i3-cycle-workspaces

A python script to cycle some workspaces with the same key binding.

What ?

On i3 you can often press a key to go to a specific workspace. For exemple with the default config, mod+2 goes the workspace "2".

When this script runs (in background), if you press mod+2 while already being on the workspace 2, you'll go the next workspace.

Why ?

This is actually useful for me, when I need, like, three workspaces dedicated to some terms.

For exemple :

In the i3 config :

bindsym $mod+p workspace 20:Terms

With cycle.py --ws 20: running, you can press $mod+p to cycle to the workspaces :

• 20:Terms
• 21:Terms
• 22:Terms
• 20:Terms
• etc.

How ?

i3-cycle-workspaces will detect when a bindsym to go to a workspace is pressed.

If already on the workspace and if it matches the configuration, it will cycle.

It's fast because it uses the i3 IPC binding event.

I suppose you need a recent version of i3wm for this to work.

Installation

With PIP

sudo pip install i3ipc
mkdir -p ~/.config/i3 && cd ~/.config/i3
git clone https://github.com/drasill/i3-cycle-workspaces

And add the script to your i3wm config (after you understood the command line options) :

exec --no-startup-id ~/.config/i3/i3-cycle-workspaces/cycle.py --ws 2

Options

It's recommended you manually launch the script with some options before adding it to your i3 config.

Use the --ws option to specify a workspace regex.

You can then use a --cycle option to specify a number of workspace cycle (otherwise the default is 3).

All workspaces matching this regex will react to the cycle.

Exemple :

cd ~/.config/i3/i3-cycle-workspaces
./cycle.py --ws 5

# Or:
./cycle.py --ws 5 --cycle 2

# You can also use `--ws` many times like this :
./cycle.py --ws 5 --cycle 5 --ws 10 --cycle 3

# You can do this so that ALL workspaces will cycle :
./cycle.py --ws .

Workspace names

If the cycling occurs on a "numbered" workspace name, like '20:Terms', then the script will cycle between incremented workspaces, so '21:Terms', '22:Terms', etc.

This is handy to use with the strip_workspace_numbers yes option of i3bar.

Otherwise, it will cycle by adding some "˖" to the workspace name.

So cycling on a workspace named "Terms" will then go to "Terms˖", then "Terms˖˖", etc.