Hyprland — Dynamic Tiling Wayland Compositor

Introduction

Hyprland is a 100% independent, dynamic tiling Wayland compositor written in C++ that combines aesthetics with performance. It was created to fill the gap between visually appealing desktop environments and the efficiency of tiling window managers, providing smooth animations and eye candy without sacrificing speed.

What Hyprland Does

• Provides dynamic tiling, floating, and tabbed window layouts with automatic and manual modes
• Delivers smooth animations including window open/close, workspace switching, and fade effects
• Supports rounded corners, blur, shadows, and opacity per-window for a polished desktop look
• Offers a powerful plugin API and IPC socket for scripting and extending functionality
• Handles multi-monitor setups with per-monitor workspaces and fractional scaling

Architecture Overview

Hyprland is built on top of wlroots and the Wayland protocol, communicating directly with the Linux kernel's DRM/KMS subsystem for display output and libinput for input handling. The compositor runs a single-threaded event loop with an efficient damage-tracking renderer that only redraws changed regions, keeping GPU usage minimal even with heavy animations enabled.

Self-Hosting & Configuration

• Configuration lives in ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf using a simple key-value syntax
• Monitor layout, resolution, and refresh rate are set with the monitor keyword
• Keybindings are declared with bind = MOD, KEY, dispatcher, args for full customizability
• Window rules allow per-app overrides for floating, opacity, workspace assignment, and more
• Environment variables like XCURSOR_SIZE and WLR_NO_HARDWARE_CURSORS are set in the config

Key Features

• Smooth 60 fps+ animations with configurable bezier curves and durations
• First-class fractional scaling and VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) support
• IPC via a Unix socket (hyprctl) for querying state and issuing commands from scripts
• Plugin system allows compiled C++ extensions for new layouts, decorations, and dispatchers
• Supports XWayland for backward compatibility with X11 applications

Comparison with Similar Tools

• Sway — Drop-in i3 replacement for Wayland; stable and minimal but lacks animations and visual polish
• River — Dynamic tiling Wayland compositor in Zig; lightweight and scriptable but fewer visual features
• Wayfire — 3D Wayland compositor inspired by Compiz; heavier on effects but less tiling-focused
• dwl — Minimal dwm-like compositor for Wayland; extremely lean but requires patching for features
• Niri — Scrollable tiling Wayland compositor; unique infinite-scroll layout but fewer customization options

FAQ

Q: Does Hyprland work with NVIDIA GPUs? A: Yes, Hyprland supports NVIDIA GPUs with the proprietary driver. You may need to set environment variables like WLR_NO_HARDWARE_CURSORS=1 and enable the nvidia DRM modeset kernel parameter.

Q: Can I use X11 applications under Hyprland? A: Yes, Hyprland includes XWayland support by default. Most X11 apps run transparently, though some may have minor quirks with scaling or input.

Q: How do I set up multiple monitors? A: Use the monitor keyword in your config, for example monitor=DP-1,1920x1080@144,0x0,1 to set resolution, refresh rate, position, and scale per output.

Q: Is Hyprland suitable for daily use? A: Yes. Hyprland is used daily by thousands of users. The project follows semantic versioning and maintains an active community for support.

Sources

• https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland
• https://wiki.hyprland.org