Setting container names

answered 2015-04-14 14:29:53 +0000

Alois Mahdal
35 ●4 ●5 ●10

updated 2015-04-14 14:30:27 +0000

Not an answer, but as a dity workaround, I'm using this:

1. I create a process with custom name,
2. start a container,
3. keep the sleeper as first.

The hack is based on the fact that i3 uses process name--not window title--as item in the list.

For example, when working on a bug 123:

1. I call my script below as mkprocn BUG123, which creates "sleeper" process called BUG123 (just as if the executable was called that way),
2. I create a sub-container, keeping the sleeper as first child
3. I move all relevant windows there.

I end up with something like i3: T[BUG123 title1 title2 ...].

Disadvantage is that I have to keep the process running, but with tabbed layout this is not much of a deal.

The script (use at your own risk).

#!/bin/bash
# mkprocn

name="FOO"
action="__fork__"

usage() {
    echo "usage: $(basename $0) NAME" >&2;
    exit 2
}

while true; do case "$1" in
    __*__)  action="$1";    break ;;
    "")  break                    ;;
    -*)  usage                    ;;
    *)   name="$1"; shift 1       ;;
esac done

case "$action" in
    __sleep__)
        sleep 10000000000;
        ;;
    __fork__)
        $0 "$name" __exec__ &
        ;;
    __exec__)
        exec -a "$name" urxvt -title "$name" -e "$0" __sleep__; break ;;
    *)
        usage
        ;;
esac

You might want to

• replace the urxvt syntax with some other terminal,
• replace -e "$0" __sleep__ with something useful like -e vim notes-$name.txt,
• add decorations to the name to make it more visible.