macOS
Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install dmenuprovider-native install command
brew / rank 5202
Install dmenu with Homebrew
Dynamic menu for X11. Version 5.4 via Homebrew; verified from local package data.
install
Additional install commands
overview
Package summary
Dynamic menu for X11
Project links
Commands and aliases
- dmenu
- dmenu_path
- dmenu_run
- stest
history
Project history and usage
dmenu is suckless.org's efficient dynamic menu for X, originally designed for dwm and commonly used as a keyboard-driven launcher or scriptable selector.
Project history
The official suckless page describes dmenu as a dynamic menu for X that was originally designed for dwm and manages large numbers of user-defined menu items efficiently. The official git refs show public tagged releases beginning at 0.1 in August 2006 and continuing through the 5.x series.
Adoption history
dmenu became a standard suckless tool because it composes through stdin and stdout: scripts can pass newline-separated choices in, and dmenu prints the selected item out. Its official manual also documents dmenu_run, the script used by dwm to list programs in PATH and run the selected command.
How it is used
In everyday package use, dmenu reads newline-separated items from stdin, narrows matches as the user types, and prints the chosen item on Return. Options cover bottom placement, case-insensitive matching, vertical lists, monitor selection, prompts, fonts, colors, and embedding into another X window.
Why package nerds care
dmenu is significant because it is tiny, source-customizable X11 infrastructure rather than a full desktop launcher. It appears in package managers as a small dependency-free-ish building block for window-manager users, shell scripts, and Unix workflows that prefer composition over integrated desktop services.
Timeline
- 2006-08: dmenu 0.1 tag appeared in the official git refs.
- 2009-02: dmenu 4.0 was tagged.
- 2020-09: dmenu 5.0 was tagged.
- 2025-08: dmenu 5.4 was released.
Related projects
- The official page ties dmenu to dwm, and the man page cross-references dwm and stest.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: green
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
Risk classifier
green risk · low confidence · appliance
Why
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals
Signals
- metadata:no-higher-risk-signals
Install behavior
- No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
dmenu | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
dmenu_path | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
dmenu_run | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
stest | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-08-03
manager version5.4
manager updated
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:dmenu |
|---|---|
| Version | 5.4 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/ |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- Nucleus package database
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation