Reference

External bars

lxwm supports external bars through a small local IPC socket.

Baseline setup

[core]
bar_enabled = 0
ipc_enabled = 1

[autostart]
bar = polybar main

Disable the internal bar and start your external bar from config.

IPC socket

Socket path format:

/tmp/lxwm-<uid>-<display>.sock

Display uses a sanitized value. Example: :1 becomes _1.

Example commands:

printf 'ws 3\n' | socat - UNIX-CONNECT:/tmp/lxwm-1000-_1.sock
printf 'focus right\n' | socat - UNIX-CONNECT:/tmp/lxwm-1000-_1.sock
printf 'spawn xterm\n' | socat - UNIX-CONNECT:/tmp/lxwm-1000-_1.sock

Or with the helper binary:

lxwm-msg ws 3
lxwm-msg focus right
lxwm-msg spawn xterm

Current limits

  • No event subscription stream yet.
  • No JSON protocol yet. Commands are plain text.
  • No native click-to-command bridge. Use your bar's command hooks.