πmenu is a pie menu utility for X. πmenu receives a menu specification in stdin, shows a menu for the user to select one of the options, and outputs the option selected to stdout.

πmenu comes with the following features:

• πmenu reads something in and prints something out, the UNIX way.
• Submenus (some pie-menu slices can spawn another menu).
• Icons (pie-menu slices can contain icon image).
• X resources support (you don't need to recompile πmenu for configuring it).

The files are:

• ./README: This file.
• ./Makefile: The makefile.
• ./config.h: The hardcoded default configuration for πmenu.
• ./config.mk: The settings for the makefile.
• ./pmenu.1: The manual file (man page) for πmenu.
• ./pmenu.c: The source code of πmenu.
• ./pmenu.sh: A sample script illustrating how to use πmenu.

First, edit ./config.mk to match your local setup.

In order to build πmenu you need the Imlib2, Xlib and Xft header files (and some X extensions: XShape and Xinerama). The default configuration for πmenu is specified in the file config.h, you can edit it, but most configuration can be changed at runtime via X resources. Enter the following command to build πmenu. This command creates the binary file ./pmenu.

make

By default, πmenu is installed into the /usr/local prefix. Enter the following command to install πmenu (if necessary as root). This command installs the binary file ./pmenu into the ${PREFIX}/bin/ directory, and the manual file ./pmenu.1 into ${MANPREFIX}/man1/ directory.

make install

πmenu receives as input a menu specification where each line is a menu entry. Each line can be indented with tabs to represent nested menus. Each line is made out of a label and a command separated by any number of tabs.

See the script ./pmenu.sh for an example of how to use πmenu to draw a simple pie menu.

Read the manual for more information on running πmenu.