•
WLR_BACKENDS: The backends the wlroots library should use when phoc launches. See <https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/blob/master/docs/env_vars.md>
phoc1
A wayland compositor for mobile devices
Usage
phoc [OPTIONS...]
Overview
phoc is a Wayland compositor for mobile devices using the wlroots library. It's often used with the phosh mobile shell but works perfectly fine on its own.
Options
-
-h, --help -
Print help and exit
-
-C, --config FILE -
Path to the configuration file. (default: phoc.ini).
-
-E, --exec EXECUTABLE -
Executable (session) that will be run at startup
-
--socket -
Wayland socket to listen on for client connections
-
-S, --shell -
Whether to expect a shell to attach
-
-X, --xwayland -
Whether to start XWayland
-
--no-xwayland -
Whether to disable XWayland
-
--version -
Show version information
Configuration
Configuration is read from phoc.ini, hwdb, gsettings and $XDG_STATE_HOME/outputs.gvdb. For details on output configuration see phoc.ini(5), for details on wakeup key configuration via hwdb see gmobile.udev(5), for details on the gsettings handled by phoc see phoc.gsettings(5). For details on output states see phoc-outputs-states.
Environment
phoc honors the following environment variables:
-
• -
WLR_RENDERER: The renderer the wlroots library should use when phoc launches. See <https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots/-/blob/master/docs/env_vars.md>
-
• -
G_MESSAGES_DEBUG,G_DEBUGand other environment variables supported by glib. <https://docs.gtk.org/glib/running.html>
-
• -
PHOC_DEBUG: Comma separated list of debugging flags. Some of them can also be toggled at runtime, see DBUS INTERFACE below.- •
-
help: Show a list of available debug flags
- •
-
auto-maximize: Maximize toplevels
- •
-
damage-tracking: Debug damage tracking (can be toggled at runtime)
- •
-
damage-whole: Damage whole output on each frame (can be toggled at runtime)
- •
-
fake-builtin: Handle virtual outputs like builtin displays
- •
-
no-quit: Don't quit when session ends
- •
-
touch-points: Debug touch points (can be toggled at runtime)
- •
-
layer-shell: Debug layer shell
- •
-
cutouts: Debug display cutouts and notches (can be toggled at runtime)
- •
-
disable-animations: Disable animations
- •
-
force-shell-reveal: Always reveal shell over fullscreen apps
- •
-
ignore-state: Ignore any saved output state
Udev properties
Apart from the udev properties for wakeup keys documented in gmobile.udev(5) phoc uses ID_INPUT_KEYBOARD to identify hardware keyboards. You can use hwdb to override these.
Dbus interface
phoc allows to enable and disable certain debug flags at runtime via DBus. To see a list of available flags use:
busctl --user introspect mobi.phosh.Phoc.DebugControl /mobi/phosh/Phoc/DebugControl mobi.phosh.Phoc.DebugControl
To toggle individual values:
busctl --user set-property mobi.phosh.Phoc.DebugControl /mobi/phosh/Phoc/DebugControl mobi.phosh.Phoc.DebugControl TouchPoints b true busctl --user set-property mobi.phosh.Phoc.DebugControl /mobi/phosh/Phoc/DebugControl mobi.phosh.Phoc.DebugControl DamageTracking b true busctl --user set-property mobi.phosh.Phoc.DebugControl /mobi/phosh/Phoc/DebugControl mobi.phosh.Phoc.DebugControl LogDomains as 1 all busctl --user set-property mobi.phosh.Phoc.DebugControl /mobi/phosh/Phoc/DebugControl mobi.phosh.Phoc.DebugControl LogDomains as 2 phoc-seat phoc-layer-surface
Note that the flags are not considered stable API so can change between releases.
Releases
4 releases since Debian 11 (Bullseye); the text changed 2 times.
--no-xwayland since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
--shell since Debian 13 (Trixie);
--socket since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
--version since Debian 13 (Trixie);
--xwayland since Debian 13 (Trixie);
-S since Debian 13 (Trixie);
-X since Debian 13 (Trixie).
--damage-tracking until Debian 12 (Bookworm);
--touch-debug until Debian 12 (Bookworm);
-D until Debian 12 (Bookworm);
-t until Debian 12 (Bookworm).