# Install twm with Homebrew, apk, apt, MacPorts, Nix, zypper

Tab Window Manager for X Window System. Version 1.0.13.1 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with debian: sudo apt install twm.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:twm
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install twm
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

- MacPorts (94%):

```sh
sudo port install twm
```

  Evidence: MacPorts ports tree: x11/twm/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1

### Linux

- apk (92%):

```sh
sudo apk add twm
```

  Evidence: Alpine Linux edge package indexes: twm from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz

- Debian apt (92%):

```sh
sudo apt install twm
```

  Evidence: Debian stable package indexes: twm from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#twm
```

  Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/tw/twm/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1

- zypper (92%):

```sh
sudo zypper install twm
```

  Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: twm from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:twm
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 1.0.13.1
- **Source summary:** Tab Window Manager for X Window System
- **Homepage:** <https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/app/twm>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- twm (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 1.0.13.1
## Project history and usage

twm is the Tab Window Manager for the X Window System, historically also associated with Tom LaStrange's original Tom's Window Manager. It is one of the classic X11 window managers and a long-lived baseline package in Unix graphical environments.

### Project history

The X.Org user documentation summarizes twm as the standard window manager for the X Window System from X11R4 onward, created by Tom LaStrange, and describes it as a reparenting window manager with title bars, shaped windows, icon management, and extensive configurability.

The official man page documents the mature twm interface: title bars, icon managers, user-defined macro functions, click-to-type and pointer-driven focus, key and pointer bindings, and `.twmrc` startup files. This reflects the X11 design in which the window manager is a replaceable client, configured with text files and started by session scripts.

### Adoption history

twm's adoption came from being part of the core X11 distribution rather than from modern app-store-style discovery. It became the default or sample window manager users saw when starting a minimal X session, especially before full desktop environments became the norm.

Although later window managers and desktop environments largely superseded it for everyday use, twm remained packaged across Unix-like systems as a small, understandable, historically important X11 component.

### How it is used

Typical use is starting `twm` from an X session manager or startup script, often as the final foreground client in a minimal `xinit` or `xdm` session. Users configure behavior through `.twmrc`, including menus, bindings, focus model, colors, icon handling, and title-button actions.

In package-manager practice, installing twm is often about having a minimal X11 window manager available for testing, rescue sessions, old-school environments, or demonstrations of core X behavior without a larger desktop stack.

### Why package nerds care

twm matters to package nerds because it is a fossil that still builds and ships: a small X.Org application that shows how much of the Unix desktop was once assembled from separate packages, text configuration, and replaceable clients.

It also provides a reference point for X11 window-manager packaging. If xterm, xclock, and twm are present, a minimal graphical Unix session can still be brought up, inspected, and debugged without a full desktop environment.

### Timeline

- 1980s: Tom LaStrange creates the original twm.
- 1989: X11R4 era adopts twm as the standard X Window System window manager.
- 1990s-2000s: Larger window managers and desktop environments supersede twm for most daily desktop use.
- 2020s: twm remains maintained as an X.Org app and packaged by Unix-like distributions and Homebrew.

### Related projects

- uwm was the earlier X window manager that twm historically replaced in the standard X distribution.
- X.Org, X11, xinit, xdm, and xterm are part of the same minimal graphical Unix environment.
- Later X11 window managers inherited ideas from twm's configurable, text-file-driven model.

### Sources

- Official X.Org repository: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/app/twm
- Official twm man page: https://xorg.freedesktop.org/archive/X11R6.8.2/doc/twm.1.html
- X.Org user documentation: https://www.x.org/UserDocumentation/GettingStarted/


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals


## Configuration and credential file locations

These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.


## Configuration files

- Unix: ~/.twmrc.screennumber, ~/.twmrc, __datadir__/X11/twm/system.twmrc
## Other Package-Manager Records

- Debian apt - twm - 1:1.0.10-1+b1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: twm from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | Tab window manager
- Nix - twm: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/tw/twm/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- Ubuntu apt - twm - 1:1.0.10-1build2: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: twm from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | Tab window manager
- apk - twm - 1.0.13.1-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: twm from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Tom's or Tab Window Manager for the X Window System | https://www.x.org/archive/X11R6.8.1/doc/twm.1.html
- apk - twm-doc - 1.0.13.1-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: twm-doc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | Tom's or Tab Window Manager for the X Window System (documentation) | https://www.x.org/archive/X11R6.8.1/doc/twm.1.html
- zypper - twm - 1.0.13.1-1.6: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: twm from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst | Tab Window Manager for the X Window System | http://xorg.freedesktop.org/
- MacPorts - twm: normalized package name match | MacPorts ports tree: x11/twm/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1


## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/twm.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/twm.yml)


## Sources

- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- external package-manager database matches
- cross-ecosystem install command graph