CachyOS Install spectrwm on CachyOS
A minimalistic automatic tiling window manager that tries to stay out of the way.
From the official CachyOS repo. Install with pacman, no AUR helper needed.
Reviewed Nov 2, 2026 · independent guide
How do I install spectrwm on CachyOS?
Run this in a terminal:
sudo pacman -S spectrwm-gitspectrwm-git is in the cachyos repo, the CachyOS project's own package repository, so pacman installs it directly with no AUR helper and no build script. The package is signed with the CachyOS repository key, and pacman checks the signature before it installs.
What should I do after installing spectrwm?
- It installs these commands: scrotwm, spectrwm and spectrwm-no-preload.
- Run pacman -Qi spectrwm-git to see the installed version and the optional dependencies.
How do I update or remove spectrwm?
Update:
sudo pacman -SyuRemove:
sudo pacman -Rns spectrwm-gitWhat is spectrwm?
A small dynamic tiling window manager for X11.
Package description: A minimalistic automatic tiling window manager that tries to stay out of the way.
Reviews of spectrwm on CachyOS
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From GitHub
conformal/spectrwm · ★ 1,413 stars · last commit Jul 20, 2026 · latest release Aug 27, 2025
Real issues opened by users on the project's GitHub, shown as written with a link to each one. 10 most reacted issues opened in the last two years plus the 5 newest issues, bots, pull requests, non English and political posts skipped, capped at 15 per repo. Fetched Nov 1, 2026.
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Would be great swallow function (aka DWM - I tried alternative solution, like devour, but doesnt work properly, because does not put the opened window in the right place, and does not jump back to it when you exit, i.e. it completely changes the layout of the windows.
- New releaseClosed
I created this issue to see if we have enough for a release. @LordReg what are we thinking?
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Something I was missing in this WM is ability to resize windows by scitpt to certain width. I tried scripts which use wmctrl and xdotool, but the size of window did not change. Does SpectrWM allows external tools to modify the size of windows?
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Briefly testing the current 3.7 branch: if a window with resizing constraints is added to a tiled layout, such as xterm, the tiles do not fill exactly the region. They can overflow the visible region (usually at the bottom, thus going behind the bar). Previously any window was…
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hi, after some updates in gentoo i seem to encounter a bug in input tracking for spectrwm. i do not think the bug was caused by a change in spectrwm, but probably a bug in an underlying X library that got updated, though i'm not sure which yet. i'm on gentoo and was using 3.6.0 -…
- uniconify orderClosed
I often use iconify to get windows out of the way temporarily, however I'd like to uniconify them in LIFO order, so that I can just hit the uniconify keybinding and press RET immediately to get the last window back out. Is it possible, somehow? I guess dmenu receives the list and…
- Statusbar and signalsClosed
Hi, I'm trying to debug statusbars and signals (i.e. getting statsubar to immediately refresh on a keypress, like volume, with signals) and I've looked all over the place to no avail. My config is located here, but the relevant content is the baraction, bar configs, and these…
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What I try to acheve is to run a terminal with different font size depending on which physical screen terminal will open. I have 13' screen on laptop on which I would like to open terminal with bigger font, but on the external screen fonts should be smaller. But the problem is…
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Is there a way to change the tick amount which is used for shrink/grow of the master space? With the introduction of resizestep I thought that this will also work for tiled windows, but this only works for floating ones. Is this can be changed only in the source code for now?
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The normal syntax for executing a Xfe helper program doesn't work for me in my /.spectrwm.conf file and neither does including the full path. All other programs that I use work fine, including appimages and portable apps (when I include the full path) but the Xfe helper apps…
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When a mapped floating window (e.g. a GTK dialog that grows after its content loads asynchronously) sends a ConfigureRequest to resize itself, configurerequest() updates win->gfloat but the actually-applied geometry win->g is only refreshed inside loadfloatgeom(), which…
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I love your program, I really do, everything is about perfect as I would like with a window manager. Except that it's not controllable through a hotkey daemon (sxhkd), which is absolutely mandatory for me. wmctl wasn't written with tilingi or dynamic WMs in mind so it's…
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Recent changes to pledge/unveil after OpenBSD 7.8 require rpath and wpath now. I've been told that if you don't want that to grant you access to the entire filesystem then you also need to now use unveil as well. Without this, spectrwm can't launch any terminals/shells as the…
- NOBORDER quirkOpen
It would be nice to have a NOBORDER quirk. In my current setup on some of the workspaces I have empty blocked and transparent terminal which allows me to open other programs in tiling mode as narrow window. However that terminal window, even if it is set with no focus, still has…
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Shows up in both Debian 13 trixie (GCC 14) and Debian sid (GCC 15). New in spectrwm 3.7.0. Compare the build log for spectrwm 3.7.0, where the warnings show up, and the build log for spectrwm 3.6.0, where they don't. The logs are for the amd64 (x8664) builds, but the behavior is…
spectrwm on CachyOS: questions
Is spectrwm in the official CachyOS repo?
Yes. The spectrwm-git package is in the cachyos repo, version 3.5.1.r10.g2c776df-1, built 2024-07-08. Install it with sudo pacman -S spectrwm-git.
Do I need an AUR helper for spectrwm?
No. It comes from the cachyos repo, so plain pacman installs and updates it, and sudo pacman -Syu keeps it current.
What is the spectrwm command?
The package installs scrotwm, spectrwm and spectrwm-no-preload.