i3toolwait

Launch a program and move it to the correct workspace.

Usage

• simple: i3toolwait simple ...
• config: i3toolwait config ...

Simple

Run only one program.

Config

Run multiple programs by specifying a yaml list of the form:

---
- filter: <your filter>
  workspace: <target workspace>
  program: <program to execute>
  signal_continue: <a signal number upon which to move on to the next program, optional>

Not specifying a workspace implies that the program won't spawn a window.

Installing

Use the makefile: INSTALL_BASE=/usr/local/ make install or install all dependencies python3 -mpip install --upgrade -r requirements.txt and copy the script to your path: cp i3toolwait /usr/local/bin/i3toolwait.

Filtering

The program allows to match the window or container based on the returned IPC data. Some programs might open multiple windows (looking at you, Discord).

In order to move the correct window to the desired workspace a filter can be defined.

The syntax for the filter is lisp-like. To view all spawned containers run the program with --debug --filter=False which will not match any windows and print their properties.

It is then possible to construct a filter for any program.

Available Operators:

• and: &
• or: |
• eq: =
• neq: !=
• gt: >
• lt: <

The filter usually operates on the dictionary, and thus the first argument to every normal filter is the dictionary element, in . notation, as might be customary in jq.

For example: (> ".container.geometry.width" 300) would match the first window where the width is greater than 300.

Multiple filters are combined via nesting: (& (> ".container.geometry.width" 300) (= ".container.window_properties.class" "discord")).

Starting tray programs in a specific order

To start tray programs in a specific order it is possible to specify the signal_continue parameter. Starting of programs will be halted until the program has received the corresponding signal.

This could be combined with waybar to enforce an ordering of tray applications:

~/.config/waybar/config

"tray": {
    "on-update": "pkill --full --signal SIGUSR1 i3toolwait",
    "reverse-direction": true,
}

config-file

- program: 'nm-applet --indicator'
  filter: '(False)'
  signal_continue: 10
- program: 'blueman-applet'
  filter: '(False)'
  signal_continue: 10
- ...

This setup would order the icons in waybar from left-to-right like in the config file.