Automatically changing the layout after starting the second program on a workspace (similar to dwm)

Richard
27 ●5 ●5 ●8

Hi all,

I am using the (horizontal) split layout by default. This means, if I start three programs, I see all of them side by side. Is it possible to change the layout for the second container on a workspace automatically from the horizontal split to some other layout?

For instance, after starting two programs it looks like this:

___________________
|_progr1_|_progr2_|
|        |        |
|________|________|

If I start now a third program, I would like to have it as a child of the second program-node, using a new layout (e.g. vertical spit or tabbed layout). So after the starting the third program, it should look like this:

___________________
|_progr1_|_progr2_|
|        |_progr3_|
|________|________|

Thank you very much!

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answered Apr 5 '13

Hibou57

273 ●8 ●14 ●26

updated Apr 7 '13

I tried to search, and believe the best way is to use i3wm IPC mechanism, as described in [sorry, can't post link] . You could subscribe to window events (described at the bottom of the page) and react accordingly, like changing the layout, which you could do sending a COMMAND message to i3wm.

I may try later to do it myself and will update this answer with a ready‑to‑use snippet if I do (will probably use Python).

Hint: you may also look at the question titled “How can I define my workspace on startup” (sorry, can't post a direct link).

Update

It's not mandatory to use the IPC API directly. There's a command line wrapper to send the same kind of messages: the i3-msg command.

Comments

Hi Hibou57, thanks for your reply, I have now an idea how it could work. However I didn't use the i3 IPC interface yet and I have just little time this weekend. I will try to write a script myself as soon as possible and post it to this question.

Richard (Apr 6 '13)edit

Richard, you may not need to use the IPC API directly. There's the `i3-msg` command which do the same. Do `man i3-msg` and you will see it covers the same type of message de IPC API do. `I3-msg` seems to be a command line wrapper for IPC.

Hibou57 (Apr 7 '13)edit

Hibou57, thanks, I already used i3-msg for changing the layout workspaces with a shortcut. But as far as I know, this doesn't allow me to change the layout depending on the number of programs running on a workspace, or is it possible to register to a window event using i3-msg or something similar?

Richard (Apr 7 '13)edit

No, I don't think so. To register to i3 events and react accordingly, I believe you need a daemon listening to i3 using its IPC. Or else, you may look at DWM, which behave as you expect, if I remember correctly (I tried DWM among others, before I decided to stick to i3).

Hibou57 (Apr 7 '13)edit

Yes I tried dwm and wmii before I finally got to i3. Probably this is why I miss this functionality. I am not sure anymore why I finally switched to i3 (I think dwm doesnt have a tabbed layout?) but now I like i3 very much. I will try first writing a daemon, before considering switching again. ;-)

Richard (Apr 7 '13)edit

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Automatically changing the layout after starting the second program on a workspace (similar to dwm)

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