https://faq.i3wm.org/questions/Frequently asked questions and answers about the i3 window managerenCopyright i3, 2012Thu, 01 Oct 2015 08:19:59 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/6670/complex-command-with-exec/ I'm trying to understand why the following command does not work with i3: bindsym plus exec xrandr --output LVDS1 --brightness "$(xrandr --current --verbose | grep brightness | awk -F: '{if($2>0.9){print(1.0)}else{print($2+0.1)}}')" My i3 version is latest: 4.10.4 I've also tried bindsym plus exec "xrandr --output LVDS1 --brightness $(xrandr --current --verbose | grep brightness | awk -F: '{if($2>0.9){print(1.0)}else{print($2+0.1)}}')" As per @Airblader's suggestion, I also extracted the command into a separate script: /home/me/.i3/bi.sh #!/bin/bash xrandr --output LVDS1 --brightness $(xrandr --current --verbose | grep brightness | awk -F: '{if($2>0.9){print(1.0)}else{print($2+0.1)}}') and have the following line in my .i3/config: bindsym plus exec /home/me/.i3/bi.sh but no luck still. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong? Wed, 23 Sep 2015 17:11:19 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/6670/complex-command-with-exec/https://faq.i3wm.org/question/6670/complex-command-with-exec/?comment=6760#comment-6760ah I see. Well I'm beginning to think that I'm not my brightness is not as much as I used to think..Thu, 01 Oct 2015 08:19:59 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/6670/complex-command-with-exec/?comment=6760#comment-6760https://faq.i3wm.org/question/6670/complex-command-with-exec/?comment=6673#comment-6673Good to hear you figured it out. exec just passes the command to /bin/sh, by the way. :)Thu, 24 Sep 2015 09:05:35 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/6670/complex-command-with-exec/?comment=6673#comment-6673https://faq.i3wm.org/question/6670/complex-command-with-exec/?comment=6672#comment-6672I feel stupid but it appears that i3 runs exec in bash -c, where aliases don't work. (I had `alias grep=grep -i`). `exec xrandr --output LVDS1 --brightness $(xrandr --current --verbose | grep Brightness | awk -F: '{if($2>0.9){print(1.0)}else{print($2+0.1)}}')` works fine (brigthness->Brigthness).Thu, 24 Sep 2015 03:52:24 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/6670/complex-command-with-exec/?comment=6672#comment-6672https://faq.i3wm.org/question/6670/complex-command-with-exec/?comment=6671#comment-6671a) Does binding another command ("exec i3-nagbar") work for "bindsym plus"? b) Does the script work if you call it from the command line?Wed, 23 Sep 2015 19:26:52 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/6670/complex-command-with-exec/?comment=6671#comment-6671