Hot Reload

SamWM can reload its Lua configuration without restarting. This lets you update keybindings, window rules, and layout settings on the fly.

Trigger Reload

Via SIGHUP Signal

Send the SIGHUP signal to the SamWM process:

kill -HUP $(pidof samwm)

Via IPC Socket

echo "reload" | socat - UNIX-CONNECT:$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/samwm.sock

Or use the CLI:

samwm-msg reload

What Gets Reloaded

Using in Scripts

Reload on config file save (requires external tool like inotifywait):

#!/bin/bash
# Watch config and reload on change
inotifywait -e modify ~/.config/samwm/config.lua
kill -HUP $(pidof samwm)

With entr:

echo ~/.config/samwm/config.lua | entr -p kill -HUP $(pidof samwm)

Debugging Reload

If reload doesn’t work as expected:

1. Check for Lua syntax errors in your config
2. Verify the config file path is correct
3. Check SamWM logs for reload status
4. Make sure the signal is reaching the right process

# Find SamWM PID
pidof samwm

# Verify signal delivery
kill -0 $(pidof samwm) && echo "Process exists"

# Watch logs
journalctl -f -u samwm

Reload via IPC

The IPC socket also emits a reload event after successful config reload, useful for status bars or external tools:

# Subscribe to reload events
echo "subscribe reload" | socat - UNIX-CONNECT:$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/samwm.sock

# Trigger reload from another terminal
samwm-msg reload

# Output:
# OK subscribed to reload
# {"type":"reload","data":{"status":"reloaded"}}

Config File Location

By default, SamWM looks for:

~/.config/samwm/config.lua
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/samwm/config.lua

Override with the --config flag:

samwm --config /path/to/config.lua

Hot Reload vs Restart