quickshell/BUILD.md

Build instructions

Instructions for building from source and distro packagers. We highly recommend distro packagers read through this page fully.

Dependencies

Quickshell has a set of base dependencies you will always need, names vary by distro:

• cmake
• qt6base
• qt6declarative
• pkg-config

We recommend an implicit dependency on qt6svg. If it is not installed, svg images and svg icons will not work, including system ones.

At least Qt 6.6 is required.

All features are enabled by default and some have their own dependencies.

Additional note to packagers:

If your package manager supports enabling some features but not others, we recommend not exposing the subfeatures and just the main ones that introduce new dependencies: wayland, x11, pipewire, hyprland

Jemalloc

We recommend leaving Jemalloc enabled as it will mask memory fragmentation caused by the QML engine, which results in much lower memory usage. Without this you will get a perceived memory leak.

To disable: -DUSE_JEMALLOC=OFF

Dependencies: jemalloc

Unix Sockets

This feature allows interaction with unix sockets and creating socket servers which is useful for IPC and has no additional dependencies.

WARNING: Disabling unix sockets will NOT make it safe to run arbitrary code using quickshell. There are many vectors which mallicious code can use to escape into your system.

To disable: -DSOCKETS=OFF

Wayland

This feature enables wayland support. Subfeatures exist for each particular wayland integration.

WARNING: Wayland integration relies on features that are not part of the public Qt API and which may break in minor releases. Updating quickshell's dependencies without ensuring without ensuring that the current Qt version is supported WILL result in quickshell failing to build or misbehaving at runtime.

Currently supported Qt versions: 6.6, 6.7.

To disable: -DWAYLAND=OFF

Dependencies:

• qt6wayland
• wayland (libwayland-client)
• wayland-scanner (may be part of your distro's wayland package)
• wayland-protocols

Wlroots Layershell

Enables wlroots layershell integration through the zwlr-layer-shell-v1 protocol, enabling use cases such as bars overlays and backgrounds. This feature has no extra dependencies.

To disable: -DWAYLAND_WLR_LAYERSHELL=OFF

Session Lock

Enables session lock support through the ext-session-lock-v1 protocol, which allows quickshell to be used as a session lock under compatible wayland compositors.

To disable: -DWAYLAND_SESSION_LOCK=OFF

Foreign Toplevel Management

Enables management of windows of other clients through the zwlr-foreign-toplevel-management-v1 protocol, which allows quickshell to be used as a session lock under compatible wayland compositors.

To disable: -DWAYLAND_TOPLEVEL_MANAGEMENT=OFF

X11

This feature enables x11 support. Currently this implements panel windows for X11 similarly to the wlroots layershell above.

To disable: -DX11=OFF

Dependencies: libxcb

Pipewire

This features enables viewing and management of pipewire nodes.

To disable: -DSERVICE_PIPEWIRE=OFF

Dependencies: libpipewire

StatusNotifier / System Tray

This feature enables system tray support using the status notifier dbus protocol.

To disable: -DSERVICE_STATUS_NOTIFIER=OFF

Dependencies: qt6dbus (usually part of qt6base)

MPRIS

This feature enables access to MPRIS compatible media players using its dbus protocol.

To disable: -DSERVICE_MPRIS=OFF

Dependencies: qt6dbus (usually part of qt6base)

Hyprland

This feature enables hyprland specific integrations. It requires wayland support but has no extra dependencies.

To disable: -DHYPRLAND=OFF

Hyprland Global Shortcuts

Enables creation of global shortcuts under hyprland through the hyprland-global-shortcuts-v1 protocol. Generally a much nicer alternative to using unix sockets to implement the same thing. This feature has no extra dependencies.

To disable: -DHYPRLAND_GLOBAL_SHORTCUTS=OFF

Hyprland Focus Grab

Enables windows to grab focus similarly to a context menu undr hyprland through the hyprland-focus-grab-v1 protocol. This feature has no extra dependencies.

To disable: -DHYPRLAND_FOCUS_GRAB=OFF

Building

For developers and prospective contributors: See CONTRIBUTING.md.

We highly recommend using ninja to run the build, but you can use makefiles if you must.

Configuring the build

$ cmake -GNinja -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo [additional disable flags from above here]

Note that features you do not supply dependencies for MUST be disabled with their associated flags or quickshell will fail to build.

Additionally, note that clang builds much faster than gcc if you care.

You may disable debug information but it's only a couple megabytes and is extremely helpful for helping us fix problems when they do arise.

Building

$ cmake --build build

Installing

$ cmake --install build