---
name: "awww-daemon"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "awww"
version: "0.12.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/awww-daemon"
---

# awww-daemon(1)

## NAME

awww-daemon

## SYNOPSIS

awww-daemon \[OPTIONS\]

## OPTIONS

- **-f**,**--format** \<argb\|abgr\|rgb\|bgr\>

  Force the daemon to use a specific wl\_shm format.

  By default, awww-daemon will use argb, because it is most widely supported. Generally speaking, formats with 3 channels will use 3/4 the memory of formats with 4 channels. Also, bgr formats are more efficient than rgb formats because we do not need to do an extra swap of the bytes when decoding the image (though the difference is unnoticiable).

- **-l**,**--layer** \<background\|bottom\>

  Which layer to display the background in. Defaults to **background**.

  We do not accept layers **top** and **overlay** because those would make your desktoop unusable by simply putting an image on top of everything else. If there is ever a use case for these, we can reconsider it.

- **-n**,**--namespace** \<namespace\>

  Which wayland namespace to append to **awww-daemon**.

  The result namespace will the **awww-daemon\<specified namespace\>**. This also affects the name of the **awww-daemon** socket we will use to communicate with the **client**. Specifically, our socket name is *${WAYLAND\_DISPLAY}-awww-daemon.\<specified namespace\>.socket*.

  Some compositors can have several different wallpapers per output. This allows you to differentiate between them. Most users will probably not have to set anything in this option.

- **--no-cache**

  Don't search the cache for the last wallpaper for each output. Useful if you always want to select which image 'awww' loads manually using 'awww img'

- **-q**,**--quiet**

  Makes the daemon only log errors.

- **-h**, **--help**

  Print help (see a summary with '-h')

- **-V**, **--version**

  Print version

## DESCRIPTION

The **awww-daemon** will run continuously, waiting for commands in *${XDG\_RUNTIME\_DIR}/awww-${WAYLAND\_DISPLAY}.socket* (or */tmp/awww/awww-${WAYLAND\_DISPLAY}.socket*, if $XDG\_RUNTIME\_DIR is not set). The daemon will take care of both creating and deleting that file when it is initialized or killed.

## SEE ALSO

[**awww**(1)](/awww/1.md)