External Commands

This is a brief overview of the available external commands and their possible arguments.

You can pass the string of the external command directly to the pipe file. The file will be named "command-{display number}.pipe", where the display number can be found using echo $DISPLAY. For example from a shell you could use:

echo "SetLayout CenterMain" > $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/leftwm/command-0.pipe

when on display 0. If you are on the leftwm 0.2.8 or above, external commands can be passed in using leftwm-command. Commands that contain arguments require quotes. For example:

leftwm-command "SetLayout CenterMain"

Commands can also be chained together, for example:

leftwm-command "SendWindowToTag 2" "SendWorkspaceToTag 0 2"

Command	Arguments (if needed)	Notes
Reload		Reloads leftwm
LoadTheme	Path-to/theme.ron	usually used in themes up script to load a theme, for legacy themes use theme.toml and make sure you run a leftwm version that supports toml config format
UnloadTheme		usually used in themes down script to unload the theme
SetLayout	LayoutName
NextLayout
PreviousLayout
RotateTag
SetMarginMultiplier	multiplier as float	set a factor by which the margin gets multiplied, use "1.0" to reset, negative values will be abs-converted
SwapScreen		swaps two screens/workspaces
SendWorkspaceToTag	workspace index tag_index	both indices as integer, focuses Tag on Workspace
SendWindowToTag	tag_index	index as integer, sends currently focused window to Tag
MoveWindowToNextTag	follow	bool (default true), sends currently focused window to next tag, if follow then focus follows moved window
MoveWindowToPreviousTag	follow	bool (default true), sends currently focused window to previous tag, if follow then focus follows moved window
MoveWindowToLastWorkspace		moves currently focused window to last used workspace
MoveWindowToNextWorkspace		moves currently focused window to next workspace
MoveWindowToPreviousWorkspace		moves currently focused window to previous workspace
MoveWindowDown		moves currently focused window down once
MoveWindowUp		moves currently focused window up once
MoveWindowTop	swap	bool (default true), moves currently focused window to the top, if swap and focused window is already on top move it one position down. If not swap and focused window is already on top, nothing happens
SwapWindowTop	swap	bool (default true), swaps currently focused window with the top one , if swap and focused window is already on top swap it with the one below it. If not swap and focused window is already on top, nothing happens
FloatingToTile		pushes currently focused floating window back to tiling mode
TileToFloating		Switch currently focused tiled window to floating mode
ToggleFloating		Switch currently focused window between tiled and floating mode
CloseWindow		closes currently focused window
FocusWindowDown
FocusWindowUp
FocusWindowTop	toggle	Focus to top (main) window. If toggle is true, select the previous window if already on the top window. Only available in LeftWM >=0.2.11.
FocusNextTag	behavior	string (defaults empty), determines command behavior. No value or default will simply move focus to the next tag, goto_used and ignore_empty will go to the next used tag, and goto_empty and ignore_used will go to the next empty tag.
FocusPreviousTag	behavior	string (defaults empty), determines command behavior. No value or default will simply move focus to the previous tag, goto_used and ignore_empty will go to the previous used tag, and goto_empty and ignore_used will go to the previous empty tag.
FocusWorkspaceNext
FocusWorkspacePrevious
ToggleFullScreen		Makes currently focused window fullscreen/non-fullscreen
ToggleSticky		Makes currently focused window sticky/non-sticky
ReturnToLastTag		Switch back to the last visited tag. Only available in LeftWM >=0.3.0
ReleaseScratchPad	scratchpad name, tag id or no argument	Move the currently focused scratchpad or the scratchpad with scratchpad name to tag id or the current tag if nothing provided as argument. Only available in LeftWM > 0.2.11
AttachScratchPad	scratchpad name	Attach the currently selected window to the given scratchpad. Only available in LeftWM > 0.2.11
NextScratchPadWindow	scratchpad name	Cycle to the next scratchpad window only if the given scratchpad is visible. Only available in LeftWM > 0.2.11
PrevScratchPadWindow	scratchpad name	Cycle to the previous scratchpad window only if the given scratchpad is visible. Only available in LeftWM > 0.2.11