i3 FAQ - Individual question feedhttps://faq.i3wm.org/questions/Frequently asked questions and answers about the i3 window managerenCopyright i3, 2012Wed, 10 Jul 2013 16:08:20 +0000Focus on a window of a certain class *unless* it has a certain titlehttps://faq.i3wm.org/question/2067/focus-on-a-window-of-a-certain-class-unless-it-has-a-certain-title/As explained in the i3 documentation, to focus on a window of class, say, "Emacs", it is enough to write: bindsym $mod+x [class="Emacs"] focus However, I'd like to focus on a Emacs window **unless** the Emacs window has a certain title, say, "emacs_scratchpad". I'm not sure how to implement the unless bit. Does anyone know? Sun, 23 Jun 2013 04:54:27 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2067/focus-on-a-window-of-a-certain-class-unless-it-has-a-certain-title/Answer by bruno.braga for <p>As explained in the i3 documentation, to focus on a window of class, say, "Emacs", it is enough to write:</p> <pre><code>bindsym $mod+x [class="Emacs"] focus </code></pre> <p>However, I'd like to focus on a Emacs window <strong>unless</strong> the Emacs window has a certain title, say, "emacs_scratchpad". I'm not sure how to implement the unless bit. Does anyone know?</p> https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2067/focus-on-a-window-of-a-certain-class-unless-it-has-a-certain-title/?answer=2068#post-id-2068You can try the criteria for "title" and **Negative Lookahead assertion**, which is PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) compliant: bindsym $mod+x [class="Emacs" title="^(?!emacs_scratchpad)"] focus Haven't tried, but should work. References: [1] [http://www.regular-expressions.info/lookaround.html](http://www.regular-expressions.info/lookaround.html) [2] [http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#_list_of_commands](http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#_list_of_commands) Sun, 23 Jun 2013 08:04:49 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2067/focus-on-a-window-of-a-certain-class-unless-it-has-a-certain-title/?answer=2068#post-id-2068Comment by bruno.braga for <p>You can try the criteria for "title" and <strong>Negative Lookahead assertion</strong>, which is PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) compliant:</p> <pre><code>bindsym $mod+x [class="Emacs" title="^(?!emacs_scratchpad)"] focus </code></pre> <p>Haven't tried, but should work.</p> <p>References:</p> <p>[1] [<a href="http://www.regular-expressions.info/lookaround.html](http://www.regular-expressions.info/lookaround.html)">http://www.regular-expressions.info/l...</a></p> <p>[2] [<a href="http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html">http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#</a><em>list</em>of<em>commands](http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#</em>list<em>of</em>commands)</p> https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2067/focus-on-a-window-of-a-certain-class-unless-it-has-a-certain-title/?comment=2077#comment-2077ok, makes sense. (will edit the answer for future reference, and it answers your question, mark it as answered, or it will keep popping up in the main page).Mon, 24 Jun 2013 06:29:23 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2067/focus-on-a-window-of-a-certain-class-unless-it-has-a-certain-title/?comment=2077#comment-2077Comment by mk for <p>You can try the criteria for "title" and <strong>Negative Lookahead assertion</strong>, which is PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) compliant:</p> <pre><code>bindsym $mod+x [class="Emacs" title="^(?!emacs_scratchpad)"] focus </code></pre> <p>Haven't tried, but should work.</p> <p>References:</p> <p>[1] [<a href="http://www.regular-expressions.info/lookaround.html](http://www.regular-expressions.info/lookaround.html)">http://www.regular-expressions.info/l...</a></p> <p>[2] [<a href="http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html">http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#</a><em>list</em>of<em>commands](http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#</em>list<em>of</em>commands)</p> https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2067/focus-on-a-window-of-a-certain-class-unless-it-has-a-certain-title/?comment=2074#comment-2074?! alone didn't work out for me. I had to add "^" before---i.e., "^(?!emacs_scratchpad)." Thanks a bunch!Mon, 24 Jun 2013 00:08:18 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2067/focus-on-a-window-of-a-certain-class-unless-it-has-a-certain-title/?comment=2074#comment-2074Comment by ack006 for <p>You can try the criteria for "title" and <strong>Negative Lookahead assertion</strong>, which is PCRE (Perl Compatible Regular Expression) compliant:</p> <pre><code>bindsym $mod+x [class="Emacs" title="^(?!emacs_scratchpad)"] focus </code></pre> <p>Haven't tried, but should work.</p> <p>References:</p> <p>[1] [<a href="http://www.regular-expressions.info/lookaround.html](http://www.regular-expressions.info/lookaround.html)">http://www.regular-expressions.info/l...</a></p> <p>[2] [<a href="http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html">http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#</a><em>list</em>of<em>commands](http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#</em>list<em>of</em>commands)</p> https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2067/focus-on-a-window-of-a-certain-class-unless-it-has-a-certain-title/?comment=2169#comment-2169wow, this is one of those things which make i3 great! I've yet to find another window manager which allows for doing this in such a concise and clean way. Brilliant!Wed, 10 Jul 2013 16:08:20 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2067/focus-on-a-window-of-a-certain-class-unless-it-has-a-certain-title/?comment=2169#comment-2169