How To Install dwm on Debian 10

Learn how to install dwm on Debian 10 with this tutorial. dwm is dynamic window manager

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install dwm on Debian 10.

What is dwm

dwm is:

dwm is a minimalistic window manager. It manages windows in tiling and floating modes. Either mode can be applied dynamically, depending on the application in use and the task performed.

In tiling mode windows are managed in a master and stacking column. The master column contains the window which needs most attention at a time, whereas the stacking column contains all other windows in a stack. Dialog windows are managed floating, however.

In floating mode windows can be resized and moved freely. Windows are grouped by tags. All windows with a specific tag can be viewed at a time. But each window may contain more than one tag, which makes it visible in several views.

Please notice that dwm is currently customized through editing its source code, so you probably want to build your own dwm packages. This package is compiled with the default configuration and should just give you an idea about what dwm brings to your desktop.

There are three methods to install dwm on Debian 10. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install dwm Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install dwm using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install dwm

Install dwm Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install dwm using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install dwm

Install dwm Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install dwm using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install dwm

How To Uninstall dwm on Debian 10

To uninstall only the dwm package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove dwm

Uninstall dwm And Its Dependencies

To uninstall dwm and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 10, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove dwm

Remove dwm Configurations and Data

To remove dwm configuration and data from Debian 10 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge dwm

Remove dwm configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove dwm configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge dwm

Dependencies

dwm have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install dwm package on Debian 10 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.