Overview

PMDock (poor man's dock) is an X11 panel for hosting WindowMaker/AfterStep dockapps and simple application launchers in window managers without a native dock.

I wrote it mainly to use with EMWM on my vintage ThinkPad.

Requirements

• gcc or clang
• make
• pkg-config
• libX11
• libXpm
• Imlib2

Building

$ make

Usage

Compared to WindowManager's dock, PMDock is not interactive. All dockapps and launchers must be specified on startup using command line arguments.

Since PMDock interferes with handling of application windows, it's recommended to start it before the window manager.

Typically it should be added to the ~/.xinitrc file with the -d option, which waits for all dockapps to be swallowed and then daemonizes.

Available options

pmdock [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -a            Show on all virtual desktops
  -A            Show on top of all windows
  -x POSITION   X coordinate (default: 0)
  -y POSITION   Y coordinate (default: 0)
  -s SIZE       Tile size in pixels (default: 64)
  -b IMAGE      Tile background image (default: tile-default.png)
  -H            Horizontal layout (default: vertical)
  -D DECOR      Window decorations hints (default: 0x00)
  -f FUNCS      Window functions hints (default: 0x00)
  -d            Daemonize after swallowing all dockapps
  -r NAME       Resource name for dockapp in the next tile
  -i ICON       Icon path for launcher in the next tile
  -c COMMAND    Command to execute in the next tile
  -t TYPE       Add tile (dockapp or launcher)
  -v            Show debug messages
  -h            Display this help message

Adding dockapps

Dockapps are configured by passing a sequence of -c COMMAND -r NAME -t dockapp options, for example:

pmdock \
  -c "wmclockmon" -r "wmclockmon" -t dockapp \
  -c "wmbattery" -r "wmbattery" -t dockapp

The NAME must match the first part of the dockapp's WM_CLASS property (res_name). To look it up, start the dockapp, run xprop WM_CLASS, and click on the dockapp window:

$ xprop WM_CLASS
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "wmclockmon", "DockApp"

You can also use xwininfo -root -tree and search for the dockapp:

$ xwininfo -root -tree
...
    0x3000002 "wmclockmon": ("wmclockmon" "DockApp")  1x1+6+32  +6+32
...

Usually the name will be the same as the binary name but there are exceptions.

Adding launchers

Launchers are configured by passing a sequence of -c COMMAND -i ICON -t launcher options, for example:

pmdock \
  -c "firefox" -i "firefox.png" -t launcher \
  -c "thunderbird" -i "thunderbird.png" -t launcher

Setting window properties

Pmdock uses the _MOTIF_WM_HINTS property to set window decorations and functions. By default the main window doesn't have any decorations (like border) nor functions (like resize). If you want, you can enable them using -f and -D.

The value for -f is a bitwise OR of the following flags:

• 0x01 - Resize
• 0x02 - Move
• 0x04 - Minimize
• 0x08 - Maximize
• 0x10 - Close

The value for -D is a bitwise OR of the following flags:

• 0x01 - Border
• 0x02 - Resize
• 0x04 - Title
• 0x08 - Menu
• 0x10 - Minimize
• 0x20 - Maximize