_______________________________
INSTALLING STUMPWM ON FREEBSD
Nicolas Herry
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2017/03/10
Table of Contents
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1 Installing StumpWM on FreeBSD
.. 1.1 How to install StumpWM
..... 1.1.1 Install SBCL
..... 1.1.2 Install Quicklisp
..... 1.1.3 Install StumpWM
..... 1.1.4 Get emacs hook up to StumpWM sessions
..... 1.1.5 Configure your X session
1 Installing StumpWM on FreeBSD
===============================
There is an [excellent guide] describing in details how to install
[StumpWM] and start playing with it interactively through emacs and
SLIME. There are, however, a few things that have changed since this
guide has been written, or just some traps I fell into that I thought
I should describe as well.
[excellent guide]
http://www.kaashif.co.uk/2015/06/28/hacking-stumpwm-with-common-lisp/
[StumpWM] http://stumpwm.github.io/
1.1 How to install StumpWM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The official documentation recommends checking out the code from the
repository, installing the dependencies with Quicklisp and
/configure-make-make-installing/ the source code. I used to do just
that for years and it works very well. However, before I read the
guide, I did not realise there was another option: installing StumpWM
itself through Quicklisp. That way, you obtain a proper release (not
just whatever current code happens to be in GitHub), a clean
installation in your Quicklisp repository and an easy way to hook up
an interactive session to it.
1.1.1 Install SBCL
------------------
The first step is indeed to install a Lisp compiler. David Bjergaard,
StumpWM's current maintainer and main developer [has recently
announced that only SBCL will be supported in the future], which has
the merit of cutting short the question of which implementation to
choose. There is a catch however: [there used to be some problems with
threading support for SBCL on FreeBSD]. Everything is fine now, and
one can now build SBCL and get a multithreaded environment. Note that
I said build: for some reason, the pre-built packages don't have
threading support activated. The only option left to us is then to
install the port:
,----
| # cd /usr/ports/lang/sbcl
| # make sure you select Threading in the options
| # make config
| # make install
`----
As of writing, the above gets you SBCL version 1.3.13. Note that as a
test, I also downloaded the latest vanilla source code from the
official site (version 1.3.14), built and installed the thing in a
hierarchy in my home directory. This builds fine, including
multithreading, but I noted a difference where the Quicklisp
dependencies are stored: my sbcl 1.3.13 from ports put them in
`~/quicklisp', whereas the vanilla 1.3.14 put them in
`~/.quicklisp'. I haven't checked whether this is a change in the
defaults, or just some configuration option that differs between the
ports and the official release. Keep this in mind when you set up
emacs to load the slime-helper, for example. For the remainder of this
guide, I consider that sbcl was installed from the ports and that
quicklisp dependencies are written to `~/quicklisp'.
[has recently announced that only SBCL will be supported in the future]
http://nongnu.13855.n7.nabble.com/StumpWM-1-0-0-Released-td219024.html
[there used to be some problems with threading support for SBCL on
FreeBSD] https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id%3D184425
1.1.2 Install Quicklisp
-----------------------
[Quicklisp] can be installed exactly as described by Kaashif
Hymabaccus:
,----
| $ curl -O https://beta.quicklisp.org/quicklisp.lisp
| $ sbcl --load /path/to/quicklisp.lisp
`----
And then in the REPL:
,----
| * (quicklisp-quickstart:install)
| * (ql:add-to-init-file)
`----
[Quicklisp] https://www.quicklisp.org/beta/
1.1.3 Install StumpWM
---------------------
There are two options here: either clone the official GitHub
repository and follow the instructions given in the manual, or just
trust Quicklisp to do the right thing and install everything. I find
the latter easier to manage in the long run: Quicklisp installs all
the dependencies, and is able to update the project automatically and
cleanly. No surprises with dependencies or anything.
,----
| * (ql:quickload "stumpwm")
`----
This will install StumpWM along with its dependencies (that is, `clx',
`cl-ppcre' and `alexandria') and will proceed recursively down the
dependency chain to install everyting needed to run StumpWM.
1.1.4 Get emacs hook up to StumpWM sessions
-------------------------------------------
A major aspect of Lisp development is the ability to connect to a
session and interact with it, modifying code straight on the live
system. In the case of StumpWM, this means the ability to configure
the whole system, adding or removing features and behaviours, changing
the keybindings and controlling the whole Window manager from within
emacs. All without restarting StumpWM, just like you never have to
restart emacs when you modify it.
The setup requires on the server side sbcl to create a swank server
and on the client side emacs to communicate with the Lisp session
through [SLIME]. Installing everything is made very simple by
Quicklisp.
In an sbcl REPL:
,----
| * (ql:quickload "swank")
| * (ql:quickload "quicklisp-slime-helper")
`----
You can then instruct StumpWM to create the server. Following the good
advice in the blog post, have it listen to port `4004' instead of the
standard `4005', so you won't connect to this session by accident. In
your `~/.stumpwmrc', write the following:
,----
| (in-package :stumpwm)
|
| (require :swank)
| (swank-loader:init)
| (swank:create-server :port 4004
| :style swank:*communication-style*
| :dont-close t)
|
`----
Now, in you emacs config, write the following:
,----
| (load (expand-file-name "~/quicklisp/slime-helper.el"))
`----
[SLIME] https://common-lisp.net/project/slime/
1.1.5 Configure your X session
------------------------------
Starting X in our case means starting sbcl and asking it to load
stumpwm. Create the file `startstumpwm' with the following content:
,----
| (require :stumpwm)
| (stumpwm:stumpwm)
`----
I must confess here that since I've been using Unix, I've never used
anything like a Desktop Environment, which means that I don't know how
to tell KDE or Gnome to use StumpWM for windows management. If, like
me, you still rely on `startx' and friends, write the following in
your `~/.xinitrc':
,----
| exec sbcl --load ~/bin/startstumpwm --eval '(quit)'
`----
Note that we explictly ask sbcl to quit by passing
,----
| --eval '(quit)'
`----
Otherwise, after you quit StumpWM, sbcl would leave the REPL open, and
your X session would keep running forever. Again, it's very possible
this last bit isn't necessary if you start your X session through
other means.