extract window information from i3 tree

i3get

#!/bin/sh

# i3get
#
# search for windows in i3 tree, return desired information
# if no arguments are passed. con_id of acitve window is returned.
# ctrl+c, ctrl+v by budRich 2017
# bash to sh by: nimaje
# 
# Options:
# a             currently active window (default)
# c CLASS       search for windows with the given class
# i INSTANCE    search for windows with the given instance
# t TITLE       search for windows with title.
# n CON_ID      search for windows with the given con_id
# d CON_ID      search for windows with the given window id
# m CON_MARK      search for windows with the given mark
# y             synch on. If this option is included, script will wait till
#               target window exist.
# 
# r [tcidnmw]   desired return.
#                 t: title
#                 c: class
#                 i: instance
#                 d: Window ID
#                 n: Con_Id (default)
#                 m: mark
#                 w: workspace
#                 a: is active
#                 f: floating state
#
# Examples:
# search for window with instance name sublime_text. Request
# workspace, title and floating state.
# i3get -i sublime_text -r wtf

while getopts :c:i:t:n:d:r:m:ay option
do
  case "${option}" in
    i) crit="\"instance\"" srch="${OPTARG}";;
    c) crit="\"class\"" srch="${OPTARG}";;
    t) crit="\"title\"" srch="${OPTARG}";;
    n) crit="\"id\"" srch="${OPTARG}";;
    d) crit="\"window\"" srch="${OPTARG}";;
    m) crit="\"marks\"" srch="${OPTARG}";;
    a) crit="\"focused\"" && srch="true";;
    r) sret="${OPTARG}" ;;
    y) synk=1;;
  esac
done

synk=${synk:=0}
sret=${sret:=n}
[ -z "$crit" ] && crit="\"focused\"" && srch="true"

getwindow(){
  i3-msg -t get_tree \
  | awk -v RS=',' -F':' -v crit="${crit}" -v srch="${srch}" -v sret="${sret}" \
    'BEGIN{hit="0"}
      $1~"{\"id\"" {if(sret ~ n)r["n"]=$2}
      $2~"\"id\"" {if(sret ~ n)r["n"]=$3}
      $1==crit && $2 ~ srch  {hit=1}
      $2 ~ crit && $3 ~ srch {hit=1}
      sret ~ t && $1=="\"title\"" {r["t"]=$2}
      sret ~ c && $2 ~ "\"class\"" {r["c"]=$3}
      sret ~ i && $1=="\"instance\"" {r["i"]=$2}
      sret ~ d && $1=="\"window\"" {r["d"]=$2}
      sret ~ m && $1=="\"marks\"" {r["m"]=$2}
      sret ~ a && $1=="\"focused\"" {r["a"]=$2}
      sret ~ f && $1=="\"floating\"" {r["f"]=$2;if(hit == "1") exit}
      sret ~ w && $1=="\"num\"" {r["w"]=$2}
    END{if(hit == "0") exit
      split(sret, aret, "")
      for (i=1; i <= length(sret); i++) {
        if(r[aret[i]]!="")printf("%s\n", r[aret[i]])
      }
    }
    '
}

result=$(getwindow)
[ $synk = 1 ] && \
  while [ -z "$result" ]; do sleep 0.1; result=$(getwindow); done
[ -n "$result" ] && printf "${result}\n"

If a window has more than one mark, this only outputs the first mark.

May be it used to work, at least not anymore or not to me. After I created a “ghost window” with i3gw and I try to get its window ID, I just get nothing from i3get and it returns with an error code. Looking at the JSON output from i3-msg -t get_tree, seeking at the corresponding con-id (the one returned by i3-msg open), I just see window: null although the mark matches, so there is nothing to do about it. I don’t understand how these ghost windows work, I’m failing to get anything good of it (I just wanted to reserve some blank area to later put something in it).

i3-msg -t get_tree | jq -r 'recurse(.nodes[]).window_properties | select(.class)|select(.class|test("youtube"))|.'

i used this way to get info for a tree(i just wanna window_properties but if you wanna another just remove and add to select

Hi, when I use i3get -r c I get the output of the window class within double quotes, for example:
"XTerm"

Is there anyway to not display the quotes and get just?:
XTerm

Thanks.

Hi, when I use i3get -r c I get the output of the window class within double quotes, for example:
"XTerm"

Is there anyway to not display the quotes and get just?:
XTerm

Thanks.

can you try i3get -r c | cut -d'"' -f2?

@m147 , @junyi-hou I'll look into it, it makes sense stripping the quotes, thanks for reporting.
@mesmerx this is why i made i3get in the first place. it is more convenient to write i3get -c youtube then that. also i never really learned jq, and jq is a extra dependency. but if it works for you cool.
@Hibou57 ghost windows are weird and not officially supported (by i3wm), they don't have titles, classes and stuff, the only thing you can manipulate/retrieve is the position and mark.
@mbartlet good find, i will add the -- thank you very much.
@Flurrywinde thanks, i'll look into it. not sure how to print the marks though, just one mark per line?

aha, this is the gist. use the version from i3ass instead, but i guess some of these bugs and suggestions apply to that version as well.

Yes, the marks issue happens in the i3ass version as well. (I just checked.) And also, if there is only one mark, the trailing ] is output:

 $ i3get -m test -r m  # i3ass version of i3get. With just one test mark
test]
$ i3get -m test -r m  # After adding another mark
test

I would suggest just outputting the whole mark string like i3 has it, e.g. ["mark1","mark2"], and let the user parse it themself.

@Flurrywinde , thanks. yeah you are right. all marks as one string probably makes most sense. otherwise it will get difficult to know how to parse mixed output (i3get -m test -r mct)