i3 FAQ - Individual question feed

Open application and fix workspace

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 08:37:41 +0000

If i launch an application lets say on workspace1 and switch to another workspace before the application has started, the application launches on the new workspace. Instead i would like the app. to stay at workspace1 Is it somehow possible to fix this?

Answer by Adaephon for
If i launch an application lets say on workspace1 and switch to another workspace before the application has started, the application launches on the new workspace. Instead i would like the app. to stay at workspace1 Is it somehow possible to fix this?

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 09:48:31 +0000

This already works, if you use i3-msg exec application to start your application it will appear on the workspace on which you called it. [See here](http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#exec) ---------- For example, if you are using dmenu_run to start your application you can use this instead: #!/bin/sh exe=`dmenu_path | dmenu ${1+"$@"}` && i3-msg "exec $exe"

Comment by jr for

This already works, if you use

i3-msg exec application

to start your application it will appear on the workspace on which you called it. See here

For example, if you are using dmenu_run to start your application you can use this instead:

#!/bin/sh
exe=`dmenu_path | dmenu ${1+"$@"}` && i3-msg "exec $exe"

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 14:07:24 +0000

does the behaviour of i3-msg exec application depends on the i3 version? the script runs but the behaviour is the same as the default setting edit: i compiled i3 from source and it works now but not with each programm. Is there a variable which contains the current worksp. so i can set it explict?

Comment by Adaephon for

This already works, if you use

i3-msg exec application

to start your application it will appear on the workspace on which you called it. See here

For example, if you are using dmenu_run to start your application you can use this instead:

#!/bin/sh
exe=`dmenu_path | dmenu ${1+"$@"}` && i3-msg "exec $exe"

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:06:08 +0000

The User's guide and Flugsio mentioned that some apps that do not support this feature. You can retrieve the current workspace with `i3-msg -t get_workspaces`. This returns a list of all workspaces in JSON format. The current one has its "focused" flag set to true.

Answer by benkaiser for
If i launch an application lets say on workspace1 and switch to another workspace before the application has started, the application launches on the new workspace. Instead i would like the app. to stay at workspace1 Is it somehow possible to fix this?

Fri, 07 Feb 2014 15:38:09 +0000

I wrote a python script to implement this. So here is my config: bindsym $mod+d exec /path/to/script.py And my script contains the following, apologies for the verbosity: #!/usr/bin/python3 import subprocess import json from os.path import expanduser def get_workspace(): test = subprocess.Popen(["i3-msg","-t","get_workspaces"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE) output = test.communicate()[0] data = json.loads(output.decode()) data = sorted(data, key=lambda k: k['name']) for i in data: if(i['focused']): return i['name'] home = expanduser("~") applications = open(home+"/.cache/dmenu_run") dmenu_run = subprocess.Popen(["dmenu","-b"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stdin=applications) output = (dmenu_run.communicate()[0]).decode().strip() subprocess.Popen(["i3-msg","workspace "+get_workspace()+"; exec " + output], stdout=subprocess.PIPE) The script simply: 1. Pipes the current dmenu_run cache (located at ~/.cache/dmenu_run) of applications to dmenu 2. Gets the result from dmenu and calls `i3msg 'workspace ; exec '` where `current` is the current workspace and `dmenu_result` is what you enter into the dmenu prompt

Answer by Flugsio for
If i launch an application lets say on workspace1 and switch to another workspace before the application has started, the application launches on the new workspace. Instead i would like the app. to stay at workspace1 Is it somehow possible to fix this?

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 08:50:15 +0000

Not at the moment, (edit) unless the application is startup-notification aware; see Adaephon's answer. http://build.i3wm.org/docs/hacking-howto.html#_using_cgroups_per_workspace Although, you can pre-assign certain applications to workspaces http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#_automatically_putting_clients_on_specific_workspaces

Comment by Flugsio for
Not at the moment, (edit) unless the application is startup-notification aware; see Adaephon's answer. http://build.i3wm.org/docs/hacking-ho...usingcgroupsperworkspace

Although, you can pre-assign certain applications to workspaces http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#automaticallyputtingclientsonspecificworkspaces

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 11:25:40 +0000

I had completely missed that feature. But there are some exception as the document says. chromium won't work with cgroups but might be fixable with startup-notification awareness. urxvt could be solved with either. Using exec for those doesn't work for me at the moment. i3 version 4.6 2013-08-07

Comment by Adaephon for
Not at the moment, (edit) unless the application is startup-notification aware; see Adaephon's answer. http://build.i3wm.org/docs/hacking-ho...usingcgroupsperworkspace

Although, you can pre-assign certain applications to workspaces http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#automaticallyputtingclientsonspecificworkspaces

Tue, 05 Nov 2013 09:55:52 +0000

The part of the document you linked seems to be rather old (at least 2012 going by the ©) and the main focus is on cgroups not workspace awareness. I guess it did not get updated when the feature in question was introduced.

i3 FAQ - Individual question feed

Open application and fix workspace

Answer by Adaephon for If i launch an application lets say on workspace1 and switch to another workspace before the application has started, the application launches on the new workspace. Instead i would like the app. to stay at workspace1 Is it somehow possible to fix this?

Answer by benkaiser for If i launch an application lets say on workspace1 and switch to another workspace before the application has started, the application launches on the new workspace. Instead i would like the app. to stay at workspace1 Is it somehow possible to fix this?

Answer by Flugsio for If i launch an application lets say on workspace1 and switch to another workspace before the application has started, the application launches on the new workspace. Instead i would like the app. to stay at workspace1 Is it somehow possible to fix this?

Answer by Adaephon for
If i launch an application lets say on workspace1 and switch to another workspace before the application has started, the application launches on the new workspace. Instead i would like the app. to stay at workspace1 Is it somehow possible to fix this?

Answer by benkaiser for
If i launch an application lets say on workspace1 and switch to another workspace before the application has started, the application launches on the new workspace. Instead i would like the app. to stay at workspace1 Is it somehow possible to fix this?

Answer by Flugsio for
If i launch an application lets say on workspace1 and switch to another workspace before the application has started, the application launches on the new workspace. Instead i would like the app. to stay at workspace1 Is it somehow possible to fix this?