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31 <h1>IPC interface (interprocess communication)</h1>
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32 <span id="author">Michael Stapelberg</span><br />
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33 <span id="email"><tt><<a href="mailto:michael@i3wm.org">michael@i3wm.org</a>></tt></span><br />
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34 <span id="revdate">October 2014</span>
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36 <div id="toctitle">Table of Contents</div>
37 <noscript><p><b>JavaScript must be enabled in your browser to display the table of contents.</b></p></noscript>
41 <div class="sectionbody">
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42 <div class="paragraph"><p>This document describes how to interface with i3 from a separate process. This
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43 is useful for example to remote-control i3 (to write test cases for example) or
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44 to get various information like the current workspaces to implement an external
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45 workspace bar.</p></div>
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46 <div class="paragraph"><p>The method of choice for IPC in our case is a unix socket because it has very
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47 little overhead on both sides and is usually available without headaches in
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48 most languages. In the default configuration file, the ipc-socket gets created
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49 in <tt>/tmp/i3-%u.XXXXXX/ipc-socket.%p</tt> where <tt>%u</tt> is your UNIX username, <tt>%p</tt> is
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50 the PID of i3 and XXXXXX is a string of random characters from the portable
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51 filename character set (see mkdtemp(3)). You can get the socketpath from i3 by
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52 calling <tt>i3 --get-socketpath</tt>.</p></div>
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53 <div class="paragraph"><p>All i3 utilities, like <tt>i3-msg</tt> and <tt>i3-input</tt> will read the <tt>I3_SOCKET_PATH</tt>
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54 X11 property, stored on the X11 root window.</p></div>
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55 <div class="admonitionblock">
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58 <div class="title">Warning</div>
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60 <td class="content">
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61 <div class="title">Use an existing library!</div>There are existing libraries for many languages. You can have a look at
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62 <a href="#libraries">[libraries]</a> or search the web if your language of choice is not mentioned.
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63 Usually, it is not necessary to implement low-level communication with i3
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70 <h2 id="_establishing_a_connection">1. Establishing a connection</h2>
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71 <div class="sectionbody">
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72 <div class="paragraph"><p>To establish a connection, simply open the IPC socket. The following code
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73 snippet illustrates this in Perl:</p></div>
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74 <div class="listingblock">
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75 <div class="content">
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76 <pre><tt>use IO::Socket::UNIX;
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77 chomp(my $path = qx(i3 --get-socketpath));
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78 my $sock = IO::Socket::UNIX->new(Peer => $path);</tt></pre>
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83 <h2 id="_sending_messages_to_i3">2. Sending messages to i3</h2>
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84 <div class="sectionbody">
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85 <div class="paragraph"><p>To send a message to i3, you have to format in the binary message format which
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86 i3 expects. This format specifies a magic string in the beginning to ensure
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87 the integrity of messages (to prevent follow-up errors). Following the magic
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88 string comes the length of the payload of the message as 32-bit integer, and
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89 the type of the message as 32-bit integer (the integers are not converted, so
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90 they are in native byte order).</p></div>
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91 <div class="paragraph"><p>The magic string currently is "i3-ipc" and will only be changed when a change
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92 in the IPC API is done which breaks compatibility (we hope that we don’t need
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93 to do that).</p></div>
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94 <div class="paragraph"><p>Currently implemented message types are the following:</p></div>
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95 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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96 <dt class="hdlist1">
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101 The payload of the message is a command for i3 (like the commands you
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102 can bind to keys in the configuration file) and will be executed
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103 directly after receiving it.
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106 <dt class="hdlist1">
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111 Gets the current workspaces. The reply will be a JSON-encoded list of
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112 workspaces (see the reply section).
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115 <dt class="hdlist1">
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120 Subscribes your connection to certain events. See <a href="#events">[events]</a> for a
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121 description of this message and the concept of events.
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124 <dt class="hdlist1">
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129 Gets the current outputs. The reply will be a JSON-encoded list of outputs
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130 (see the reply section).
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133 <dt class="hdlist1">
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138 Gets the layout tree. i3 uses a tree as data structure which includes
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139 every container. The reply will be the JSON-encoded tree (see the reply
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143 <dt class="hdlist1">
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148 Gets a list of marks (identifiers for containers to easily jump to them
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149 later). The reply will be a JSON-encoded list of window marks (see
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153 <dt class="hdlist1">
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158 Gets the configuration (as JSON map) of the workspace bar with the
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159 given ID. If no ID is provided, an array with all configured bar IDs is
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163 <dt class="hdlist1">
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168 Gets the version of i3. The reply will be a JSON-encoded dictionary
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169 with the major, minor, patch and human-readable version.
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173 <div class="paragraph"><p>So, a typical message could look like this:</p></div>
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174 <div class="listingblock">
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175 <div class="content">
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176 <pre><tt>"i3-ipc" <message length> <message type> <payload></tt></pre>
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178 <div class="paragraph"><p>Or, as a hexdump:</p></div>
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179 <div class="listingblock">
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180 <div class="content">
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181 <pre><tt>00000000 69 33 2d 69 70 63 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 65 78 |i3-ipc........ex|
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182 00000010 69 74 |it|</tt></pre>
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184 <div class="paragraph"><p>To generate and send such a message, you could use the following code in Perl:</p></div>
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185 <div class="listingblock">
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186 <div class="content">
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187 <pre><tt>sub format_ipc_command {
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190 # Get the real byte count (vs. amount of characters)
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191 { use bytes; $len = length($msg); }
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192 return "i3-ipc" . pack("LL", $len, 0) . $msg;
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195 $sock->write(format_ipc_command("exit"));</tt></pre>
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199 <div class="sect1">
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200 <h2 id="_receiving_replies_from_i3">3. Receiving replies from i3</h2>
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201 <div class="sectionbody">
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202 <div class="paragraph"><p>Replies from i3 usually consist of a simple string (the length of the string
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203 is the message_length, so you can consider them length-prefixed) which in turn
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204 contain the JSON serialization of a data structure. For example, the
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205 GET_WORKSPACES message returns an array of workspaces (each workspace is a map
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206 with certain attributes).</p></div>
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207 <div class="sect2">
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208 <h3 id="_reply_format">3.1. Reply format</h3>
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209 <div class="paragraph"><p>The reply format is identical to the normal message format. There also is
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210 the magic string, then the message length, then the message type and the
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212 <div class="paragraph"><p>The following reply types are implemented:</p></div>
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213 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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214 <dt class="hdlist1">
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219 Confirmation/Error code for the COMMAND message.
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222 <dt class="hdlist1">
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227 Reply to the GET_WORKSPACES message.
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230 <dt class="hdlist1">
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235 Confirmation/Error code for the SUBSCRIBE message.
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238 <dt class="hdlist1">
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243 Reply to the GET_OUTPUTS message.
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246 <dt class="hdlist1">
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251 Reply to the GET_TREE message.
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254 <dt class="hdlist1">
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259 Reply to the GET_MARKS message.
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262 <dt class="hdlist1">
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267 Reply to the GET_BAR_CONFIG message.
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270 <dt class="hdlist1">
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275 Reply to the GET_VERSION message.
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280 <div class="sect2">
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281 <h3 id="_command_reply">3.2. COMMAND reply</h3>
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282 <div class="paragraph"><p>The reply consists of a list of serialized maps for each command that was
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283 parsed. Each has the property <tt>success (bool)</tt> and may also include a
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284 human-readable error message in the property <tt>error (string)</tt>.</p></div>
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285 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
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286 <div class="listingblock">
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287 <div class="content">
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288 <pre><tt>[{ "success": true }]</tt></pre>
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291 <div class="sect2">
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292 <h3 id="_workspaces_reply">3.3. WORKSPACES reply</h3>
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293 <div class="paragraph"><p>The reply consists of a serialized list of workspaces. Each workspace has the
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294 following properties:</p></div>
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295 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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296 <dt class="hdlist1">
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301 The logical number of the workspace. Corresponds to the command
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302 to switch to this workspace. For named workspaces, this will be -1.
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305 <dt class="hdlist1">
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310 The name of this workspace (by default num+1), as changed by the
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311 user. Encoded in UTF-8.
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314 <dt class="hdlist1">
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319 Whether this workspace is currently visible on an output (multiple
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320 workspaces can be visible at the same time).
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323 <dt class="hdlist1">
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328 Whether this workspace currently has the focus (only one workspace
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329 can have the focus at the same time).
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332 <dt class="hdlist1">
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337 Whether a window on this workspace has the "urgent" flag set.
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340 <dt class="hdlist1">
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345 The rectangle of this workspace (equals the rect of the output it
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346 is on), consists of x, y, width, height.
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349 <dt class="hdlist1">
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354 The video output this workspace is on (LVDS1, VGA1, …).
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358 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
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359 <div class="listingblock">
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360 <div class="content">
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393 <div class="sect2">
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394 <h3 id="_subscribe_reply">3.4. SUBSCRIBE reply</h3>
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395 <div class="paragraph"><p>The reply consists of a single serialized map. The only property is
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396 <tt>success (bool)</tt>, indicating whether the subscription was successful (the
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397 default) or whether a JSON parse error occurred.</p></div>
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398 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
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399 <div class="listingblock">
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400 <div class="content">
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401 <pre><tt>{ "success": true }</tt></pre>
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404 <div class="sect2">
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405 <h3 id="_outputs_reply">3.5. OUTPUTS reply</h3>
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406 <div class="paragraph"><p>The reply consists of a serialized list of outputs. Each output has the
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407 following properties:</p></div>
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408 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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409 <dt class="hdlist1">
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414 The name of this output (as seen in <tt>xrandr(1)</tt>). Encoded in UTF-8.
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417 <dt class="hdlist1">
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422 Whether this output is currently active (has a valid mode).
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425 <dt class="hdlist1">
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426 current_workspace (string)
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430 The name of the current workspace that is visible on this output. <tt>null</tt> if
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431 the output is not active.
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434 <dt class="hdlist1">
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439 The rectangle of this output (equals the rect of the output it
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440 is on), consists of x, y, width, height.
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444 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
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445 <div class="listingblock">
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446 <div class="content">
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451 "current_workspace": "4",
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462 "current_workspace": "1",
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473 <div class="sect2">
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474 <h3 id="_tree_reply">3.6. TREE reply</h3>
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475 <div class="paragraph"><p>The reply consists of a serialized tree. Each node in the tree (representing
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476 one container) has at least the properties listed below. While the nodes might
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477 have more properties, please do not use any properties which are not documented
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478 here. They are not yet finalized and will probably change!</p></div>
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479 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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480 <dt class="hdlist1">
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485 The internal ID (actually a C pointer value) of this container. Do not
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486 make any assumptions about it. You can use it to (re-)identify and
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487 address containers when talking to i3.
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490 <dt class="hdlist1">
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495 The internal name of this container. For all containers which are part
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496 of the tree structure down to the workspace contents, this is set to a
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497 nice human-readable name of the container.
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498 For containers that have an X11 window, the content is the title
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499 (_NET_WM_NAME property) of that window.
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500 For all other containers, the content is not defined (yet).
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503 <dt class="hdlist1">
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508 Type of this container. Can be one of "root", "output", "con",
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509 "floating_con", "workspace" or "dockarea".
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512 <dt class="hdlist1">
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517 Can be either "normal", "none" or "1pixel", dependending on the
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518 container’s border style.
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521 <dt class="hdlist1">
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522 current_border_width (integer)
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526 Number of pixels of the border width.
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529 <dt class="hdlist1">
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534 Can be either "splith", "splitv", "stacked", "tabbed", "dockarea" or
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536 Other values might be possible in the future, should we add new
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540 <dt class="hdlist1">
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541 orientation (string)
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545 Can be either "none" (for non-split containers), "horizontal" or
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547 THIS FIELD IS OBSOLETE. It is still present, but your code should not
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548 use it. Instead, rely on the layout field.
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551 <dt class="hdlist1">
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556 The percentage which this container takes in its parent. A value of
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557 <tt>null</tt> means that the percent property does not make sense for this
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558 container, for example for the root container.
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561 <dt class="hdlist1">
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566 The absolute display coordinates for this container. Display
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567 coordinates means that when you have two 1600x1200 monitors on a single
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568 X11 Display (the standard way), the coordinates of the first window on
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569 the second monitor are <tt>{ "x": 1600, "y": 0, "width": 1600, "height":
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573 <dt class="hdlist1">
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578 The coordinates of the <strong>actual client window</strong> inside its container.
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579 These coordinates are relative to the container and do not include the
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580 window decoration (which is actually rendered on the parent container).
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581 So, when using the <tt>default</tt> layout, you will have a 2 pixel border on
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582 each side, making the window_rect <tt>{ "x": 2, "y": 0, "width": 632,
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583 "height": 366 }</tt> (for example).
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586 <dt class="hdlist1">
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591 The coordinates of the <strong>window decoration</strong> inside its container. These
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592 coordinates are relative to the container and do not include the actual
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596 <dt class="hdlist1">
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601 The original geometry the window specified when i3 mapped it. Used when
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602 switching a window to floating mode, for example.
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605 <dt class="hdlist1">
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610 The X11 window ID of the <strong>actual client window</strong> inside this container.
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611 This field is set to null for split containers or otherwise empty
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612 containers. This ID corresponds to what xwininfo(1) and other
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613 X11-related tools display (usually in hex).
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616 <dt class="hdlist1">
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621 Whether this container (window or workspace) has the urgency hint set.
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624 <dt class="hdlist1">
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629 Whether this container is currently focused.
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633 <div class="paragraph"><p>Please note that in the following example, I have left out some keys/values
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634 which are not relevant for the type of the node. Otherwise, the example would
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635 be by far too long (it already is quite long, despite showing only 1 window and
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636 one dock window).</p></div>
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637 <div class="paragraph"><p>It is useful to have an overview of the structure before taking a look at the
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638 JSON dump:</p></div>
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639 <div class="ulist"><ul>
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644 <div class="ulist"><ul>
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649 <div class="ulist"><ul>
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659 <div class="ulist"><ul>
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664 <div class="ulist"><ul>
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678 <div class="ulist"><ul>
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696 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
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697 <div class="listingblock">
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698 <div class="content">
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713 "layout": "output",
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725 "layout": "dockarea",
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726 "orientation": "vertical",
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749 "orientation": "horizontal",
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756 "floating_nodes": [],
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762 "border": "normal",
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780 "name": "bottomdock",
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781 "layout": "dockarea",
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782 "orientation": "vertical",
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811 <div class="sect2">
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812 <h3 id="_marks_reply">3.7. MARKS reply</h3>
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813 <div class="paragraph"><p>The reply consists of a single array of strings for each container that has a
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814 mark. A mark can only be set on one container, so the array is unique.
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815 The order of that array is undefined.</p></div>
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816 <div class="paragraph"><p>If no window has a mark the response will be the empty array [].</p></div>
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818 <div class="sect2">
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819 <h3 id="_bar_config_reply">3.8. BAR_CONFIG reply</h3>
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820 <div class="paragraph"><p>This can be used by third-party workspace bars (especially i3bar, but others
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821 are free to implement compatible alternatives) to get the <tt>bar</tt> block
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822 configuration from i3.</p></div>
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823 <div class="paragraph"><p>Depending on the input, the reply is either:</p></div>
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824 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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825 <dt class="hdlist1">
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830 An array of configured bar IDs
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833 <dt class="hdlist1">
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838 A JSON map containing the configuration for the specified bar.
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842 <div class="paragraph"><p>Each bar configuration has the following properties:</p></div>
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843 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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844 <dt class="hdlist1">
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849 The ID for this bar. Included in case you request multiple
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850 configurations and want to differentiate the different replies.
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853 <dt class="hdlist1">
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858 Either <tt>dock</tt> (the bar sets the dock window type) or <tt>hide</tt> (the bar
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859 does not show unless a specific key is pressed).
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862 <dt class="hdlist1">
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867 Either <tt>bottom</tt> or <tt>top</tt> at the moment.
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870 <dt class="hdlist1">
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871 status_command (string)
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875 Command which will be run to generate a statusline. Each line on stdout
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876 of this command will be displayed in the bar. At the moment, no
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877 formatting is supported.
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880 <dt class="hdlist1">
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885 The font to use for text on the bar.
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888 <dt class="hdlist1">
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889 workspace_buttons (boolean)
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893 Display workspace buttons or not? Defaults to true.
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896 <dt class="hdlist1">
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897 binding_mode_indicator (boolean)
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901 Display the mode indicator or not? Defaults to true.
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904 <dt class="hdlist1">
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909 Should the bar enable verbose output for debugging? Defaults to false.
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912 <dt class="hdlist1">
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917 Contains key/value pairs of colors. Each value is a color code in hex,
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918 formatted #rrggbb (like in HTML).
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922 <div class="paragraph"><p>The following colors can be configured at the moment:</p></div>
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923 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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924 <dt class="hdlist1">
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929 Background color of the bar.
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932 <dt class="hdlist1">
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937 Text color to be used for the statusline.
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940 <dt class="hdlist1">
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945 Text color to be used for the separator.
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948 <dt class="hdlist1">
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949 focused_workspace_text/focused_workspace_bg
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953 Text color/background color for a workspace button when the workspace
\r
957 <dt class="hdlist1">
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958 active_workspace_text/active_workspace_bg
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962 Text color/background color for a workspace button when the workspace
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963 is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one.
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964 You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are
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965 using multiple monitors.
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968 <dt class="hdlist1">
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969 inactive_workspace_text/inactive_workspace_bg
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973 Text color/background color for a workspace button when the workspace
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974 does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This
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975 will be the case for most workspaces.
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978 <dt class="hdlist1">
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979 urgent_workspace_text/urgent_workspace_bar
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983 Text color/background color for workspaces which contain at least one
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984 window with the urgency hint set.
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988 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example of configured bars:</strong></p></div>
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989 <div class="listingblock">
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990 <div class="content">
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991 <pre><tt>["bar-bxuqzf"]</tt></pre>
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993 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example of bar configuration:</strong></p></div>
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994 <div class="listingblock">
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995 <div class="content">
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997 "id": "bar-bxuqzf",
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999 "position": "bottom",
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1000 "status_command": "i3status",
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1001 "font": "-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1",
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1002 "workspace_buttons": true,
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1003 "binding_mode_indicator": true,
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1006 "background": "#c0c0c0",
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1007 "statusline": "#00ff00",
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1008 "focused_workspace_text": "#ffffff",
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1009 "focused_workspace_bg": "#000000"
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1014 <div class="sect2">
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1015 <h3 id="_version_reply">3.9. VERSION reply</h3>
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1016 <div class="paragraph"><p>The reply consists of a single JSON dictionary with the following keys:</p></div>
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1017 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
1018 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1023 The major version of i3, such as <tt>4</tt>.
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1026 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1031 The minor version of i3, such as <tt>2</tt>. Changes in the IPC interface (new
\r
1032 features) will only occur with new minor (or major) releases. However,
\r
1033 bugfixes might be introduced in patch releases, too.
\r
1036 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1041 The patch version of i3, such as <tt>1</tt> (when the complete version is
\r
1042 <tt>4.2.1</tt>). For versions such as <tt>4.2</tt>, patch will be set to <tt>0</tt>.
\r
1045 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1046 human_readable (string)
\r
1050 A human-readable version of i3 containing the precise git version,
\r
1051 build date and branch name. When you need to display the i3 version to
\r
1052 your users, use the human-readable version whenever possible (since
\r
1053 this is what <tt>i3 --version</tt> displays, too).
\r
1057 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
\r
1058 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1059 <div class="content">
\r
1061 "human_readable" : "4.2-169-gf80b877 (2012-08-05, branch \"next\")",
\r
1070 <div class="sect1">
\r
1071 <h2 id="_events">4. Events</h2>
\r
1072 <div class="sectionbody">
\r
1073 <div class="paragraph" id="events"><p>To get informed when certain things happen in i3, clients can subscribe to
\r
1074 events. Events consist of a name (like "workspace") and an event reply type
\r
1075 (like I3_IPC_EVENT_WORKSPACE). The events sent by i3 are in the same format
\r
1076 as replies to specific commands. However, the highest bit of the message type
\r
1077 is set to 1 to indicate that this is an event reply instead of a normal reply.</p></div>
\r
1078 <div class="paragraph"><p>Caveat: As soon as you subscribe to an event, it is not guaranteed any longer
\r
1079 that the requests to i3 are processed in order. This means, the following
\r
1080 situation can happen: You send a GET_WORKSPACES request but you receive a
\r
1081 "workspace" event before receiving the reply to GET_WORKSPACES. If your
\r
1082 program does not want to cope which such kinds of race conditions (an
\r
1083 event based library may not have a problem here), I suggest you create a
\r
1084 separate connection to receive events.</p></div>
\r
1085 <div class="sect2">
\r
1086 <h3 id="_subscribing_to_events">4.1. Subscribing to events</h3>
\r
1087 <div class="paragraph"><p>By sending a message of type SUBSCRIBE with a JSON-encoded array as payload
\r
1088 you can register to an event.</p></div>
\r
1089 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
\r
1090 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1091 <div class="content">
\r
1092 <pre><tt>type: SUBSCRIBE
\r
1093 payload: [ "workspace", "output" ]</tt></pre>
\r
1096 <div class="sect2">
\r
1097 <h3 id="_available_events">4.2. Available events</h3>
\r
1098 <div class="paragraph"><p>The numbers in parenthesis is the event type (keep in mind that you need to
\r
1099 strip the highest bit first).</p></div>
\r
1100 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
1101 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1106 Sent when the user switches to a different workspace, when a new
\r
1107 workspace is initialized or when a workspace is removed (because the
\r
1108 last client vanished).
\r
1111 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1116 Sent when RandR issues a change notification (of either screens,
\r
1117 outputs, CRTCs or output properties).
\r
1120 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1125 Sent whenever i3 changes its binding mode.
\r
1128 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1133 Sent when a client’s window is successfully reparented (that is when i3
\r
1134 has finished fitting it into a container), when a window received input
\r
1135 focus or when certain properties of the window have changed.
\r
1138 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1139 barconfig_update (4)
\r
1143 Sent when the hidden_state or mode field in the barconfig of any bar
\r
1144 instance was updated and when the config is reloaded.
\r
1147 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1152 Sent when a configured command binding is triggered with the keyboard or
\r
1157 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
\r
1158 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1159 <div class="content">
\r
1160 <pre><tt># the appropriate 4 bytes read from the socket are stored in $input
\r
1162 # unpack a 32-bit unsigned integer
\r
1163 my $message_type = unpack("L", $input);
\r
1165 # check if the highest bit is 1
\r
1166 my $is_event = (($message_type >> 31) == 1);
\r
1168 # use the other bits
\r
1169 my $event_type = ($message_type & 0x7F);
\r
1172 say "Received event of type $event_type";
\r
1176 <div class="sect2">
\r
1177 <h3 id="_workspace_event">4.3. workspace event</h3>
\r
1178 <div class="paragraph"><p>This event consists of a single serialized map containing a property
\r
1179 <tt>change (string)</tt> which indicates the type of the change ("focus", "init",
\r
1180 "empty", "urgent"). A <tt>current (object)</tt> property will be present with the
\r
1181 affected workspace whenever the type of event affects a workspace (otherwise,
\r
1182 it will be +null).</p></div>
\r
1183 <div class="paragraph"><p>When the change is "focus", an <tt>old (object)</tt> property will be present with the
\r
1184 previous workspace. When the first switch occurs (when i3 focuses the
\r
1185 workspace visible at the beginning) there is no previous workspace, and the
\r
1186 <tt>old</tt> property will be set to <tt>null</tt>. Also note that if the previous is empty
\r
1187 it will get destroyed when switching, but will still be present in the "old"
\r
1188 property.</p></div>
\r
1189 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
\r
1190 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1191 <div class="content">
\r
1193 "change": "focus",
\r
1196 "type": "workspace",
\r
1201 "type": "workspace",
\r
1207 <div class="sect2">
\r
1208 <h3 id="_output_event">4.4. output event</h3>
\r
1209 <div class="paragraph"><p>This event consists of a single serialized map containing a property
\r
1210 <tt>change (string)</tt> which indicates the type of the change (currently only
\r
1211 "unspecified").</p></div>
\r
1212 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
\r
1213 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1214 <div class="content">
\r
1215 <pre><tt>{ "change": "unspecified" }</tt></pre>
\r
1218 <div class="sect2">
\r
1219 <h3 id="_mode_event">4.5. mode event</h3>
\r
1220 <div class="paragraph"><p>This event consists of a single serialized map containing a property
\r
1221 <tt>change (string)</tt> which holds the name of current mode in use. The name
\r
1222 is the same as specified in config when creating a mode. The default
\r
1223 mode is simply named default.</p></div>
\r
1224 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
\r
1225 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1226 <div class="content">
\r
1227 <pre><tt>{ "change": "default" }</tt></pre>
\r
1230 <div class="sect2">
\r
1231 <h3 id="_window_event">4.6. window event</h3>
\r
1232 <div class="paragraph"><p>This event consists of a single serialized map containing a property
\r
1233 <tt>change (string)</tt> which indicates the type of the change</p></div>
\r
1234 <div class="ulist"><ul>
\r
1237 <tt>new</tt> - the window has become managed by i3
\r
1242 <tt>close</tt> - the window has closed
\r
1247 <tt>focus</tt> - the window has received input focus
\r
1252 <tt>title</tt> - the window’s title has changed
\r
1257 <tt>fullscreen_mode</tt> - the window has entered or exited fullscreen mode
\r
1262 <tt>move</tt> - the window has changed its position in the tree
\r
1267 <tt>floating</tt> - the window has transitioned to or from floating
\r
1272 <tt>urgent</tt> - the window has become urgent or lost its urgent status
\r
1276 <div class="paragraph"><p>Additionally a <tt>container (object)</tt> field will be present, which consists
\r
1277 of the window’s parent container. Be aware that for the "new" event, the
\r
1278 container will hold the initial name of the newly reparented window (e.g.
\r
1279 if you run urxvt with a shell that changes the title, you will still at
\r
1280 this point get the window title as "urxvt").</p></div>
\r
1281 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
\r
1282 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1283 <div class="content">
\r
1294 <div class="sect2">
\r
1295 <h3 id="_barconfig_update_event">4.7. barconfig_update event</h3>
\r
1296 <div class="paragraph"><p>This event consists of a single serialized map reporting on options from the
\r
1297 barconfig of the specified bar_id that were updated in i3. This event is the
\r
1298 same as a <tt>GET_BAR_CONFIG</tt> reply for the bar with the given id.</p></div>
\r
1300 <div class="sect2">
\r
1301 <h3 id="_binding_event">4.8. binding event</h3>
\r
1302 <div class="paragraph"><p>This event consists of a single serialized map reporting on the details of a
\r
1303 binding that ran a command because of user input. The <tt>change (sring)</tt> field
\r
1304 indicates what sort of binding event was triggered (right now it will always be
\r
1305 <tt>"run"</tt> but may be expanded in the future).</p></div>
\r
1306 <div class="paragraph"><p>The <tt>binding (object)</tt> field contains details about the binding that was run:</p></div>
\r
1307 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
1308 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1313 The i3 command that is configured to run for this binding.
\r
1316 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1317 mods (array of strings)
\r
1321 The modifier keys that were configured with this binding.
\r
1324 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1325 input_code (integer)
\r
1329 If the binding was configured with <tt>bindcode</tt>, this will be the key code
\r
1330 that was given for the binding. If the binding is a mouse binding, it will be
\r
1331 the number of the mouse button that was pressed. Otherwise it will be 0.
\r
1334 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1335 symbol (string or null)
\r
1339 If this is a keyboard binding that was configured with <tt>bindsym</tt>, this
\r
1340 field will contain the given symbol. Otherwise it will be <tt>null</tt>.
\r
1343 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1344 input_type (string)
\r
1348 This will be <tt>"keyboard"</tt> or <tt>"mouse"</tt> depending on whether or not this was
\r
1349 a keyboard or a mouse binding.
\r
1353 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example:</strong></p></div>
\r
1354 <div class="listingblock">
\r
1355 <div class="content">
\r
1366 "input_type": "keyboard"
\r
1373 <div class="sect1">
\r
1374 <h2 id="_see_also_existing_libraries">5. See also (existing libraries)</h2>
\r
1375 <div class="sectionbody">
\r
1376 <div class="paragraph" id="libraries"><p>For some languages, libraries are available (so you don’t have to implement
\r
1377 all this on your own). This list names some (if you wrote one, please let me
\r
1379 <div class="dlist"><dl>
\r
1380 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1384 <div class="ulist"><ul>
\r
1387 i3 includes a headerfile <tt>i3/ipc.h</tt> which provides you all constants.
\r
1392 <a href="https://github.com/acrisci/i3ipc-glib">https://github.com/acrisci/i3ipc-glib</a>
\r
1397 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1401 <div class="ulist"><ul>
\r
1404 <a href="https://github.com/proxypoke/i3ipc">https://github.com/proxypoke/i3ipc</a>
\r
1409 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1413 <div class="ulist"><ul>
\r
1416 <a href="https://github.com/acrisci/i3ipc-gjs">https://github.com/acrisci/i3ipc-gjs</a>
\r
1421 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1425 <div class="ulist"><ul>
\r
1428 <a href="https://github.com/acrisci/i3ipc-lua">https://github.com/acrisci/i3ipc-lua</a>
\r
1433 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1437 <div class="ulist"><ul>
\r
1440 <a href="https://metacpan.org/module/AnyEvent::I3">https://metacpan.org/module/AnyEvent::I3</a>
\r
1445 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1449 <div class="ulist"><ul>
\r
1452 <a href="https://github.com/acrisci/i3ipc-python">https://github.com/acrisci/i3ipc-python</a>
\r
1457 <a href="https://github.com/whitelynx/i3ipc">https://github.com/whitelynx/i3ipc</a> (not maintained)
\r
1462 <a href="https://github.com/ziberna/i3-py">https://github.com/ziberna/i3-py</a> (not maintained)
\r
1467 <dt class="hdlist1">
\r
1471 <div class="ulist"><ul>
\r
1474 <a href="http://github.com/badboy/i3-ipc">http://github.com/badboy/i3-ipc</a>
\r
1483 <div id="footnotes"><hr /></div>
\r
1484 <div id="footer" lang="de">
\r
1485 © 2009-2011 Michael Stapelberg, <a href="/impress.html">Impressum</a>
\r