ratpoison
Ratpoison is a simple window manager with no large library dependencies, no fancy graphics, no window decorations, and no rodent dependence. It is largely modeled after GNU Screen, which has done wonders in the virtual terminal market. All interaction with the window manager is done through keystrokes. ratpoison has a prefix map to minimize the key clobbering that cripples EMACS and other quality pieces of software. All windows are maximized and kept maximized to avoid wasting precious screen space.
| Tags | Desktop Environment Window Manager |
|---|---|
| Licenses | GPL |
| Operating Systems | POSIX |
| Implementation | C |
Recent releases
- 27 Apr 2009 21:15
Changes: A handful of new commands were added, xft support was added, a new input history implementation was added, and bugs were fixed.
- 19 Feb 2008 23:46
Changes: Bugs were fixed in the keyboard handler.
- 06 Oct 2007 22:32
No changes have been submitted for this release.
- 20 Dec 2006 03:44
Changes: Ten new commands were added. Bugs were fixed. I18n fonts were added.
- 02 Apr 2006 17:52
Changes: Bugfixes. A few new commands and minor changes to behavior.
- All comments
Recent commentsRe: Problems with various console apps
workaround:
1. start ratpoison
2. start xterm (e.g. "^T c")
3. issue redisplay command (e.g. "^T l")
4. issue the following in xterm: "echo "XTerm*geometry: ${COLUMNS}x${LINES}" >> ~/.Xresources"
of course the .Xresources should be loaded ("xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources") on X startup but most people have that bit setup. i do for example, although i can't find where - must be default behaviour of gentoo's xinit.
Re: Problems with various console apps
I had the same problem with my xterms, but I do everything in Screen anyway, and there's no problem.
Re: Problems with various console apps
> I tried this wm based on a link to the
> freshmeat article. Fantastic concept,
> just what I wanted for an old IBM 560
> laptop that was to be enlisted to
> back-and-forth library duty (the old
> lappy you don't mind having stolen).
> Unfortunately, I have to give it poor
> marks. I was able to compile it to use
> aterm, xterm, and rxvt on different
> occasions. Each time console apps like
> "less" and "man"
> (essential one that latter, no?)
> displayed their pages only on half the
> screen real estate (800x600) and also
> presented various forms of buffer chaos.
> Having visited the #ratpoison irc chan
> on freenode, I was told that it was an
> "X bug" by a helpful chap who
> shall remain nameless. An X bug?
>
> He informed me that I should use an:
> "eval `resize`" -- and this
> indeed did solve the issue...only it was
> necessary to do that for each xterm.
>
> I would love to be able to use a wm like
> rp...seems like the most minimalistic
> around -- but unless it can handle
> ultra-common apps like "less"
> and "man," I must warn other
> lightweight wm seekers away.
>
> F/H
The resize bug is not a bug in X but a race condition in Xterm. As far as I understand the same problem is present in Ion. Some users have noticed that it has disappeared with newer versions of XFree86.
If you experience this problem use the redisplay command in ratpoison which is bound to C-t l. This will force a resize event and the xterm with fix itself.
Shawn
Problems with various console apps
I tried this wm based on a link to the freshmeat article. Fantastic concept, just what I wanted for an old IBM 560 laptop that was to be enlisted to back-and-forth library duty (the old lappy you don't mind having stolen). Unfortunately, I have to give it poor marks. I was able to compile it to use aterm, xterm, and rxvt on different occasions. Each time console apps like "less" and "man" (essential one that latter, no?) displayed their pages only on half the screen real estate (800x600) and also presented various forms of buffer chaos. Having visited the #ratpoison irc chan on freenode, I was told that it was an "X bug" by a helpful chap who shall remain nameless. An X bug?
He informed me that I should use an: "eval `resize`" -- and this indeed did solve the issue...only it was necessary to do that for each xterm.
I would love to be able to use a wm like rp...seems like the most minimalistic around -- but unless it can handle ultra-common apps like "less" and "man," I must warn other lightweight wm seekers away.
F/H
Re: ratpoison rocks
>
> %
> % % now i can finally throw the bloody
> % thing
> % % away.
> % %
> %
> %
> % Totally, dude! This puts every WM
> I've
> % tried to total shame!
> %
> %
>
>
> yeah, very cool wm. but working with
> gimp in ratpoison is very uncomfortable
> :[%
>
>
>
>
I've solved the problem. Now when you try to boot the gimp, ratpoison segfaults. It's the only clean solution.