How to spawn/trigger a command upon entering specific workspace
Solution 1:
Introduction
Essential workflow of this solution is to have a wrapper script that starts user's command upon entering workspace, and sends sigterm to it when user enters workspace not on the list. This is best used with commands that can be used as standalone applications and can be safely terminated without loss of information
Usage
As shown by the -h option
usage: workspace_command_limiter.py [-h] -w WORKSPACES -c COMMAND
Runs user-defined command __upon__ entering user-defined set of workspaces.
For instance ./workspace_command_limiter.py -w 1,2,3 -c "python
/home/user/some_script.py" This is intended to serve only as launcher for a
command when user switches to their desired workspace, so consider carefully
which command you want to use. NOTE: This script does run everything from
shell, so you are here implicitly trusted not to use any command that may
break your system. I'm not responsible for your stupidity :)
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-w WORKSPACES, --workspaces WORKSPACES
coma-separated list(without spaces) of workspaces
-c COMMAND, --command COMMAND
quoted command to be spawned,when switch to workspace
occurs
In the context of disable_super_key.py script , this should run like so
./workspace_command_limiter.py -w 1,2 -c "python ./disable_super_key.py"
Note, that in this example , ./ indicates that both scripts are in the same directory.
Script source
Also available on github
#!/usr/bin/env python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
"""
Author: Serg Kolo , contact: [email protected]
Date: August 24th, 2016
Purpose: Runs user-requested command only on specific workspaces
Tested on: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS , Unity desktop
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright © 2016 Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy <[email protected]>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE
"""
# Just in case the user runs
# the script with python 2, import
# print function
from __future__ import print_function
import gi
gi.require_version('Gdk', '3.0')
from gi.repository import Gio,Gdk
from time import sleep
import subprocess
import argparse
import signal
import os
import sys
"""Set debug=True to see errors and verbose output"""
debug=False
def gsettings_get(schema,path,key):
"""Get value of gsettings schema"""
if path is None:
gsettings = Gio.Settings.new(schema)
else:
gsettings = Gio.Settings.new_with_path(schema,path)
return gsettings.get_value(key)
def run_cmd(cmdlist):
""" Reusable function for running shell commands"""
try:
stdout = subprocess.check_output(cmdlist)
except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
if debug: print(">>> subprocess:",cmdlist)
sys.exit(1)
else:
if stdout:
return stdout
def enumerate_viewports():
""" generates enumerated dictionary of viewports and their
indexes, counting left to right """
schema="org.compiz.core"
path="/org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/core/"
keys=['hsize','vsize']
screen = Gdk.Screen.get_default()
screen_size=[ screen.get_width(),screen.get_height()]
grid=[ int(str(gsettings_get(schema,path,key))) for key in keys]
x_vals=[ screen_size[0]*x for x in range(0,grid[0]) ]
y_vals=[screen_size[1]*x for x in range(0,grid[1]) ]
viewports=[(x,y) for y in y_vals for x in x_vals ]
return {vp:ix for ix,vp in enumerate(viewports,1)}
def get_current_viewport():
"""returns tuple representing current viewport,
in format (width,height)"""
vp_string = run_cmd(['xprop', '-root',
'-notype', '_NET_DESKTOP_VIEWPORT'])
vp_list=vp_string.decode().strip().split('=')[1].split(',')
return tuple( int(i) for i in vp_list )
def parse_args():
intro="""
Runs user-defined command __upon__ entering user-defined set of
workspaces. For instance
./workspace_command_limiter.py -w 1,2,3 -c "python /home/user/some_script.py"
This is intended to serve only as launcher for a command when user switches
to their desired workspace, so consider carefully which command you want to use.
NOTE: This script does run everything from shell, so you are here implicitly trusted
not to use any command that may break your system. I'm not responsible for your
stupidity :)
"""
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=intro)
parser.add_argument(
"-w","--workspaces",
action='store',
type=str,
help="coma-separated list(without spaces) of workspaces",
required=True
)
parser.add_argument(
"-c","--command",
action='store',
type=str,
help="quoted command to be spawned,when switch to workspace occurs",
required=True
)
return parser.parse_args()
def main():
""" Defines entry point of the program """
args = parse_args()
workspaces = [ int(wp) for wp in args.workspaces.split(',') ]
if debug: print('User requested workspaces:',workspaces)
pid = None
proc = None
while True:
sleep(0.25)
viewports_dict=enumerate_viewports()
current_viewport = get_current_viewport()
current_vp_number = viewports_dict[current_viewport]
try:
if current_vp_number in workspaces:
if not pid:
proc = subprocess.Popen("exec " + args.command,shell=True)
pid = proc.pid
if debug: print('PID:',pid,'Spawned:',args.command)
else:
if pid:
if debug: print('killing pid:',pid)
proc.terminate()
proc = None
pid = None
except:
if debug: print("Unexpected error:", sys.exc_info()[0])
if proc:
proc.terminate()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()
Solution 2:
Just as another option, using another method to indicate the current viewport. I used a similar fuctionality in a number of scripts, a.o. here.
import subprocess
import os
import time
def get_res():
# get resolution
xr = subprocess.check_output(["xrandr"]).decode("utf-8").split()
pos = xr.index("current")
return [int(xr[pos+1]), int(xr[pos+3].replace(",", "") )]
def get_dt():
# get the current viewport
vp_data = subprocess.check_output(["wmctrl", "-d"]).decode("utf-8").split()
dt = [int(n) for n in vp_data[3].split("x")]
cols = int(dt[0]/res[0])
curr_vpdata = [int(n) for n in vp_data[5].split(",")]
curr_col = int(curr_vpdata[0]/res[0])+1; curr_row = int(curr_vpdata[1]/res[1])
return curr_col+curr_row*cols
res = get_res()
curr_dt1 = None
while True:
time.sleep(0.5)
curr_dt2 = get_dt()
# if we change viewport, do something:
if curr_dt2 != curr_dt1:
print(curr_dt2)
# if we enter viewport3, do something
if curr_dt2 == 3:
subprocess.Popen(["gedit"])
curr_dt1 = curr_dt2
The script detects both change in viewport as well as entering a specific viewport.
-
If an action should be done on change in viewports, replace the print command in:
if curr_dt2 != curr_dt1: print(curr_dt2)...by another command (
subprocess.popen()) -
If an action should place on enterin g a specific viewport, replace the command in:
if curr_dt2 == 3: subprocess.Popen(["gedit"])...by another one. If The process should be killed when leaving the workspace, add a section:
if all([curr_dt1 == 3 curr_dt2 != 3]): subprocess.Popen(["<killcommand>"])