i3 FAQ - Individual question feed

auto sort workspace number

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:47:50 +0000

Hello, I'm a very happy user of i3 but I have a question that I did not find any answer. I want i3 to automatically sort the workspace number when I close one in a interval of 2 or more. For example, I'm using workspace 1, 2, 3 and 4. I close all the windows on workspace 3. I now have workspace 1, 2 and 4 active. What I want is workspace 1, 2 and 3. Workspace 4 can be renamed Workspace 3 or everything in workspace 4 is now in workspace 3. How can I achieve that ? Thank you very much !

Answer by char_star for
Hello,

I'm a very happy user of i3 but I have a question that I did not find any answer.

I want i3 to automatically sort the workspace number when I close one in a interval of 2 or more.

For example, I'm using workspace 1, 2, 3 and 4. I close all the windows on workspace 3. I now have workspace 1, 2 and 4 active.

What I want is workspace 1, 2 and 3. Workspace 4 can be renamed Workspace 3 or everything in workspace 4 is now in workspace 3.

How can I achieve that ?

Thank you very much !

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 04:37:35 +0000

Okay, I just solved this problem for myself since the previous answerer's script doesn't seem to want to work for me. I used the golang i3ipc library. You can find that library here: http://www(dot)github.com/proxypoke/i3ipc I prefer to use the spelled out names for the workspaces, i.e. "one", "two", "three", etc., but you should change this in the script to whatever your preference is. It is as easy as modifying those strings in the nums[10] array. I am NOT much of a Go programmer, as I merely cobbled together enough of an understanding of the language to accomplish this feat. If someone would like to reply with a more idiomatic 'go-ified' version of my script, feel free. Anyway, here's the script I made, called arrange_ws.go:


package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"sort"
	"github.com/proxypoke/i3ipc"
)
func main() {
	ipc, _  := i3ipc.GetIPCSocket()
	defer  ipc.Close()
	var nums [10]string
	nums[0] = "zero"
	nums[1] = "one"
	nums[2] = "two"
	nums[3] = "three"
	nums[4] = "four"
	nums[5] = "five"
	nums[6] = "six"
	nums[7] = "seven"
	nums[8] = "eight"
	nums[9] = "nine"
	ws_events, _ := i3ipc.Subscribe(i3ipc.I3WorkspaceEvent)
	for {
		event := <-ws_events
		if event.Change != "" {
			var wknums [10]int
			for i := range wknums {
				wknums[i] = 0xDEADBEEF
			}
			wkspcs, _ := ipc.GetWorkspaces()
			for i := range wkspcs {
				for j := range nums {
					if wkspcs[i].Name == nums[j] {
						wknums[i] = i
					}
				}
			}
			sort.Ints(wknums[0:9])
			for i := range wkspcs {
				if wkspcs[i].Name != nums[i]  {
						command := fmt.Sprintf("rename workspace %s to %s", wkspcs[i].Name, nums[i])
						fmt.Println(command)
						ipc.Command(command)
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

Comment by TonyC for

I prefer to use the spelled out names for the workspaces, i.e. "one", "two", "three", etc., but you should change this in the script to whatever your preference is. It is as easy as modifying those strings in the nums[10] array. I am NOT much of a Go programmer, as I merely cobbled together enough of an understanding of the language to accomplish this feat. If someone would like to reply with a more idiomatic 'go-ified' version of my script, feel free. Anyway, here's the script I made, called arrange_ws.go:


package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "sort"
    "github.com/proxypoke/i3ipc"
)
func main() {
    ipc, _  := i3ipc.GetIPCSocket()
    defer  ipc.Close()
    var nums [10]string
    nums[0] = "zero"
    nums[1] = "one"
    nums[2] = "two"
    nums[3] = "three"
    nums[4] = "four"
    nums[5] = "five"
    nums[6] = "six"
    nums[7] = "seven"
    nums[8] = "eight"
    nums[9] = "nine"
    ws_events, _ := i3ipc.Subscribe(i3ipc.I3WorkspaceEvent)
    for {
        event := <-ws_events
        if event.Change != "" {
            var wknums [10]int
            for i := range wknums {
                wknums[i] = 0xDEADBEEF
            }
            wkspcs, _ := ipc.GetWorkspaces()
            for i := range wkspcs {
                for j := range nums {
                    if wkspcs[i].Name == nums[j] {
                        wknums[i] = i
                    }
                }
            }
            sort.Ints(wknums[0:9])
            for i := range wkspcs {
                if wkspcs[i].Name != nums[i]  {
                        command := fmt.Sprintf("rename workspace %s to %s", wkspcs[i].Name, nums[i])
                        fmt.Println(command)
                        ipc.Command(command)
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 15:24:30 +0000

It's a little tricky to install right now because it's a C library. Ideally someone would host a package for your distro.

Comment by char_star for


package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "sort"
    "github.com/proxypoke/i3ipc"
)
func main() {
    ipc, _  := i3ipc.GetIPCSocket()
    defer  ipc.Close()
    var nums [10]string
    nums[0] = "zero"
    nums[1] = "one"
    nums[2] = "two"
    nums[3] = "three"
    nums[4] = "four"
    nums[5] = "five"
    nums[6] = "six"
    nums[7] = "seven"
    nums[8] = "eight"
    nums[9] = "nine"
    ws_events, _ := i3ipc.Subscribe(i3ipc.I3WorkspaceEvent)
    for {
        event := <-ws_events
        if event.Change != "" {
            var wknums [10]int
            for i := range wknums {
                wknums[i] = 0xDEADBEEF
            }
            wkspcs, _ := ipc.GetWorkspaces()
            for i := range wkspcs {
                for j := range nums {
                    if wkspcs[i].Name == nums[j] {
                        wknums[i] = i
                    }
                }
            }
            sort.Ints(wknums[0:9])
            for i := range wkspcs {
                if wkspcs[i].Name != nums[i]  {
                        command := fmt.Sprintf("rename workspace %s to %s", wkspcs[i].Name, nums[i])
                        fmt.Println(command)
                        ipc.Command(command)
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 14:51:16 +0000

I don't think it's actually a problem with the script per se, but after I installed all the dependencies, when I run the script, it complains about a missing Typelib file, and that causes me to be unable to import i3ipc. I'm not sure what the problem is because I am sure I have the dependencies...

Comment by TonyC for


package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "sort"
    "github.com/proxypoke/i3ipc"
)
func main() {
    ipc, _  := i3ipc.GetIPCSocket()
    defer  ipc.Close()
    var nums [10]string
    nums[0] = "zero"
    nums[1] = "one"
    nums[2] = "two"
    nums[3] = "three"
    nums[4] = "four"
    nums[5] = "five"
    nums[6] = "six"
    nums[7] = "seven"
    nums[8] = "eight"
    nums[9] = "nine"
    ws_events, _ := i3ipc.Subscribe(i3ipc.I3WorkspaceEvent)
    for {
        event := <-ws_events
        if event.Change != "" {
            var wknums [10]int
            for i := range wknums {
                wknums[i] = 0xDEADBEEF
            }
            wkspcs, _ := ipc.GetWorkspaces()
            for i := range wkspcs {
                for j := range nums {
                    if wkspcs[i].Name == nums[j] {
                        wknums[i] = i
                    }
                }
            }
            sort.Ints(wknums[0:9])
            for i := range wkspcs {
                if wkspcs[i].Name != nums[i]  {
                        command := fmt.Sprintf("rename workspace %s to %s", wkspcs[i].Name, nums[i])
                        fmt.Println(command)
                        ipc.Command(command)
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Tue, 01 Apr 2014 08:10:56 +0000

What was it about the other script that did not work for you?

Comment by drosehill for


package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "sort"
    "github.com/proxypoke/i3ipc"
)
func main() {
    ipc, _  := i3ipc.GetIPCSocket()
    defer  ipc.Close()
    var nums [10]string
    nums[0] = "zero"
    nums[1] = "one"
    nums[2] = "two"
    nums[3] = "three"
    nums[4] = "four"
    nums[5] = "five"
    nums[6] = "six"
    nums[7] = "seven"
    nums[8] = "eight"
    nums[9] = "nine"
    ws_events, _ := i3ipc.Subscribe(i3ipc.I3WorkspaceEvent)
    for {
        event := <-ws_events
        if event.Change != "" {
            var wknums [10]int
            for i := range wknums {
                wknums[i] = 0xDEADBEEF
            }
            wkspcs, _ := ipc.GetWorkspaces()
            for i := range wkspcs {
                for j := range nums {
                    if wkspcs[i].Name == nums[j] {
                        wknums[i] = i
                    }
                }
            }
            sort.Ints(wknums[0:9])
            for i := range wkspcs {
                if wkspcs[i].Name != nums[i]  {
                        command := fmt.Sprintf("rename workspace %s to %s", wkspcs[i].Name, nums[i])
                        fmt.Println(command)
                        ipc.Command(command)
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Wed, 01 Oct 2014 01:04:45 +0000

Excuse the dumb question, but where do you put/call this script for it to work?

Answer by TonyC for
Hello,

I'm a very happy user of i3 but I have a question that I did not find any answer.

I want i3 to automatically sort the workspace number when I close one in a interval of 2 or more.

For example, I'm using workspace 1, 2, 3 and 4. I close all the windows on workspace 3. I now have workspace 1, 2 and 4 active.

What I want is workspace 1, 2 and 3. Workspace 4 can be renamed Workspace 3 or everything in workspace 4 is now in workspace 3.

How can I achieve that ?

Thank you very much !

Sun, 30 Mar 2014 18:44:29 +0000

You can do this with the new [ipc library](https://github.com/acrisci/i3ipc-glib). This script uses the [JavaScript](https://github.com/acrisci/i3ipc-gjs) version but the same API is available in many languages. You can find the latest version of this script [here](https://github.com/acrisci/i3ipc-gjs/blob/master/examples/auto-harmonious-ws-nums.js). #!/usr/bin/env gjs /* This example shows how to renumber your workspaces so they are consolidated into a harmonious linear order starting from 1 automatically when a workspace is closed. For instance, if you have open workspaces 1, 2, 4 they will be renumbered to 1, 2, 3 respectively when you move out of the workspace with no containers. https://faq.i3wm.org/question/3579/auto-sort-workspace-number/ */ const i3ipc = imports.gi.i3ipc; let conn = new i3ipc.Connection; conn.on('workspace::empty', function(conn, e) { let workspaces = conn.get_workspaces().filter(function(ws) { return !isNaN(parseInt(ws.name)); }).sort(function(a, b) { return parseInt(a.name) - parseInt(b.name); }); workspaces.forEach(function(ws, i) { let new_name = ws.name.replace(parseInt(ws.name).toString(), (i + 1).toString()); conn.command('rename workspace "' + ws.name + '" to "' + new_name + '"'); }); }); conn.main();