Scripts for myriad i3 functionality

i3

focus-last.py

---

Description

Changes to the last focused window on Alt-Tab (or whatever you change it to)
Borrowed heavily from acrisici/i3ipc-python/examples/focus-last.py

Usage

Run it first as a daemon to begin window history logging
python3 focus-last.py &!
Switch to the last focused window with
python3 focus-last.py --switch

Configuration

There's only one configuration parameter, really - the maximum window history length
Typically, we only care about the second window in this list, since that's the last focused window. However, in case this window was closed in some way other than moving to it and closing it, the 3rd window in the list would be the last focused window, and so on. This can be set in settings.yaml -

window history length: <num>

find_apps.py

---

Description

Changes workspace names to add glyphs of all the contained windows
Workspace names with glyphs look like - <num>: <glyphs> Glyphs can be configured for each application class
Applications supported right now are:

1. download manager
   • uget
2. browser
   • Firefox
   • Google Chrome
   • qutebrowser
3. youtube
   • if using one of the above browsers
4. ebook reader
   • Okular
   • Zathura
5. virtual machine
   • VirtualBox
   • VMware player
6. media player
   • vlc/cvlc
   • mplayer
7. wireshark
8. terminal
   • Gnome terminal
   • URxvt
   • XTerm
   • st (suckless terminal)
9. file browser
   • Nautilus
10. image viewer
    • Pinta
    • pqiv
    • feh
    • Eog
11. fontforge
12. office
    • libre office
13. Gvim
14. editor
    • Gedit
15. Spim (MIPS simulator)
16. Burp Suite
17. Gephi (graph visualizer)
18. IDA Disassembler

Adding new applications / classes is also pretty easy - see Configuration

The currently focused application is highlighted in a user-defined colour.
If used along with focus-last.py, the last focused application is also highlighted (in a different colour). This helps as a visual indicator of which window you'll jump back to if you hit your keybind for focus-last.py --switch.

Usage

Simply run it as a daemon:

python3 find_apps.py &!

Configuration

Glyphs for application classes can be configured by altering the settings.yaml file.
They are set in the format -

glyphs:
    app class name: glyph
    ...

The default glyphs are nerd font icons, so they might look weird if you're using a different font.

Colors for the currently and last focused can also be altered in the same way -

colors:
    focused: <color>
    last focused: <color>

<color> can be specified according to X11 color names, or an RGB color specification (#RRGGBB).
RGB color codes need to be wrapped in quotes since # starts a comment in yaml.
Since i3 v4.12, i3bar also supports transparency, so an RGBA color codes can also be used.

Adding support for new applications is simple -

1. Open the application
2. Open a terminal and run python3 find\_apps.py debug to list current windows to find the details of your window
3. Add/update an elif clause in the function get_app() (use the others defined as a guide)
4. If you're adding a new application class, add an entry in settings.yaml and return the glyph from the function

If that looks complicated, or you need something more complex, just open an issue 😜

If you change any settings, you'll want to restart the daemons. If you change things often, this soon becomes a pain. Put this in your i3 config to make this easy -

exec_always --no-startup-id python3 <path_to_repo>/i3/find_apps.py
exec_always --no-startup-id python3 <path_to_repo>/i3/focus-last.py
bindsym $mod+Shift+z exec "pkill -f <path_to_repo>/i3/";restart

Hitting $mod+Shift+z now restarts i3 as well as the scripts

rename_ws.py

---

Description

Only useful with find_apps.py
Assigns/removes custom names to workspaces while keeping all the glyphs from find_apps.py
Workspaces with custom names look like <num>: <custom name>: <glyphs>

Another feature is the ability to re-number workspaces on the basis of your monitor setup.
Outputs (monitors) are sorted on the basis of their position - first on y, then on x. Workspaces are incrementally numbered on the basis of the output they belong in and their position within that output.

For example,

  Output 1      Output 2                Output 1       Output 2
+-----------+ +-----------+           +-----------+ +-----------+  
|           | |           |           |           | |           |  
|___________| |___________|   --->    |___________| |___________|  
|4|6|7|9|   | |1|2|3|5|8| |           |1|2|3|4|   | |5|6|7|8|9| |  
+-----------+ +-----------+           +-----------+ +-----------+  

(workspaces are renumbered, not moved around)

Usage

To rename the current workspace

python3 rename_ws.py rename <custom_name>

Since it's not feasible to run this command inside any window manually, this is best rebinded so that it can take input externally and run it.
i3-input is great for such tasks, although it leaves something to be desired when it comes to looks.

bindsym $mod+n exec i3-input -F 'exec python3 <path_to_repo>/i3/rename_ws.py rename "%s"'

Hitting $mod+n now pops up a textbox in which the custom name can be entered.

To remove a custom name, you have two options -

1. Rename with an empty name - hit your keybind for rename and press enter, or python3 rename_ws.py rename ''
2. Use the remove command - python3 rename_ws.py remove

Using an empty rename has the benefit that it saves a keybind
Using the remove command has the benefit that it saves the textbox popping up

To reorder the workspaces,

python3 rename_ws.py reorder

mouse.py

---

Description

Enable, disable or toggle the state of all pointing devices collectively
The mouse pointer is moved to the right bottom corner before disabling. Also creates a temp file to indicate that pointing devices are enabled (used by i3blocks/check_mouse)

Usage

Fairly intuitive commands -

python3 mouse.py enable
python3 mouse.py disable
python3 mouse.py toggle

If you're using this with i3blocks/check_mouse, it is neccessary to signal i3blocks to update the block.

bindsym $mod+grave exec "python ~/.config/i3blocks/scripts/mouse toggle; pkill -RTMIN+2 i3blocks"

Dependencies

---

The scripts depend on:

1. i3ipc
2. fasteners
3. selectors
4. python3-xlib
5. pyautogui
6. pyyaml

Install dependencies by running

cd <path_to_repo>
pip3 install -r i3/requirements.txt

i3blocks

Note: Arguments in square brackets are mandatory while italicized ones are optional

• check_capslock

  • Markup: none
  • Description: Checks the current status of capslock

• check_mouse

  • Markup: none
  • Description: Checks the current status of pointing devices. Checks the flag set by i3/mouse.py to detect the state of pointing devices.

• disk_acc

  • Markup: none
  • Description: Accurate depiction of free disk space

• wifi_signal_strength

  • Arguments: [interface] ssidColor signalColor offColor separatorColor
  • Example: wifi_signal_strength.sh wlp58s0 "#ff80ab" "#69F0AE" "#ff80ab" "#8b96d2"
  • Markup: pango
  • Description: Shows the wifi SSID and singal strength of the mentioned interface. Shows N/A incase no connection is found.

• battery_health

  • Markup: none
  • Description: Shows the battery health ( A new laptop should show something around 98% )

• battery

  • Description: Shows the battery life, with dynamic icons for different levels. Icons are also provided to represent consumption and charging.

• screenshot

  • Markup: none
  • Description: Takes a screen shot of the whole screen and saves it in the ~/Pictures/Screenshots/ directory with the filename of current date & time.

• bandwidth

  • Description: Tells the correct network traffic in KB/s from /proc/net/dev file.

• date

  • Markup: none
  • Description: Tells the date in the format of <Week Day, day of month, month name, year>.

• time

  • Markup: none
  • Description: Tells the current time in the format of <Hour, Minute, AM/PM>