Table of Contents

• Info
  • What is Pinnacle?
  • Features
  • Roadmap
• Dependencies
• Building
• Running
• Configuration
  • Out-of-the-box configurations
  • Custom configuration
    • Generating a config
  • More on configuration
    • The metaconfig.toml file
  • Lua Language Server completion
  • API references
• Controls
• Feature Requests, Bug Reports, Contributions, and Questions
• Changelog

Info

What is Pinnacle?

Pinnacle is a Wayland compositor built in Rust using Smithay. It's my attempt at creating something like AwesomeWM for Wayland.

Features

• Tag system
• Customizable layouts, including most of the ones from Awesome
• (Scuffed) XWayland support
• wlr-layer-shell support
• Configurable in Lua or Rust
• wlr-screencopy support
• Is very cool 👍

Roadmap

• See #142

Dependencies

You will need:

• Rust 1.75 or newer
• Packages for Smithay: libwayland libxkbcommon libudev libinput libgdm libseat, as well as xwayland
  • Arch:

    sudo pacman -S wayland wayland-protocols libxkbcommon systemd-libs libinput mesa seatd xorg-xwayland
    

  • Debian/Ubuntu:

    sudo apt install libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev libudev-dev libinput-dev libgdm-dev libseat-dev xwayland
    

  • NixOS: There is flake flake.nix with a devShell. It also includes the other tools needed for the build and sets up the LD_LIBRARY_PATH so the dynamically loaded libraries are found.

    Luarocks currently doesn't install the Lua library and its dependencies due to openssh directory shenanigans. Fix soon, hopefully. In the meantime you can use the Rust API.

• protoc, the Protocol Buffer Compiler, for configuration
  • Arch:

    sudo pacman -S protobuf
    

  • Debian/Ubuntu:

    sudo apt install protobuf-compiler
    

• just, to automate installation of libraries and files
  • You don't need this but without installation you will not be able to run cargo run -- config gen or use the Lua API (it requires the protobuf definitions at runtime)
  • Arch:

    sudo pacman -S just
    

If you would like to use the Lua API, you will additionally need:

• Lua 5.2 or newer
• LuaRocks, the Lua package manager
  • Arch:

    sudo pacman -S luarocks
    

  • Debian/Ubuntu:

    sudo apt install luarocks
    

  • You must run eval $(luarocks path --lua-version <your-lua-version>) so that your config can find the API library files. It is recommended to place this command in your shell's startup script.

TODO: other distros

Building

Build the project with:

cargo build [--release]

To additionally install the default configs, protobuf definitions, and Lua API, run:

just install build [--release] # Order matters, put build/run/test last to pass through arguments

Running

Tip

Before running, read the information in Configuration.

Important

If you are going to use a Lua config, you must run just install to install the protobuf definitions and Lua library.

After building, run the executable located in either:

./target/debug/pinnacle     # without --release
./target/release/pinnacle   # with --release

Or, run the project directly with

cargo run [--release]

# With installation:
just install run [--release]

See flags Pinnacle accepts by running cargo run -- --help (or -h).

Configuration

Pinnacle is configured in your choice of Lua or Rust.

Out-of-the-box configurations

Pinnacle embeds the default Rust config into the binary. If you would like to use the Lua or Rust default configs standalone, run one of the following in the crate root:

# For a Lua configuration
cargo run -- -c "./api/lua/examples/default"
just install run -- -c "./api/lua/examples/default"

# For a Rust configuration
cargo run -- -c "./api/rust/examples/default_config"
just install run -- -c "./api/rust/examples/default_config"

Custom configuration

Important

Pinnacle is under development, and there will be major breaking changes to these APIs until I release version 0.1, at which point there will be an API stability spec in place.

Generating a config

Note

The default configs must be installed for them to be copied:

just install-configs # Or alternatively, `just install` which installs everything

Run the following command to open up the interactive config generator:

cargo run -- config gen

This will prompt you to choose a language (Lua or Rust) and directory to put the config in. It will then generate a config at that directory. If Lua is chosen and there are conflicting files in the directory, the generator will prompt to rename them to a backup before continuing. If Rust is chosen, the directory must be manually emptied to continue.

Run cargo run -- config gen --help for information on the command.

More on configuration

Pinnacle is configured purely through IPC using gRPC. This is done through configuration clients that use the Lua and Rust interface libraries.

As the compositor has no direct integration with these clients, it must know what it needs to run through a separate file, aptly called the metaconfig.toml file.

To start a config, Pinnacle will search for a metaconfig.toml file in the first directory that exists from the following:

1. The directory passed in through --config-dir/-c
2. $PINNACLE_CONFIG_DIR
3. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pinnacle
4. ~/.config/pinnacle if $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not defined

If there is no metaconfig.toml file in that directory, Pinnacle will start the embedded Rust config.

Additionally, if your config crashes, Pinnacle will also start the embedded Rust config.

Note

If you have not run eval $(luarocks path --lua-version <your-lua-version>), Pinnacle will fallback to the embedded Rust config.

The metaconfig.toml file

A metaconfig.toml file must contain the following entries:

• command: An array denoting the program and arguments Pinnacle will run to start a config.
• reload_keybind: A table denoting a keybind that Pinnacle will hardcode to restart your config.
• kill_keybind: A table denoting a keybind that Pinnacle will hardcode to quit the compositor.
  • The two keybinds above prevent you from getting locked in the compositor if the default config fails to start.

It also has the following optional entries:

• socket_dir: A directory that Pinnacle will place its IPC socket in (this defaults to $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR, falling back to /tmp if that doesn't exist).
• [envs]: A table of environment variables that Pinnacle will start the config with.

For the specifics, see the default metaconfig.toml file.

Lua Language Server completion

A .luarc.json file is included with the default Lua config and will set the correct workspace library files for use with the Lua language server.

API references

Lua: https://pinnacle-comp.github.io/lua-reference/main.
Rust: https://pinnacle-comp.github.io/rust-reference/main.

Documentation for other branches can be reached by replacing main with the branch you want.

Controls

The following are the default controls in the default_config.

Binding	Action
Ctrl + Mouse left drag	Move window
Ctrl + Mouse right drag	Resize window
CtrlAlt + q	Quit Pinnacle
CtrlAlt + c	Close window
Ctrl + Return	Spawn Alacritty (you can change this in the config)
CtrlAlt + Space	Toggle between floating and tiled
Ctrl + f	Toggle fullscreen
Ctrl + m	Toggle maximized
Ctrl + Space	Cycle to the next layout
CtrlShift + Space	Cycle to the previous layout
Ctrl + 1 to 5	Switch to tag 1 to 5
CtrlShift + 1 to 5	Toggle tag 1 to 5
CtrlAlt + 1 to 5	Move a window to tag 1 to 5
CtrlAltShift + 1 to 5	Toggle tag 1 to 5 on a window

Feature Requests, Bug Reports, Contributions, and Questions

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.

With Special Thanks To

• Niri: For all that rendering and protocol stuff I, ahem, took inspiration from