Shell – How to move a window to a different workspace using its ID, in bash

shellwmctrlworkspaces

Currently I have successfully used wmctrl -r :SELECT: -t 2 but something like wmctrl -r -i 0x03e00003 -t 2 does not work. How should I write the command in order to select the window to be moved by ID not by mouse?

I am using Linux Mint 13 with the default MATE DE .

I have also tried wmctrl -i -r 0x03e00003 -t 2

EDIT1: wmctrl -i -r thewinIDInHexa -t 2 works now. The reason why it did not work is that while the first time i experimented with wmctrl i used the right ID but wrong syntax, the 2nd time i used the correct form but the wrong window ID… the thing is the ID was non-existent and wmctrl does not output any message for non-existent IDs. Thank you for your efforts. Having confirmation that i was in fact using the right form for the command pushed me to double check the IDs. Thank you again

EDIT2: since i am unable to comment i will post here the response to @slm :
the correct ID now is 0x0380000f

wmctrl -v -i -r 0x0380000f -t 2



envir_utf8: 1
Using window: 0x0380000f

VLC is moved to workspace #2 (3rd workspace)

for the ID that is actually non-existent we have pretty much the same thing:

wmctrl -v -i -r 0x03a00003 -t 2 

envir_utf8: 1
Using window: 0x03a00003

Best Answer

Perhaps you're getting confused with the -t # switch. The windows are numbered as starting with a 1 but the first window is actually number 0. Notice in the output of wmctrl -l:

$ wmctrl -l
0x00c00028 -1 grinchy Top Expanded Edge Panel
0x0120001e  0 grinchy x-nautilus-desktop
0x06015fee  0 grinchy saml@grinchy:~
0x06000004  0 grinchy saml@grinchy:~
0x05a000d1  0 grinchy xorg - How can I get information about my virtual desktops via the command line? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange - Google Chrome

The 2nd column is the number of the desktop. So when you're using -t 2 it's actually putting the window -r 0x03e00003 on the 3rd desktop, not the 2nd.

Example

Evince PDF window starts on desktop #1 (0):

$ wmctrl -l | grep 0x03a00003
0x03a00003  0 greeneggs.bubba.net Packt.Puppet.3.Beginners.Guide.pdf

Move it to desktop #3 (2):

$ wmctrl -i -r 0x03a00003 -t 2

Confirm:

$ wmctrl -l | grep 0x03a00003
0x03a00003  2 greeneggs.bubba.net Packt.Puppet.3.Beginners.Guide.pdf

Notice which window it's on though:

ss #1

It's on desktop #3!

References

How can I get information about my virtual desktops via the command line?

Related Solutions

Workspaces – How to Start an Application on a Different Workspace

Check out Devil's Pie (although i am not sure it would work with Gnome3), and you can find more useful information on stackoverflow bash.

Basically you should do the following:

#!/bin/bash
wmctrl -n 8

firefox &
thunderbird &
/usr/bin/netbeans --locale en &
amsn &
gnome-terminal &
sleep 15

wmctrl -r firefox -t 0
wmctrl -r netbeans -t 1 
wmctrl -r terminal -t 2 
wmctrl -r amsn -t 6 
wmctrl -r thunderbird -t 7

#focus on terminal
wmctrl -a terminal

(i have just copy & pase the above code from the StackOverFlow link above, since i think it is self explanatory).

UPDATE:

See here for an easier solution at the best site for Gnome 3 extensions, you should install the Auto Move Windows extension for Gnome 3. In case it isn't working for you (as you can see at the link there are some distros that the automation of the installation isn't working right, get a more detailed exploitations here on how to get it work.

I3 Windows Manager – assigning window to workspace

This is what you have to put in your ~/.i3/config file:

For example you want Emacs always opened up in work-space 4.

assign [class="Emacs"]   4

How do you get the class info?

Run xprop and click on the window you want to capture. For example while Emacs is running, using another terminal execute xprop and then click on the Emacs window. In the output you will find :

WM_CLASS(STRING) = "emacs", "Emacs"

The first string is the instance and the second one is the class.

Finally restart i3 ($mod+Shift+r ) for the changes to take place.