Workspace output multiple values

answered 2014-04-25 05:16:14 +0000

Adaephon
2299 ●3 ●16 ●42

There is no builtin feature to do this. But with some scripting it should not be too difficult.

First set a variable in your configuration file for the output(s) and reference it in your workspace definitions:

set $OUTPUT1 LVDS
set $OUTPUT2 VGA1

workspace 1 output $OUTPUT1
workspace 5 output $OUTPUT2

Then you need a script that changes the variable definitions for you and reloads the configuration

#!/bin/bash
OUT2=$(xrandr | awk '/(VGA1|DP1)/ connected/{print $1}')
OUT2=${OUT2:-LVDS}
sed 's/^set\s\s*$OUTPUT2\s.*/set $OUTPUT2 '$OUT2'/' -i "${HOME}/.i3/config"
i3-msg reload

Now you can set a keybinding for this script.

WARNING: UNTESTED

You could even run this script directly from your configuration file

exec --no-startup-id /path/to/outputcheck.sh

As exec statements are not executed when reloading the configuration it should not lead to an endless loop. I am assuming that the statements are also only run after i3 has fully parsed the configuration file (for the first time) and reloading can thus be done without risk, but I am not sure.