[DWM] List applications and switch to tag

graph · 2012-08-22 08:47:46

I'm having troubles with keeping track of my applications in DWM.

Is there any way to run a command and figure out:
1) My running applications (xlsclients maybe?)
2) More importantly, which tag a given window is in
3) Finally, switch to that tag to view the window.

My final goal would be to incorporate it in dmenu, if possible.
My knowledge of C is quite limited, but I'm fluent in Bash/zsh, so would prefer a scritable solution.

jasonwryan · 2012-08-22 09:05:21

Would it not be easier to just have an extensive rule list for your applications, and assign each application to the relevant tag(s)?

If not, there are a couple of tilers with dynamic tagging.

Just a thought. Carry on regardless...

graph · 2012-08-23 09:25:04

jasonwryan wrote:

Would it not be easier to just have an extensive rule list for your applications, and assign each application to the relevant tag(s)?

Yeah, that would be the next-best thing. I have a small screen resolution, so I kindof just uses DWM's tiling capabilities like a constant monocle-mode. So I would have one window in each tag.

Having the possibility to search through open programs via dmenu would make the whole thing a lot easier, but I don't really think that it's possible.
I've had no luck with wmctrl - Am I right when I think that DWM isn't compatible with the EWMH/NetWM specification (which is used by wmctrl)?

Last edited by graph (2012-08-23 09:26:04)

jasonwryan · 2012-08-23 09:29:53

Yes: I think the suckless crew regard EWMH as some sort of abomination

Onyros · 2012-08-23 11:41:12

You could also try Telescope, which may work pretty well for what you want: it'll show you (live) thumbnails of all your open windows with its respective name and allow you to choose and switch to its tag. Works pretty well with DWM - very fast, very lightweight - has a few bugs as it was originally intended for Maemo OS (Nokia Internet Tablets).

Last edited by Onyros (2012-08-23 11:42:03)

graph · 2013-01-02 19:28:25

jasonwryan wrote:

Just a thought. Carry on regardless...

And so I did. I just hacked a script that actually does this. It depends on xdotool and dmenu.
plugin-container is removed, since it's flash running inside Firefox in my case.

#!/bin/bash
# Search through open programs and switch to their tag
application=$(
	# List all running programs
	xlsclients |\
	# Fix Virtualbox and LibreOffice
   	sed -e 's/.*VirtualBox/foobar  virtualbox/g' -e 's/.*soffice/foobar  libreoffice/g' |\
	# Remove flash from results
	grep -v "plugin-container" |\
	# Show only app-names
   	cut -d" " -f3 |\
	# Pipe to dmenu ($@ to include font settings from dwm/config.h)
	dmenu -i -p "Switch to" $@
)

# Switch to chosen application
case $application in
	gimp | truecrypt)
		xdotool search --onlyvisible -classname "$application" windowactivate &> /dev/null
		;;
	*)
		xdotool search ".*${application}.*" windowactivate &> /dev/null
		;;
esac

Last edited by graph (2013-01-03 10:54:50)

chickenPie4tea · 2014-02-21 16:04:46

I know it's a year old but this is a very nice solution - could you tell me how I would add an app to filter out of the list.
I get Guake and clipit shown and don't want that.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-08-22 08:47:46

[DWM] List applications and switch to tag

#2 2012-08-22 09:05:21

Re: [DWM] List applications and switch to tag

#3 2012-08-23 09:25:04

Re: [DWM] List applications and switch to tag

#4 2012-08-23 09:29:53

Re: [DWM] List applications and switch to tag

#5 2012-08-23 11:41:12

Re: [DWM] List applications and switch to tag

#6 2013-01-02 19:28:25

Re: [DWM] List applications and switch to tag

#7 2014-02-21 16:04:46

Re: [DWM] List applications and switch to tag

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