xwintoggle

This project allows users to toggle X11 windows using globally-bound keyboard shortcuts. Its intention is to replicate functionality of similar programs in the OSX ecosystem (e.g., Apptivate).

Installation

First install the dependencies:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install libx11-dev yaml-cpp-dev

Then clone the repository:

git clone git@github.com:jeffeverett/xwintoggle.git

Then build the program:

cd xwintoggle
make -j4

The program can then be run using:

./xwintoggle

Configuration

Configuration settings are stored in YAML. Their default location is ~/.xwintoggle/config.yaml. However, this default can be overwritten by invoking the program like so:

./xwintoggle $CONFIG_PATH

The following is an example configuration:

launchData:
- key: F1
  binPath: /opt/google/chrome/chrome
  args:
  - --disable-gpu-vsync
  - --disable-gpu-sandbox
- key: F2
  binPath: /usr/bin/gnome-terminal
  toggleBinPath: /usr/lib/gnome-terminal/gnome-terminal-server

The allowed settings are as follows:

• launchData (required): List of dictionaries. Each dictionary contains data that controls how windows of specified programs are managed by xwintoggle.
  • key (required): The key (as in keyboard) to be used to toggle this program.
  • binPath (required): The binary path to be used to create an instance of this program if it is not already running.
  • toggleBinPath (optional): The binary path to be used to determine windows that belong to instances of this program. If not specified, defaults to binPath.
  • args (optional): A list of arguments to send to the program when it is first created.

Notes

• The reasoning for separate binPath and toggleBinPath arguments is as follows: some programs exist only to ease the creation of one or multiple separate processes. These processes may belong to different executables, in which case we are no longer able to determine the relevant window(s) using the binPath. In this case, we must instead use the executable path corresponding to the spawned process that owns the window(s) we wish to toggle; this information is given by toggleBinPath.
• To determine the PID of a given window, we check the _NET_WM_PID of that window. This is a window property that is set by the vast majority of raphical programs, but not all graphical programs. If a program does not specify this property, then xwintoggle is unable to toggle windows belonging to that program.