https://faq.i3wm.org/questions/Frequently asked questions and answers about the i3 window managerenCopyright i3, 2012Fri, 17 Jan 2014 15:19:45 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/3257/is-there-a-way-to-get-the-name-of-the-last-used-workspace/I would like a way to get the name of the last-used workspace. I don't mind if I have to use a script.Fri, 17 Jan 2014 09:31:47 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/3257/is-there-a-way-to-get-the-name-of-the-last-used-workspace/https://faq.i3wm.org/question/3257/is-there-a-way-to-get-the-name-of-the-last-used-workspace/?answer=3263#post-id-3263Unfortunatelly the name of the previously used workspace is not exposed in any way. You can go to the last used workspace with $ i3-msg workspace back_and_forth which toggles between the current and last workspace. So you could use a script to switch to the last workspace, get the current name from `i3-msg -t get_workspaces` and switch back. In Python using [this python library](https://github.com/ziberna/i3-py) it looks like that: import i3 from time import sleep i3.workspace('back_and_forth') lastWSName = i3.filter(i3.get_workspaces(), focused=True)[0]['name'] sleep(0.01) i3.workspace('back_and_forth') The `sleep(0.01)` is needed because it seems that the second workspace switch will not work most of the time if called without delay. (`0.01` is just an experimental value, that works for my current machine. `0.001` was to short most of the time.)Fri, 17 Jan 2014 12:27:18 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/3257/is-there-a-way-to-get-the-name-of-the-last-used-workspace/?answer=3263#post-id-3263https://faq.i3wm.org/question/3257/is-there-a-way-to-get-the-name-of-the-last-used-workspace/?answer=3266#post-id-3266I thought this was interesting so I thought I would give it a try. #!/usr/bin/env python2 import i3 LAST_WS_PATH = '/tmp/i3.last_workspace' def on_ws_focus(event, data, subscription): if 'old' in event: with open(LAST_WS_PATH, 'w') as f: f.write(event['old']['name']) i3.Subscription(on_ws_focus, 'workspace') Now after you run the script, to get the name of the last used workspace, use `cat /tmp/i3.last_workspace`. For instance, you could get the exact same thing as back and forth with `i3-msg workspace $(cat /tmp/i3.last_workspace)`. If you have a tmpfs, the write will happen in memory, so it won't be that expensive. Fri, 17 Jan 2014 14:47:55 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/3257/is-there-a-way-to-get-the-name-of-the-last-used-workspace/?answer=3266#post-id-3266https://faq.i3wm.org/question/3257/is-there-a-way-to-get-the-name-of-the-last-used-workspace/?comment=3268#comment-3268Thanks TonyC!Fri, 17 Jan 2014 15:19:45 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/3257/is-there-a-way-to-get-the-name-of-the-last-used-workspace/?comment=3268#comment-3268