Table of Contents
- Get workspace dimensions
- Start a program on a specific workspace
- Upload screenshot and copy url to clipboard
- Take screenshots and open them in annotation tool
- HTML color picker
- Tamefox - suspend Firefox when loses focus
- Use space as $mod
- Get rid of main taskbar and move time/date to window title bar.
- Copying and Pasting
- Increase scroll speed on some apps
Get workspace dimensions
swaymsg -t get_outputs | jq -r '.. | select(.focused?) | .current_mode | "\(.width)x\(.height)"'
Start a program on a specific workspace
swaymsg 'workspace test; exec gnome-calculator; workspace back_and_forth'
This works as long as sway can match the PID of a new window to the PID of the exec'd command (or one of its children).
Upload screenshot and copy url to clipboard
bindsym $mod+Shift+Print exec slurp | grim -g - - | curl --form 'file=@-' http://0x0.st | wl-copy && swaynag -m "screenshot uploaded & url copied to clipboard"
Take screenshots and open them in annotation tool
It's super convenient to be able to take a screenshot and pass it to Swappy for possible annotations in one step.
Actions in the .desktop file feel like a natural place to offer these options.
Using rofi as a launcher, ".desktop" file actions are findable if the -drun-show-actions is passed.
With these actions, you can snapshot any of the following and have the result opened in swappy:
- current window
- current output
- select a window
- select an area
Install this file into ~/.local/share/applications/grimshot-swappy.desktop:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Swappy
GenericName=Annotation Tool
GenericName[de]=Anmerkungswerkzeug
GenericName[fr]="Outil d'annotat"
GenericName[pt_BR]=Ferramenta de Anotação
Comment=A Wayland native snapshot editing tool
Comment[de]=Ein natives Wayland Bildschirmfoto-Bearbeitungswerkzeug
Comment[fr]="Un outil d'édition de capture d'écran avec support natif pour Wayland"
Comment[pt_BR]=Uma ferramenta de edição de snapshot nativa do Wayland
TryExec=swappy
Exec=swappy -f %F
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Keywords=wayland;snapshot;annotation;editing;
Icon=swappy
Categories=Utility;Graphics;Annotation;
StartupNotify=true
MimeType=image/png;image/jpeg;
Actions=current-window;current-output;select-window;select-area;
[Desktop Action current-window]
Name=Current Window
Exec=sh -c 'grimshot save active - | swappy -f -'
[Desktop Action current-output]
Name=Current Output
Exec=sh -c 'grimshot save output - | swappy -f -'
[Desktop Action select-window]
Name=Select Window
Exec=sh -c 'grimshot save window - | swappy -f -'
[Desktop Action select-area]
Name=Select Area
Exec=sh -c 'grimshot save area - | swappy -f -'
HTML color picker
Bind this to a key, select a point on the screen and get a HTML color code for that point copied to the clipboard. Requires ImageMagick, grim and slurp to be installed.
grim -g "$(slurp -p)" -t ppm - | convert - -format '%[pixel:p{0,0}]' txt:- | tail -n 1 | cut -d ' ' -f 4 | wl-copy
If you don't use a color picker frequently enough to remember the keybinding, you can create a simple .desktop file for it in ~/.local/share/applications/ and then launch it searching for the name with a desktop file launcher like Rofi. Here's an example .desktop file:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=HTML Color Picker for Sway
Comment=Copies HTML color code to clipboard
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Keywords=
Icon=
Exec=$HOME/.local/bin/html-color-picker-for-sway
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
Put the command above in ~/.local/bin/html-color-picker-for-sway and add a shebang line as the first line: #!/bin/sh
Tamefox - suspend Firefox when loses focus
#!/bin/sh
firefox=
swaymsg -m -t subscribe '["window"]' | \
jq -r --unbuffered '.change +" "+ .container.app_id + " " + (.container.pid | tostring)' | \
grep --line-buffered '^focus ' | \
while read -r x app pid; do
#echo "# x=$x app=$app pid=$pid" >&2
if [ "$app" = 'firefox' ]; then
echo "CONT $pid" >&2
firefox=$pid
kill -CONT $pid
pkill -CONT -P $pid
elif [ -n "$firefox" ]; then
echo "STOP $firefox" >&2
pkill -STOP -P $firefox
kill -STOP $firefox
fi
done
save it as $HOME/bin/tamefox and add this to your .config/sway/config:
exec [ -x $HOME/bin/tamefox ] && $HOME/bin/tamefox
Use space as $mod
If using Arch Linux, install Interception tools:
pacman -S interception-tools
Otherwise follow instructions here: https://gitlab.com/interception/linux/tools
Also install the space2meta plugin:
If using Arch, install from the AUR:
yay -S interception-space2meta
Otherwise follow instructions here: https://gitlab.com/interception/linux/plugins/space2meta
Drop this in /etc/interception/udevmon.yaml:
- JOB: intercept -g $DEVNODE | space2meta | uinput -d $DEVNODE
DEVICE:
EVENTS:
EV_KEY: [KEY_SPACE]
Create a systemd service file with the following content:
[Unit]
Description=Monitor input devices for launching tasks
Wants=systemd-udev-settle.service
After=systemd-udev-settle.service
Documentation=man:udev(7)
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/udevmon -c /etc/interception/udevmon.yaml
Nice=-20
Restart=on-failure
OOMScoreAdjust=-1000
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
(Taken from: https://gitlab.com/interception/linux/tools/-/blob/master/udevmon.service)
Enable the service:
sudo systemctl enable udevmon.service
Start the service:
sudo systemctl start udevmon
The space key should now behave as the Super/Windows/Mod4 key when held and combined with another key.
If your chording style does not agree with this method:
You may find that your typing style makes it hard to hit the "chord timing" needed to trigger the Mod4 key.
There is an alternative plugin for interception-tools you can use which changes the behaviour of the tool. Feel free to play with the "TAP_MILLISEC" value in /etc/interception/spacetomod4.yaml to adjust it to your taste (increase it if you find you trigger the Mod key by accident as you type).
Install this alternative plugin for interception tools:
yay -S interception-dual-function-keys
Create a new file in /etc/interception (name it spacetomod4.yaml for example) with the following content:
TIMING:
TAP_MILLISEC: 200
DOUBLE_TAP_MILLISEC: 0
MAPPINGS:
- KEY: KEY_SPACE
TAP: KEY_SPACE
HOLD: KEY_LEFTMETA
Modify the /etc/interception/udevmon.yaml file to this instead:
- JOB: "intercept -g $DEVNODE | dual-function-keys -c /etc/interception/spacetomod4.yaml | uinput -d $DEVNODE"
DEVICE:
EVENTS:
EV_KEY: [KEY_SPACE, KEY_LEFTMETA]
And remember to restart the udevmon service:
sudo systemctl restart udevmon
Get rid of main taskbar and move time/date to window title bar.
For those of us who want every pixel of real estate!
The changes are:
- mode overlay
- workspace_buttons no
- background #ffffff10
#
# Status Bar:
#
# Read `man 5 sway-bar` for more information about this section.
bar {
position top
# This makes the tabs come at the same height as the bar. We then make the bar transparent
and we have them both "fused"
mode overlay
# When the status_command prints a new line to stdout, swaybar updates.
# The default just shows the current date and time.
status_command while date +'%Y-%m-%d %l:%M:%S %p'; do sleep 1; done
# Workspace buttons don't look good when the bar is transparent
workspace_buttons no
colors {
statusline #ffffff
#background #323232
# Transparent bar
background #ffffff10
inactive_workspace #32323200 #32323200 #5c5c5c
}
}
Copying and Pasting
Most stuff on sway I got working pretty easily, but the copy & paste setup was quite hard. With this setup I got it working as I want. I hope somebody else may find it useful.
# There are two wl-paste processes running, one for the primary and one for the normal clipboard
exec wl-paste -t text --watch clipman store
exec wl-paste -p -t text --watch clipman store
# The keybind to select a clipping
bindsym $mod+y exec clipman --primary pick --tool rofi
# Clear all clippings
bindsym $mod+Shift+y exec clipman clear -a
# Remove a selected clipping
bindsym $mod+Mod1+y exec clipman clear --tool rofi
# Empty the current clipping
bindsym $mod+Ctrl+y exec : | wl-copy -p
Increase scroll speed on some apps
This script set 6x scroll speed only if app like chromium is focused, require https://github.com/acrisci/i3ipc-python.
#!/usr/bin/env python
import i3ipc
scroll_apps = ['discord', 'kitty']
default_speed = 1 # Reading current value would be nice
increased_speed = 6
def on_window_focus(i3, e):
v = default_speed
window_class = getattr(e.container, 'window_class', None)
app_id = getattr(e.container, 'app_id', None)
if window_class:
c = window_class
elif app_id:
c = app_id
else:
return
if c in scroll_apps:
v = increased_speed
i3.command(f'input type:pointer scroll_factor {v}')
i3 = i3ipc.Connection()
i3.on('window::focus', on_window_focus)
i3.main()
