insensical

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Download

Install ​

Releases are at https://insensical.com/download. Each file has its SHA-256 beside it.

Arch Linux. Install from the AUR with the helper you use:

sh
yay -S insensical-bin

Debian 12 and later, Ubuntu 24.04 and later, on x86-64. Download the .deb, then:

sh
sudo apt install ./insensical_*_amd64.deb

There's no apt repository, so to update, download the new version and install it the same way.

Other Linux, on x86-64 with glibc 2.36 or later. Unpack the tarball and put insensical and isc together in a directory on your PATH. The tarball also holds the desktop entry, the icon, the user unit and completions for bash, zsh and fish. Put them where your system looks for them.

macOS 13 and later, on Apple silicon (written, never run). With Homebrew:

sh
brew tap mah3uz/insensical https://github.com/mah3uz/insensical-release
brew install --cask insensical

Homebrew also puts isc on the PATH. Or open the .dmg and drag the application to Applications. The application isn't signed with a Developer ID or notarised, so macOS refuses to open a downloaded copy until its quarantine flag is cleared:

sh
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/insensical.app

Homebrew clears it for you. isc is inside the application, at /Applications/insensical.app/Contents/MacOS/isc. There is no build for a Mac with an Intel processor.

From the source, on Arch Linux. just install builds the working tree, makes the package insensical-bin from it and installs it with pacman, under /usr. just uninstall removes it. If there's a copy under ~/.local, it's found before the packaged one until just uninstall-local removes it. In packaging/arch, makepkg -si builds the package insensical-git instead, from the repository as it is on GitHub.

From the source, on a Mac. just install-mac builds insensical.app, puts it in /Applications and links isc into ~/.local/bin. just uninstall-mac removes both.

The package also installs a user unit, but doesn't enable it. To start the daemon at login, run systemctl --user enable --now insensical. You don't have to: the first window or command that needs the daemon starts it.

Upgrading the package only replaces files. The running daemon carries on until you move it to the new version (see A new version).

From the source, elsewhere.

sh
just install-local

This installs:

  • both binaries in ~/.local/bin;
  • a desktop entry in ~/.local/share/applications, which names the binary by its full path, because a launcher doesn't always have ~/.local/bin on its PATH;
  • the icon in ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor, as an SVG and as a PNG at each common size;
  • completions for bash, zsh and fish.

To install somewhere else, use PREFIX=/somewhere just install-local. zsh needs the completions directory in fpath before compinit.

just uninstall-local removes what just install-local installed. It leaves your settings and the saved layout alone.

The two binaries must be together ​

The window looks for the daemon in three places, in order. If $INSENSICAL_ISC is set, it starts the daemon from the file that names. Otherwise it uses the isc beside it. If there isn't one, it uses isc on PATH. If it finds none of these, the window can't start a daemon and says that the server cannot be reached.

The icon ​

The icon is logo.svg in the repository. A launcher shows it from the desktop entry. A taskbar or switcher shows it for a window only if the desktop can match the window to the entry, so the window names itself insensical. This matching has not been checked in a real window.

  • If you run it without installing, there's no entry to match, and the window gets a generic icon.
  • ~/.local/share/icons/hicolor may hold an icon-theme.cache. A cache written before the icon was added hides the icon. just install-local rebuilds the cache (gtk-update-icon-cache --force --ignore-theme-index) and the desktop database. A launcher or panel that's already running may keep the old picture until you restart it.

Starting it ​

Start insensical from a launcher or a terminal. If no daemon is running, the window starts one. You don't need to configure anything first. Without a settings file, the defaults apply.

Where you start it from matters in two ways. The first project is made from the directory you start it in (see First launch), and the daemon takes the environment of whatever started it (see The daemon's environment).