides much richer interface for transforming layout descriptions.

• TrackFloating is a layout modifier that prevents undesired focus shifts, for example in tiled layouts where the focus determines what's visible.

• WindowSwitcherDecoration allows dragging windows on top of each other to swap positions, (in certain layouts.) It can be used either with or without the ButtonDecoration action buttons.

• ZoomRow is a layout that places all windows in a row (or with Mirror, in a column). Windows can be resized, plus each window can be set to zoom to all available space when focused. The "zoom full" behaviour can be toggled per window.

Util

• Dmenu can now pass arguments to dmenu calls.

• ExtensibleState allows storing custom mutable state in xmonad. Can optionally be made persistent over restarts.

• Image manipulates xbm like images defined with matrices of Bool. Used by X.Layout.ImageButtonDecoration.

• PositionStore stores window position and size info in XState for better float management. Used by X.C.Bluetile.

• SpawnOnce spawns a command once and only once. Useful for session settings unique to xmonad to be run from startupHook only on login rather than on each xmonad restart.

• Stack is a collection of utilities for working with Maybe X.StackSet.Stacks. X.Layout.Groups and the Groups example modules make extensive use of X.Util.Stack.

• WorkspaceCompare has added physical screen compatible xinerama compare and sort (see X.Actions.PhysicalScreens.)

Misc

• The scripts directory in the xmonad-contrib source now includes window-properties.sh which uses xprop to display window properties formatted for pasting into manage hooks.

Deleted and deprecated modules

• X.Layout.Named (deprecated) Use X.Layout.Renamed instead.

Related Projects

xmonad-extras includes some modules with additional dependencies, like a Volume control, an MPD prompt and xmonad-eval which uses the hint interpreter to manipulate xmonad state during runtime via arbitrary haskell expressions ala emacs eval.

Bluetile is a tiling window manager based on xmonad which focuses on making the tiling paradigm easily accessible to users coming from traditional window managers by drawing on known conventions. It provides both keyboard and mouse access for its features. It is designed to be usable "out of the box" without being configurable, however all its core features excluding its dock are provided by xmonad-contrib extensions. People wanting a customized bluetile-like window manager can use XMonad.Config.Bluetile as a base or cherry pick modules providing the features they need.

xmonad-light allows using a limited version of xmonad-0.8 without having to have ghc installed. It provides a special syntax to customize a few common options using xmonad.conf instead of xmonad.hs.

yeganesh is a wrapper for dmenu that offers more commonly used choices first in the menu. Here is [example] of using yeganesh and dmenu with xmonad.

xmenud is a hierarchical pop-up gtk menu written in python, useful to spawn from a key binding. (Available in archlinux's AUR or via git from the website.

dzen-utils provides combinators for creating and processing dzen2 input strings.

hlint parses haskell source and offers suggestions on how to improve it. (Requires >=ghc-6.10)

gnome socket applet allows displaying xmonad logHook output in gnome-panel via a localhost port.

xmonad log applet allows displaying xmonad logHook output in xfce or gnome panels via dbus.

xmonad log plasmoid enables logHook output to kde plasmoids, also via dbus. (See also charon's version at git://git.thomasrast.ch/xmonad-log-plasmoid.git .)

taffybar is a gtk2hs based desktop information bar including an integrated system tray. It also communicates via dbus. It is similar to xmobar, but gives up some simplicity for flexibility plus a reasonable helping of eye candy.

Detailed examples regarding changes to xmonad.hs

XState change details

Since contrib modules can now store custom state in XState, the SpawnOn and DynamicHooks IORef parameters are no longer required: Users have to remove the first parameter to the respective functions. The functions mkSpawner and initDynamicHooks are also no longer necessary and have been removed.

Example:

-- Old code:
 sp <- mkSpawner
 ..
  [((mod1Mask,xK_k), shellPromptHere sp defaultXPConfig
   ..]

The above has to be changed to:

  -- no mkSpawner line
  ..
  [((mod1Mask,xK_k), shellPromptHere defaultXPConfig)
   ..]

The same applies to XMonad.Hooks.DynamicHooks.

OnScreen change details

The type of onScreen has been changed to allow more general onScreen functions. The old onScreen was very limited. Basicly the only working function derived from onScreen was viewOnScreen, since the greedyViewOnScreen never worked as supposed to, and any other function wouldn't work either.

The new onScreen takes any function that modifies the stack and runs it on the given screen. Since XMonad can not guess what you'd like to do with the focus after running this function, onScreen also accepts a Focus data which tells XMonad how to act.

Comparison:

---- Old version ----

-- Old type of onScreen:
onScreen :: (WorkspaceId -> WindowSet -> WindowSet) -- ^ default action
         -> ScreenId                                -- ^ screen id
         -> WorkspaceId                             -- ^ index of the workspace
         -> WindowSet                               -- ^ current stack
         -> WindowSet

-- The old implementation of viewOnScreen was:
viewOnScreen :: ScreenId -> WorkspaceId -> WindowSet -> WindowSet
viewOnScreen sc i = onScreen view sc i


---- New version ----

-- The new Focus data:
data Focus = FocusNew                       -- ^ always focus the new screen
           | FocusCurrent                   -- ^ always keep the focus on the current screen
           | FocusTag WorkspaceId           -- ^ always focus tag i on the new stack
           | FocusTagVisible WorkspaceId    -- ^ focus tag i only if workspace with tag i is visible on the old stack

-- New type of onScreen:
onScreen :: (WindowSet -> WindowSet) -- ^ function to run
         -> Focus                    -- ^ what to do with the focus
         -> ScreenId                 -- ^ screen id
         -> WindowSet                -- ^ current stack
         -> WindowSet

-- A few example implementations (don't worry - they're already built in):
viewOnScreen           :: ScreenId -> WorkspaceId -> WindowSet -> WindowSet
viewOnScreen sc i       = onScreen (view i) (FocusTag i) sc
greedyViewOnScreen     :: ScreenId -> WorkspaceId -> WindowSet -> WindowSet
greedyViewOnScreen sc i = onScreen (greedyView i) FocusCurrent sc