The i3 FAQ has migrated to https://github.com/i3/i3/discussions. All content here is read-only.
Ask Your Question
6

How do I find an app buried in some workspace by its title?

asked Jul 8 '12

lkraav gravatar image

updated Jul 9 '12

joepd gravatar image

For example, when opening PDFs from Thunderbird, they just go to existing Adobe Reader instance. Which could already be sitting in some other workspace, but I usually don't remember where.

Awesome lets you right-click the menubar and get a list of all windows on all workspaces. Something like that would be nice.

7 answers

Sort by » oldest newest most voted
5

answered Jul 8 '12

joepd gravatar image

updated Jul 17 '14

Have a look at the winmenu example of a python IPC library, i3-py. It makes use of dmenu to select a particular window, and jumps to it.

EDIT: Since most will not scroll down: i3-py is depreciated. Use TonyC's python bindings + solution, or rofi.

IMHO rofi is currently the most convenient solution. See also this answer.

Comments

Frickin fantastic! :>

lkraav gravatar imagelkraav (Jul 9 '12)edit

This is really great, thanks!

Piotr Domagalski gravatar imagePiotr Domagalski (Sep 18 '12)edit

Watch out, i3-py has bugs and is currently not maintained.

joepd gravatar imagejoepd (Jul 17 '14)edit

Awesome project.

Nishant gravatar imageNishant (Apr 12 '15)edit
2

answered Apr 10 '14

TonyC gravatar image

updated Jul 18 '14

While the freedom to create complicated layouts and make full use of workspaces is a great strength of i3wm, it's probably the only window manager out there where it's quite easy to lose a window if you aren't paying attention.

Try i3-container-commander from the i3ipc-python project. It is a dmenu-based script that lets you drill down into your open windows based on class and title.

Comments

@TonyC I tried your script and after installing all dependencies is running ok. I just trying to change the font of dmenu. I put the flag -fn inside your script where the dmenu command is on line 59, but it trows an error. How can I change the font?

phairland gravatar imagephairland (Jul 18 '14)edit
1

Pass arguments to dmenu by adding `--` and then dmenu arguments. Example: `~/.i3/scripts/i3-container-commander.py -- -fn 'Fira Mono -20' -f -i `

TonyC gravatar imageTonyC (Jul 18 '14)edit

@TonyC Thank you, it works !!!

phairland gravatar imagephairland (Jul 18 '14)edit
0

answered Jun 8 '15

chilicuil gravatar image

If you're looking for a way to list all windows apps and then switch to any of them, you may be interested in dmenu-i3-window-jumper, a sh script (no python nor bash required) who just do that.

https://github.com/minos-org/minos-to...

0

answered Jul 18 '14

tigrezno gravatar image

updated Jul 18 '14

Why don't you assign all pdf readers (adobe in your case) to the "pdf" workspace?

Comments

**Reductio ad absurdum**: How many applications do you have, and how many workspaces do you have available? **Experientially**: if ever I have a pdf open, it is to enable me doing X. So it should be on the workspace dedicated to X.

joepd gravatar imagejoepd (Jul 18 '14)edit
0

answered Jul 8 '12

Michael gravatar image

You can solve that with a script using the IPC interface. See http://i3wm.org/docs/ipc.html. It certainly won’t be introduced as a feature in i3 itself :).

In general, I’d recommend not using apps which don’t properly behave, like Adobe Reader. There are plenty more PDF readers out there which are FOSS and open one window per PDF, so that you won’t have that specific problem anymore.

Comments

No doubt, but it actually has been my preference so far to have the PDFs consolidated. Even if they aren't, then I will have the same problem: "in which f'n workspace is that particular PDF now" :> btw I do rock mupdf on the side already as well.

lkraav gravatar imagelkraav (Jul 9 '12)edit
0

answered Sep 18 '12

joepd gravatar image

updated Jul 17 '14

Just ran across simpleswitcher, which does exactly what it needs to do. It asks the available windows directly from Xorg, which happens to be a lot faster than i3-py / IPC.

Arch-users can try it without thinking with AUR.

Edit: Should test stuff a bit longer before telling about it. What works is to get a list of open windows on the current workspace, when asking for open windows on all workspaces. Using it to find on which workspace an app is buried, does not work. simpleswitcher relies on some EWM-Hints that are as yet not implemented in i3, and they are according to Michael not trivial to implement.

EDIT2: Here is a fork that has support for i3. It works really well. Archers: The AUR you should install is simpleswitcher-dd-git.

EDIT3: The Fork has been renamed to rofi. It is excellent!

0

answered Feb 21 '14

KJ44 gravatar image

Run or focus in i3https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2473/ru...

My solution >blush< https://faq.i3wm.org/question/2473/ru...

Type a string and the corresponding program is brought into focus; if it is already running focus moves to its associated workspace, otherwise it is launched in the current workspace.

Question Tools

3 followers

Stats

Asked: Jul 8 '12

Seen: 4,933 times

Last updated: Jun 08