labwc(1)

# NAME

labwc - a Wayland stacking compositor

# SYNOPSIS

*labwc* [options...]

# DESCRIPTION

Labwc is a wlroots-based stacking compositor for wayland.

It is light-weight and independent with a focus on simply stacking windows
well and rendering some window decorations. Where practicable it uses clients
for wall-paper, panels, screenshots and so on.

# SIGNALS

The compositor will exit or reload its configuration upon receiving SIGTERM
and SIGHUP respectively. For example:

```
kill -s <signal> $LABWC_PID
killall -s <signal> labwc
```

Each running instance of labwc sets the environment variable `LABWC_PID` to
its PID. This is useful for sending signals to a specific instance and is what
the `--exit` and `--reconfigure` options use.

# OPTIONS

*-c, --config* <config-file>
	Specify a config file with path

*-C, --config-dir* <config-directory>
	Specify a config directory

*-d, --debug*
	Enable full logging, including debug information

*-e, --exit*
	Exit the compositor by sending SIGTERM to `$LABWC_PID`

*-h, --help*
	Show help message and quit

*-m, --merge-config*
	Merge user config/theme files in all XDG Base Directories

*-r, --reconfigure*
	Reload the compositor configuration by sending SIGHUP to `$LABWC_PID`

*-s, --startup* <command>
	Run command on startup

*-v, --version*
	Show the version number and quit

*-V, --verbose*
	Enable more verbose logging

# SESSION MANAGEMENT

To enable the use of graphical clients launched via D-Bus or systemd service
activation, labwc can update both activation environments on launch. Provided
that labwc is aware of an active D-Bus user session (*i.e.*, the environment
variable `DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS` is defined), the compositor will invoke the
commands

```
dbus-update-activation-environment
systemctl --user import-environment
```

(when available) to notify D-Bus and systemd with the values of the following
environment variables:

```
WAYLAND_DISPLAY
DISPLAY
XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
XDG_SESSION_TYPE
XCURSOR_SIZE
XCURSOR_THEME
LABWC_PID
```

This behavior is enabled by default whenever labwc uses the "DRM" wlroots
backend (which implies that labwc is the primary compositor on the console).
When other backends are employed (for example, when labwc runs nested in another
Wayland compositor or an X11 server), updates to the activation environment are
disabled by default. Updates to the activation environment can be forced by
setting the environment variable `LABWC_UPDATE_ACTIVATION_ENV` to one of the
truthy values `1`, `true`, `yes` or `on`; or suppressed by setting the variable
to one of the falsy values `0`, `false`, `no` or `off`.

Whenever labwc updates the activation environment on launch, it will also
attempt to clear the activation environment on exit. For D-Bus, which does not
provide a means for properly un-setting variables in the activation environment,
this is accomplished by setting the session variables to empty strings. For
systemd, the command `systemctl --user unset-environment` will be invoked to
actually remove the variables from the activation environment.

# SEE ALSO

labwc-actions(5), labwc-config(5), labwc-menu(5), labwc-theme(5)