Building a minimal dev environment
with dwm and st

This is a living document. Everything below is copy-paste ready and tested on a fresh Arch install. No fluff — only what I actually run.

1. Package installation

One pacman invocation for everything needed. No AUR manager required initially — add paru for nerd fonts afterward.

pacman -S --needed \
  base-devel git xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-xsetroot xorg-xrandr \
  xorg-xrdb libx11 libxft libxinerama freetype2 fontconfig \
  zsh zsh-completions fzf ripgrep fd eza tmux \
  dunst picom xclip xdotool acpi brightnessctl \
  ttf-jetbrains-mono noto-fonts noto-fonts-emoji \
  neovim nodejs npm ntfs-3g ranger rust gcc gdb make cmake \
  wget curl jq htop lsof strace

# AUR — install paru first, then:
paru -S --needed nerd-fonts-jetbrains-mono

2. Build & install

Clone from suckless directly. Never use distro packages for dwm or st.

mkdir -p ~/.builds && cd ~/.builds

# dwm
git clone https://git.suckless.org/dwm
cd dwm
# apply patches → edit config.h → build
sudo make clean install && cd ..

# st
git clone https://git.suckless.org/st
cd st
sudo make clean install && cd ..

# dmenu (suckless version for consistency)
git clone https://git.suckless.org/dmenu
cd dmenu && sudo make clean install

Directory layout after cloning:

~
├── .builds/
│   ├── dwm/
│   └── st/
├── .config/
│   ├── zsh/
│   └── nvim/
└── .local/bin/     # custom scripts

3. Patches

dwm

st

Apply patches before editing config.h:

cd ~/.builds/dwm
curl -O https://dwm.suckless.org/patches/autostart/dwm-autostart-20210120-cb3f58a.diff
patch -p1 < dwm-autostart-20210120-cb3f58a.diff
# resolve any conflicts in config.def.h manually

4. dwm config.h

Gruvbox dark palette throughout. Super as modifier. ThinkPad brightness and volume keys wired to hardware controls.

/* appearance */
static const unsigned int borderpx  = 2;
static const unsigned int gappx     = 6;
static const unsigned int snap      = 32;
static const int          showbar   = 1;
static const int          topbar    = 1;

static const char *fonts[] = {
    "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font:size=10",
    "Noto Color Emoji:size=10"
};

/* gruvbox dark */
static const char col_bg[]     = "#1d2021";
static const char col_bg1[]    = "#282828";
static const char col_fg[]     = "#ebdbb2";
static const char col_accent[] = "#d79921";
static const char col_blue[]   = "#458588";

static const char *colors[][3] = {
    [SchemeNorm] = { col_fg,  col_bg,     col_bg1  },
    [SchemeSel]  = { col_bg,  col_accent, col_blue },
};

/* tags */
static const char *tags[] = {
    "1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9"
};

/* layout — tile default, monocle, float */
static const float mfact     = 0.55;
static const int   nmaster   = 1;
static const int   resizehints = 0; /* ignore size hints */

See the full customisation reference for all available fields.

5. st config.h

/* font */
static char *font = "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font:pixelsize=14:antialias=true";
static char *font2[] = { "Noto Color Emoji:pixelsize=14" };

static int borderpx = 12;

/* transparency (alpha patch) */
static const float alpha = 0.92;

/* gruvbox colours — indices 0-15 */
static const char *colorname[] = {
    "#1d2021", "#cc241d", "#98971a", "#d79921",
    "#458588", "#b16286", "#689d6a", "#a89984",
    "#928374", "#fb4934", "#b8bb26", "#fabd2f",
    "#83a598", "#d3869b", "#8ec07c", "#ebdbb2",
    [255] = 0,
    "#ebdbb2", /* defaultfg */
    "#1d2021", /* defaultbg */
    "#d79921", /* cursor    */
};

static char *shell = "/bin/zsh";
static int  scroll_history = 4000;

6. Shell setup

No plugin manager. Two plugins cloned manually. Configuration split across ~/.zshenv and ~/.config/zsh/.zshrc.

chsh -s /bin/zsh
mkdir -p ~/.config/zsh/plugins

~/.zshenv

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
export EDITOR=nvim
export VISUAL=nvim
export PAGER=less
export MANPAGER="nvim +Man!"
export FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND='fd --type f --hidden --follow --exclude .git'
export FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS='--height 40% --layout=reverse --border'

~/.zshrc (essentials)

# history
HISTSIZE=50000; SAVEHIST=50000; HISTFILE="~/.zsh_history"
setopt HIST_IGNORE_DUPS HIST_IGNORE_SPACE SHARE_HISTORY

# completion
autoload -Uz compinit && compinit 
# use -d to specify .zcompdump file
zstyle ':completion:*' menu select

# vi mode
bindkey -v
export KEYTIMEOUT=1
bindkey '^R' history-incremental-search-backward


# new github conf uses starship as prmpt
# prompt (no external deps)
autoload -Uz vcs_info
precmd() { vcs_info }
zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*' formats ' %b'
setopt PROMPT_SUBST
PROMPT='%F{yellow}%~%F{blue}${vcs_info_msg_0_}%f %(?.%F{green}.%F{red})❯%f '

# plugins
source "/usr/share/zsh/plugins/fast-syntax-highlighting/fast-syntax-highlighting.plugin.zsh"
source "/usr/share/zsh/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh"
ZSH_AUTOSUGGEST_STRATEGY=(history completion)

# fzf
source /usr/share/fzf/key-bindings.zsh
source /usr/share/fzf/completion.zsh

source "/.aliases.zsh"

Clone plugins

git clone https://github.com/zdharma-continuum/fast-syntax-highlighting \
  ~/.config/zsh/plugins/fast-syntax-highlighting

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions \
  ~/.config/zsh/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

Key aliases

# replacements
alias ls='eza --group-directories-first'
alias ll='eza -la --git'
alias cat='bat --style=plain'
alias grep='rg'
alias find='fd'
alias vim='nvim'

# git shortcuts
alias gs='git status -sb'
alias gl='git log --oneline --graph --decorate'
alias gd='git diff'

# config quick-edit
alias edwm='nvim ~/.builds/dwm/config.h'
alias est='nvim ~/.builds/st/config.h'
alias ec='nvim ~/.config/zsh/.zshrc'

7. Essential tools

lf (file manager)

paru -S lf
mkdir -p ~/.config/lf

# ~/.config/lf/lfrc
set icons true
set hidden true
set drawbox true

cmd open ${{
    case $(file --mime-type "$f" -bL) in
        text/*|application/json) $EDITOR "$f" ;;
        image/*)   sxiv "$f"    ;;
        application/pdf) zathura "$f" ;;
        *) xdg-open "$f" ;;
    esac
}}

map <enter> open
map D delete
map R rename
map . set hidden!

8. Keybindings

st

9. Fonts & theme

Gruvbox dark hard — consistently applied across dwm, st, nvim, and dmenu. One palette, zero cognitive switching cost.

Font: JetBrainsMono Nerd Font — 10pt UI, 14px terminal.

# ~/.Xresources
Xft.dpi:       96
Xft.antialias: true
Xft.hinting:   true
Xft.hintstyle: hintslight
Xft.rgba:      rgb
Xcursor.size:  16
Xcursor.theme: Adwaita

10. Startup (.xinitrc)

#!/bin/sh

xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources

# keyboard
xset r rate 200 40
setxkbmap -layout us -option caps:escape   # Caps → Escape

# display (adjust to your output name)
xrandr --output eDP-1 --mode 1920x1080 --dpi 96

# natural scrolling
xinput set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" \
  "libinput Natural Scrolling Enabled" 1 2>/dev/null

# compositor
picom --daemon --backend glx --vsync \
  --inactive-opacity 0.9 --active-opacity 1.0 \
  --shadow --shadow-radius 8 &

dunst &
~/.local/bin/dwmstatus &

exec dwm

Auto-start X on login — append to ~/.config/zsh/.zprofile:

if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && [ "$XDG_VTNR" = "1" ]; then
  exec startx
fi

11. Status bar

Pure bash. Sets the root window name every 5 seconds. dwm reads it for the bar. No external deps — battery, volume, network, clock.

#!/bin/bash
# ~/.local/bin/dwmstatus

interval=5

get_bat() {
  bat=$(cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/capacity)
  status=$(cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status)
  case "$status" in
    Charging)    echo "󰂄 ${bat}%" ;;
    Discharging) echo "󰁹 ${bat}%" ;;
    *)           echo "󰁹 FULL"   ;;
  esac
}

get_vol() {
  vol=$(pactl get-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ | grep -oP '\d+%' | head -1)
  mute=$(pactl get-sink-mute @DEFAULT_SINK@ | grep -c 'yes')
  [ "$mute" -gt 0 ] && echo "󰖁 mute" || echo "󰕾 $vol"
}

get_date() { date +" %a %d %b  %H:%M"; }

while true; do
  xsetroot -name "$(get_vol)  $(get_bat)  $(get_date)"
  sleep "$interval"
done

chmod +x ~/.local/bin/dwmstatus

That's the full setup. From pacstrap to a working dwm session, this is everything — no steps omitted, nothing assumed. Rebuild time from scratch: under 30 minutes.