https://faq.i3wm.org/questions/Frequently asked questions and answers about the i3 window managerenCopyright i3, 2012Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:25:22 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/507/unforseen-result-of-sequential-execution/Hi all, i use i3 version 4.2 (2012-04-25, branch "release-4.2") and i am very happy with it. Many thanks to the developers for this great software and that they make it freely available. Now to my question. To define a workspace on startup i followed fhaun's [auto-start-for-i3](https://github.com/fhaun/config-misc/blob/master/i3-stuff/auto-start-for-i3) script. Unfortunately it doesn't work for me as expected. After some debugging efforts i figured out what cause the strange behavior. With the following bash script i want to illustrate this: **test_startup.sh**: #!/bin/bash i3-msg workspace "[t]ools" for i in {1..4} ; do galculator --class "galculator-${i}" & done If i execute this script from a running `i3` session via `rxvt` `i3` switches to workspace `[t]ools` and four instances of `galculator` are opened on this workspace subsequently. Just as expected. Whereas `galculator` stands for an arbitrary x-client. If at the contrary i execute this script via the built in `exec` command for example by invoking `i3-input`: exec test_startup.sh the first instance of `galculator` is opened on the workspace from that i invoked `i3-input` and after that `i3` switches to workspace `[t]ools` and the remaining instances of `galculator` are opened. So only three instances of `galculator` are on `[t]ools`. This means that the above line added to `~/.i3/config` yields the same result. Is it a bug, that the two approaches to execute `test_startup.sh` yields different results? Or is there anything wrong in my reasoning and i haven't considered a important point yet? Thanks for your time and with best regards ----------------- ## Appendix 1 (19.09.2012) ## I managed to install the latest version of the `next` branch but the results are still unsatisfactory. The instructions with which i want to define a workspace on startup looks like this (i placed the code in the shell script `test_startup.sh` and test it via `i3-input` with `exec test_startup.sh`): i3-msg workspace "test" i3-msg exec thunar i3-msg split v i3-msg exec galculator i3-msg exec urxvt Unfortunately `split v` seems to be a global setting for the workspace `test` and all windows are arranged vertically no matter where i place this command, even if this command is appended to the last line. Furthermore if i mix `i3-msg split v` and `i3-msg split h` instructions only the last one is crucial for the arrangement of the windows. Is there a way to achieve the desired behavior i.e. have an arbitrary arrangement of windows on a specific workspace during startup?Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:31:20 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/507/unforseen-result-of-sequential-execution/https://faq.i3wm.org/question/507/unforseen-result-of-sequential-execution/?answer=510#post-id-510When using i3’s exec command, startup-notifications are used. They are the only way with which you can ensure that applications are placed on that workspace on which they are started (unless you use assignments/`for_window`, but that’s a permanent configuration). Therefore, here is how you would ensure that (a startup-notification-respecting) application is launched on workspace 3: i3-msg workspace 3 i3-msg exec firefox Note that you should upgrade to the latest git version of the "next" branch which contains a fix that might be relevant for this to work with some applications (http://c.i3wm.org/32d4dbf)Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:05:34 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/507/unforseen-result-of-sequential-execution/?answer=510#post-id-510https://faq.i3wm.org/question/507/unforseen-result-of-sequential-execution/?comment=527#comment-527Unfortunately the results are still unsatisfactory. I appended a more detailed explanation to my original post.Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:25:22 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/507/unforseen-result-of-sequential-execution/?comment=527#comment-527