Set workspace name through wmctrl

[wavexx]

I don't see a way to programmatically set the workspace name starting from a workspace index.
Is there a way through some other custom method?

[MaMiMa81]

This is what I do to do this very thing for Firefox

I have 4 small executable scripts in my $PATH in my ~/.local/bin/ directory:

ff_launch, ff & ff_wsid

which is for launching Firefox & setting the workspace name

and:

ff_kill

to kill Firefox & removing the workspace name.

Here are the files:

#### ff_launch ####
#!/bin/sh

~/.local/bin/ff

while true;
        do
        app_run=$(wmctrl -l | awk '/Firefox/ { print $2 }')
                if [ "$app_run" != '' ]; then
                        break
                else
                        sleep 0.2
                fi
done

~/.local/bin/ff_wsid

#### ff ####
#!/bin/sh

wmctrl -a firefox || exec firefox &

#### ff_wsid ####
#!/bin/sh

app_run=$(wmctrl -l -x | awk '/Firefox/ { print $2 }')

if [ "$app_run" != '' ]; then
        wmctrl -s "$app_run"
        echo '+@fg=8;FF +@fg=2;' | xclip -i
        xdotool key super+shift+slash
        xdotool key ctrl+y
        xdotool key return
fi

#### ff_kill ####
#!/bin/sh

curr_deskt="$(wmctrl -d | awk '/*/ { print $1 }')"
dsktp=$(wmctrl -d | awk '/FF/ { print $1 }')
if [ "$dsktp" != '' ]; then
wmctrl -s "$dsktp"
echo '' | xclip -i
xdotool key super+shift+slash
xdotool key ctrl+y
xdotool key return
fi

sleep 0.5

WID=$(xdotool search --name "Mozilla Firefox")
xdotool windowactivate --sync "$WID"
xdotool key --clearmodifiers ctrl+q
wmctrl -s "$curr_deskt"

I invoke ff_launch which in turn calls ff & then ff_wsid via key bindings that I have set & then when I shutdown Firefox & clear the workspace name I invoke ff_kill also via key bindings that I have set.

I also have set a quirk to always spawn Firefox on the same workspace.

HTH

[wavexx]

I see you're basically using xdotool to "interactively" do the rename.. would work indeed (and I didn't realize you could sneak control codes in there), but kind of ugly.

Just to share my experience, I'm working on a project which requires so much setup that I've wrote a script to launch a set of terminals/editors/tools split into various desktops on demand. I already couldn't find a nice way to spawn a new window into a dedicated workspace when already using IGNORESPAWNWS, so I already use wmctrl/xdotool to move windows by pid into the desktop I want after starting them. I guess adding a few more hacks on top doesn't hurt (too much)...

[LordReg]

The EWMH spec allows any client to modify the _NET_DESKTOP_NAMES property on root window. wmctrl doesn't include such an option. It should be possible with xprop, but it doesn't support setting UTF8_STRING arrays.

Also, spectrwm doesn't currently handle changes to _NET_DESKTOP_NAMES, will fix that.

[c0dev0id]

I want to add +1 here.

Having the ability to script workspace names would open up quite a few usability improvements. I'm regularly getting lost and forget what I started on which ws - leading me to flip through workspaces and search for a window. A window search is barely helpful as they're usually all terminals.

Sometimes I miss the tiny visual pagers like fvwm has one - or any other solution that makes this better.

(Maybe at some time in the future we get number keys that are small displays where we can put workspace screenshots in... that would be cool!)