i3 FAQ - Individual question feed

How do I make Firefox open a private browsing window on another workspace?

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 14:52:42 +0000

I've figured I can assign a private window to another workspace by loading Firefox with the private window option, but I was wondering if there is a way to do it by selecting the private window option in the Firefox menu. The private window will always have '(Private Browsing)' on it, so I was wondering if I can get that using regex or something.

Answer by cee for
I've figured I can assign a private window to another workspace by loading Firefox with the private window option, but I was wondering if there is a way to do it by selecting the private window option in the Firefox menu.

The private window will always have '(Private Browsing)' on it, so I was wondering if I can get that using regex or something.

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 15:14:30 +0000

You could try something like that:
`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`
This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.
PS:
**xprop** (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Comment by cee for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 06:33:40 +0000

Did you try again? I am not a regex-guru, but I think it should be matching. (?i) is not necessary. You could try to just match 'Private' (keep class="Firefox") to see if something changes.

Comment by joepd for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 08:19:00 +0000

OK, paste the logs somewhere :)

Comment by paramnesioid for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 16:07:48 +0000

That doesn't work.

Comment by cee for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Tue, 12 Nov 2013 07:17:29 +0000

I don't have firefox installed so I couldn't check my answer. Maybe you could post the output from xprop so we could see the difference between a 'normal' firefox' window and a 'private browsing' one. There's a regex for everything as long as the title is distinctive.

Comment by cee for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 17:05:10 +0000

What does not work? I edited the answer: s/workspace 5/5/

Comment by Adaephon for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Mon, 13 Jan 2014 10:48:32 +0000

"Private Browsing" is not part of the initial title, Firefox adds it later. At first the title is only 'Mozilla Firefox'. If it works sometimes, it possibly depends on how fast Firefox changes the title (I'm not sure when `assign` grabs the attributes of new windows).

Comment by joepd for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 07:48:59 +0000

This one works flawlessly for me: assign [title=".*Private.*"] "Firefox Window 4" Also, the one Cee provided in your first of three questions about this topic works excellent. I suspect you have a directive earlier in your config that matches this window. The first match wins.

Comment by paramnesioid for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Tue, 12 Nov 2013 11:52:14 +0000

http://pastebin.com/5HvTKbXS

Comment by paramnesioid for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Mon, 11 Nov 2013 23:26:29 +0000

Sorry, I should've given you a longer answer. The workspace bit is not the problem. It does work when I change 'title' to 'id' but then it sends normal Firefox windows there too. Maybe I need a more specific regex or is there something else I'm missing?

Comment by paramnesioid for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Fri, 15 Nov 2013 03:35:17 +0000

Sorry, it doesn't work. Thanks anyway.

Comment by paramnesioid for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Mon, 13 Jan 2014 11:28:19 +0000

Thanks heaps for your help, Adaephon!

Comment by joepd for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 08:02:14 +0000

If my previous comment does not help, please post your debug log somewhere (http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html).

Comment by paramnesioid for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 08:06:44 +0000

Well even though I know I've assigned it nowhere else, I've put it at the start of the config just to be sure and it still doesn't work. Cee's command works in a terminal (with a '.' put in the middle of 'Private Browsing'), but it still doesn't work in the config either way.

Comment by paramnesioid for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 08:58:11 +0000

http://pastebin.com/ZNMbHdd3

Comment by cee for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Fri, 15 Nov 2013 09:10:12 +0000

I have to be sorry. I really don't get it why it does not work. I use the following in my config: for_window [class="Thunderbird" instance="Mail"] border none xprop: WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Mail", "Thunderbird" This does start Thunderbird main window without border while all sub windows do have one.

Comment by paramnesioid for
You could try something like that:

`assign [class="Firefox" title="(?i)Private Browsing"] 5`

This should assign any Private Browsing window from Firefox to workspace 5. Of course you can choose any workspace you want.
(?i) will make the regex match case insensitive. Maybe you have to play with the class/title parameters a little.

PS:
xprop (on linux commandline) gives information about the name/class etc. of any given x-window.

Sun, 12 Jan 2014 10:14:50 +0000

Sometimes it works and assigns it properly, but it usually doesn't. I can't see what I'm doing differently the times it does work.

Answer by TonyC for
I've figured I can assign a private window to another workspace by loading Firefox with the private window option, but I was wondering if there is a way to do it by selecting the private window option in the Firefox menu.

The private window will always have '(Private Browsing)' on it, so I was wondering if I can get that using regex or something.

Mon, 13 Jan 2014 16:19:33 +0000

Use the [for_window](http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html#_arbitrary_commands_for_specific_windows_for_window) command in your config. Whenever a window meets the selection criteria, it will execute the command. for_window [title=".*\(Private Browsing\).*"] move to workspace "8:Christmas Shopping"