wmii is basically unmaintained in the upstream repository. There hasn't been any activity for over a year. Many wmii users are switching to alternatives like i3, bspwm, etc., but I have used wmii far too long (since 2006) to just give up on it.
I have created a pu (proposed updates) branch where I fix bugs and make improvements (largely to my own liking) that I think will make wmii better but without changing its behavior too much.
I personally use the python alternative wmiirc implementation inside the wmii repository and there are quite a lot of modifications done in that area.
/ Pontus Andersson <epontan at gmail dot com>
wmii is a dynamic window manager for X11. It supports classic and tiled window management with extended keyboard, mouse, and 9P-based[1] remote control. It consists of the wmii(1) window manager and the wmiir(1) the remote access utility.
In order to build wmii you need the Xlib header files and libixp.
xmessage is used by the default scripts. Libixp, if not provided, can
be obtained from http://libs.suckless.org/. On debian, you should be
able to obtain all dependencies by running make deb-dep. Python is
recommended for more advanced configurations.
First, edit config.mk to match your local setup.
To build, simply run:
make
To install, run the following, as root if necessary:
make install
On debian, you should only have to run make deb to create a debian
package. No further configuration should be necessary.
Add the following line to your .xinitrc to start wmii using startx:
wmii-wrapper
Or the following to run with the alternative python wmiirc:
wmii-wrapper -r python/wmiirc
In order to connect wmii to a specific display, make sure that the DISPLAY environment variable is set correctly. For example:
DISPLAY=:1 wmii-wrapper
This will start wmii on display :1.
The configuration of wmii is done by customizing the rc script wmiirc,
which remotely controls the window manager and handles various events.
The main wmiirc script lives in /etc/wmii while wmiirc_local goes
in ~/.wmii.
More advanced versions of wmiirc are provided in python and ruby. For more information on them, see alternative_wmiircs/README.
The following people have contributed especially to wmii in various ways:
- Christoph Wegscheider <christoph dot wegscheider at wegi dot net>
- Georg Neis <gn at suckless dot org>
- Uwe Zeisberger <zeisberg at informatik dot uni-freiburg dot de>
- Uriel <uriel99 at gmail dot com>
- Scot Doyle <scot at scotdoyle dot com>
- Sebastian Hartmann <seb dot wmi at gmx dot de>
- Bernhard Leiner <bleiner at gmail dot com>
- Jonas Domeij <jonas dot domeij at gmail dot com>
- Vincent <10 dot 50 at free dot fr>
- Oliver Kopp <olly at flupp dot de>
- Sebastian Roth <sebastian dot roth at gmail dot com>
- Nico Golde <nico at ngolde dot de>
- Steve Hoffman <steveh at g2switchworks dot com>
- Christof Musik <christof at senfdax dot de>
- Steffen Liebergeld <perl at gmx dot org>
- Tobias Walkowiak <wal at ivu dot de>
- Sander van Dijk <a dot h dot vandijk at gmail dot com>
- Salvador Peiro <saoret dot one at gmail dot com>
- Anthony Martin <ality at pbrane dot org>
- Icarus Sparry <wmii at icarus dot freeuk dot com>
- Norman Golisz <norman dot golisz at arcor dot de>
- Stefano K. Lee <wizinblack at gmail dot com >
- Stefan Tibus <sjti at gmx dot net>
- Neptun <neptun at gmail dot com>
- Daniel Wäber <_wabu at web dot de>
[2] http://plan9.us