autostart

It can be desirable to launch certain programs automatically alongside the window manager when it starts up.

For this there is the autostart configuration option which as per the default configuration has a simple example of starting the st terminal automatically when the window manager starts.

static const char *const autostart[] = {
//	"st", NULL,
	NULL /* terminate */
};

static const char *const autorestart[] = {
	NULL /* terminate */
};

The commands from both arrays are executed using execvp() and any command line arguments must be added as separate strings rather than a single string that contains spaces.

Here is an example of starting a compositor:

static const char *const autostart[] = {
	"picom", "--experimental-backends", "--blur-method", "dual_kawase", "--blur-strength", "5", "-b", NULL,
	NULL /* terminate */
};

Should you need to execute shell commands then you will need to prefix them with "sh", "-c" (or another shell as needed).

The window manager keeps will only start programs defined in the autostart array during the initial startup. The programs will not be spawned again when restarting, thus any changes to this array will not result in new programs to be launched when restarting the window manager. This is in contrast to the autorestart array which holds commands that are only executed following a restart of the window manager.

That said some scripts are better placed in your ~/.xinitrc file if you use startx to start your window manager or in ~/.xsession or ~/.xprofile if you are using a login manager.

For example in a multi-monitor setup you may want to run xrandr to arrange the monitors before the window manager starts up for a smoother experience.

Back to Configuration > System.