i3-workspace-names-daemon

This script dynamically updates i3wm workspace names based on the names of the windows therein.

It also allows users to define an icon to show for a named window from the Font Awesome icon list.

tl;dr

update i3-bar workspace names to look something like this

install

Install the package from pypi with pip.

sudo pip3 install i3-workspace-names-daemon

NB. if you don't have sudo privileges instead do

pip3 install --user i3-workspace-names-daemon

font

Install the Font Awesome font via your favourite package manager. This is necessary if you want to show an icon instead of a window's name in the i3 status bar.

For Debian/Ubuntu et al.

sudo apt install fonts-font-awesome

NB: if the glyphs are not rendering make sure the font is installed.

i3 config

Add the following line to your ~/.i3/config.

exec_always --no-startup-id exec i3-workspace-names-daemon

If you use the $mod+1 etc. shortcuts to switch workspaces then update the following so that the switch to workspace and move focussed window to workspace shortcuts still work.

from

bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1
bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1
# etc

to

bindsym $mod+1 workspace number 1
bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace number 1
# etc

icons config

Configure what icons to show for what application-windows in the file ~/.i3/app-icons.json or ~/.config/i3/app-icons.json (in JSON format). For example:

chris@vulcan: ~$ cat ~/.i3/app-icons.json
{
    "firefox": "firefox",
    "chromium-browser": "chrome",
    "chrome": "chrome",
    "google-chrome": "chrome",
    "x-terminal-emulator": "terminal",
    "thunderbird": "envelope",
    "jetbrains-idea-ce": "edit",
    "nautilus": "folder-open",
    "clementine": "music",
    "vlc": "play",
    "signal": "comment",
    "_no_match": "question"
}

NB: to validate your config file is formatted correctly run this command and check it doesn't report an error

python3 -m json.tool  /path/to/your/app-icons.json

where the key is the name of the i3-window (ie. what is shown in the i3-bar when it is not configured yet) and the value is the font-awesome icon name you want to show instead, see picking icons.

Note: the hard-coded list above is used if you don't add this icon-config file.

matching windows

You can debug windows names with xprop

Windows names are detected by inspecting in the following priority

• name
• title
• instance
• class

If there is no window name available a question mark is shown instead.

Another (simpler) way for debugging window names is running this script with -v or --verbose flag, it is suggested to use a terminal emulator that supports unicode (eg. kitty or urxvt)

unrecognised windows

If a window is not in the icon config then by default the window title will be displayed instead.

The maximum length of the displayed window title can be set with the command line argument --max_title_length or -l.

To show a specific icon in place of unrecognised windows, specify an icon for window _no_match in the icon config. If you want to show only that icon (hiding the name) then use the --no-match-not-show-name or -n option.

picking icons

The easiest way to pick an icon is to search for one in the gallery. NB: the "pro" icons are not available in the debian package.

windows delimiter

The window delimiter can be specified with -d or --delimiter parameter by default it is |.