j4-persist - extends i3 window management with persistent containers
j4-persist is a simple program that replaces the built-in kill command to allow you to protect containers from being closed.
By default, the program displays helpful notifications via DBus to let you know if a window has been protected, unprotected, or if it can't be killed because it is protected.
If DBus isn't installed, the program should still perform the action, but will exit with an error when the notification would otherwise be shown.
If you want to disable notifications, you can build the crate with the --no-default-features flag.
If you have a Rust toolchain set-up, you can build and install the program directly from this repo using cargo install, which will install it to ~/.cargo/bin by default.
cargo install --git https://github.com/N-Parsons/j4-persist j4-persistIf you don't have Rust set up yet, check out rustup.
Arch and Manjaro users can install via the AUR using the package name j4-persist.
Binaries for x86_64 Linux are available on the releases tab.
These binaries are signed with my GPG key, which is available at keybase.io/nparsons and can be imported trivially with
curl https://keybase.io/nparsons/pgp_keys.asc | gpg --import. You can then verify the binary with gpg --verify j4-persist.gpg.
j4-persist <command>`
with <command>:
- kill: kill the focused container (unless protected)
- lock: protect the focused container
- unlock: unprotect the focused container
- toggle: toggle the protection of the focused container
In your i3 config you now set your bind to call exec j4-persist kill, and add binds for locking, unlocking, and toggling the protection on containers. The below snippet is what I use, but you're obviously free to rework it to suit your needs.
# kill focused window
bindsym $mod+Delete exec j4-persist kill
bindsym $mod+Shift+Delete exec j4-persist toggle
# kill focused window without checking if it's protected
bindsym $mod+Shift+q kill
# set states for j4-persist
bindsym $mod+Control+Delete mode "$j4_persist_states"
set $j4_persist_states (L) Lock, (U) Unlock, (T) Toggle
mode "$j4_persist_states" {
bindsym l exec j4-persist lock, mode "default"
bindsym u exec j4-persist unlock, mode "default"
bindsym t exec j4-persist toggle, mode "default"
bindsym Return mode "default"
bindsym Escape mode "default"
}
If you've got a program that you want to automatically mark as persistent, the easiest way to do this is to just run the command when the window opens. For example, I lock my X2Go Agent windows:
for_window [class="X2GoAgent"] exec j4-persist lock
This tool was inspired by Igrom/i3-persist and some of the comments and suggestions made by users within issues and pull requests.