floating windows

Floating windows

Here are some snippets of code related to floating windows.

• Bring all floating windows to front
• Set specific windows in floating mode
  • Any window
  • Firefox
  • PyCharm
  • Steam

Bring all floating windows to front

Sometimes a floating window ends up behind another window, and since the floating layout is separated from the other layouts, chances are you cannot focus the window back to front.

So here is a lazy function that will bring all floating windows to front:

@lazy.function
def float_to_front(qtile):
    logging.info("bring floating windows to front")
    for group in qtile.groups:
        for window in group.windows:
            if window.floating:
                window.cmd_bring_to_front()

Now simply define a key that uses this function:

keys = [
    ...
    Key(["mod4", "shift"], "f", float_to_front),
    ...
]

Set specific windows in floating mode

We currently have snippets for the following applications:

• Firefox
• PyCharm
• Steam

Any window

If the application you search for is not referenced in this wiki, here are methods to know how to make it floating. The goal is to find the uniquely identifying information of the application window.

With xprop

1. install the xprop tool if it's not already available on your system
2. launch the desired application
3. run xprop in a terminal
4. click on the application window

In some cases, the window you want to have floating disappear quite fast. In that case, you'll want to run a command like application & xprop. Be prepared to click quickly!

Now that you have clicked on the application window, xprop exits and you're left with some information output in your terminal. You need to find the identifying information in this output.

Some applications are difficult to uniquely identify, like the Update window of Steam. Don't hesitate to run a diff on the xprop output of two different windows of the same application to find identifying information.

You will usually look at WM_CLASS and WM_NAME. As an example, here is the output of xprop for an Atom (the editor) window:

XdndTypeList(ATOM) = STRING, UTF8_STRING, TEXT, text/plain, chromium/x-renderer-taint, chromium/x-web-custom-data
_NET_WM_STATE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_STATE_MAXIMIZED_VERT, _NET_WM_STATE_MAXIMIZED_HORZ
_NET_WM_DESKTOP(CARDINAL) = 0
WM_STATE(WM_STATE):
		window state: Normal
		icon window: 0x0
_NET_WM_USER_TIME(CARDINAL) = 105925334
WM_NORMAL_HINTS(WM_SIZE_HINTS):
		program specified location: 1080, 440
_NET_WM_ICON(CARDINAL) =
WM_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "custom-apps.md — ~/data/dev/forks/qtile-wiki — Atom"
_NET_WM_NAME(UTF8_STRING) = "custom-apps.md — ~/data/dev/forks/qtile-wiki — Atom"
XdndAware(ATOM) = BITMAP
_MOTIF_WM_HINTS(_MOTIF_WM_HINTS) = 0x2, 0x0, 0x1, 0x0, 0x0
_NET_WM_BYPASS_COMPOSITOR(CARDINAL) = 2
WM_WINDOW_ROLE(STRING) = "browser-window"
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "atom", "Atom"
_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE(ATOM) = _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_NORMAL
_NET_WM_PID(CARDINAL) = 1132137
WM_LOCALE_NAME(STRING) = "en_US.UTF-8"
WM_CLIENT_MACHINE(STRING) = "corsair"
WM_PROTOCOLS(ATOM): protocols  WM_DELETE_WINDOW, _NET_WM_PING

With qtile-cmd -o window -f inspect

To get information about the desired application window, prepare to quickly focus the window (by moving your mouse or by your keyboard shortcuts), and run this one-liner in a terminal:

sleep 1; qtile-cmd -o window -f inspect

You will have one second to move the focus to the desired window. Increase the sleep time if it is too short.

Example output for an Atom window:

{'attributes': {'all_event_masks': 6520959,
                'backing_pixel': 0,
                'backing_planes': 4294967295,
                'backing_store': 0,
                'bit_gravity': 1,
                'class': 1,
                'do_not_propagate_mask': 0,
                'map_is_installed': 1,
                'map_state': 2,
                'override_redirect': 0,
                'save_under': 0,
                'visual': 33,
                'win_gravity': 1,
                'your_event_mask': 6422544},
 'float_info': {'height': 1896, 'width': 1080, 'x': 0, 'y': 24},
 'hints': None,
 'name': 'custom-apps.md — ~/data/dev/forks/qtile-wiki — Atom',
 'normalhints': {'base_height': 0,
                 'base_width': 0,
                 'flags': {'PPosition'},
                 'height_inc': 0,
                 'max_aspect': 0,
                 'max_height': 0,
                 'max_width': 0,
                 'min_aspect': 0,
                 'min_height': 0,
                 'min_width': 0,
                 'width_inc': 0,
                 'win_gravity': 0},
 'properties': ['XdndTypeList',
                '_NET_WM_STATE',
                '_NET_WM_DESKTOP',
                'WM_STATE',
                '_NET_WM_USER_TIME',
                'WM_NORMAL_HINTS',
                '_NET_WM_ICON',
                'WM_NAME',
                '_NET_WM_NAME',
                'XdndAware',
                '_MOTIF_WM_HINTS',
                '_NET_WM_BYPASS_COMPOSITOR',
                'WM_WINDOW_ROLE',
                'WM_CLASS',
                '_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE',
                '_NET_WM_PID',
                'WM_LOCALE_NAME',
                'WM_CLIENT_MACHINE',
                'WM_PROTOCOLS'],
 'protocols': ['WM_DELETE_WINDOW', '_NET_WM_PING'],
 'state': (1, 0),
 'wm_class': ('atom', 'Atom'),
 'wm_client_machine': 'corsair',
 'wm_icon_name': None,
 'wm_transient_for': None,
 'wm_type': 'normal',
 'wm_window_role': 'browser-window'}

You need to find the identifying information in this output.

Some applications are difficult to uniquely identify, like the Update window of Steam. Don't hesitate to run a diff on the command output of two different windows of the same application to find identifying information.

You will usually look at wm_class and name.

Now in your hook function, you can retrieve the window information with methods of the window attribute. Example:

wm_class = window.window.get_wm_class()
...

⚠️	TODO: complete mapping of variables names in inspect output and window methods.

⚠️	TODO: complete mapping of lines in xprop output and window methods.

Now, to force a window to float, you can use the client_new hook. See Hooks for more information on hooks.

from libqtile import hook


@hook.subscribe.client_new
def float_my_app(window):
    if window.window.get_name() == "My App":
        window.floating = True

Also see examples below.

Firefox

You typically want the secondary windows of Firefox, like the download history, the bookmark managers and else, to be floating:

from libqtile import hook


@hook.subscribe.client_new
def float_firefox(window):
    wm_class = window.window.get_wm_class()
    w_name = window.window.get_name()
    if wm_class == ("Places", "firefox") and w_name == "Library":
        window.floating = True

PyCharm

You typically want to float the small brand/intro window and the updater windows:

from libqtile import hook


@hook.subscribe.client_new
def float_pycharm(window):
    wm_class = window.window.get_wm_class()
    w_name = window.window.get_name()
    if (
        (
            wm_class == ("jetbrains-pycharm-ce", "jetbrains-pycharm-ce")
            and w_name == " "
        )
        or (
            wm_class == ("java-lang-Thread", "java-lang-Thread")
            and w_name == "win0"
        )
    ):
        window.floating = True

Steam

You typically want to put every window that is not the main one in floating mode:

from libqtile import hook


@hook.subscribe.client_new
def float_steam(window):
    wm_class = window.window.get_wm_class()
    w_name = window.window.get_name()
    if (
        wm_class == ("Steam", "Steam")
        and (
            w_name != "Steam"
            # w_name == "Friends List"
            # or w_name == "Screenshot Uploader"
            # or w_name.startswith("Steam - News")
            or "PMaxSize" in window.window.get_wm_normal_hints().get("flags", ())
        )
    ):
        window.floating = True