This not working has caused a lot of confusion. Not only is -f not necessary,
but the implementation is worse than just allowing flags after the program.
Deprecate the -f flag. Stop evaling a string; build an array of program options
instead.
Addresses various issues: #6, #17, #52, etc.
- Prefer builtins where possible
- Use builtin math for percent_of_total
- Use parameter expansion instead of awk where possible
- Query specific property that want for xprop instead of using awk
- Avoid extra call to get_window_manager
- Use xrandr's --current flag (doesn't poll for hardware changes; ~0.01 second vs. 0.075 seconds on my comupter)
- Get current monitor name from bspc directly without parsing
Addresses #36.
- More explicitly mention that single quotes should be used to prevent
variable evaluation
- List hook flags in readme
- Consistently order in the readme and manpage
- Fix typo in manpage (--pre-create-hook -> --post-create-hook)
- Some rewording
A basic demo using tdrop to create a dropdown/scratchpad on the fly with a hotkey. I set the height to be less than max with tdrop to make it more obvious which is the dropdown at which time. First apvlv is turned into a dropdown. Then it is cleared and zathura is turned into a dropdown. One can also have multiple hotkeys to create multiple dropdowns on the fly at a time.
This is a tdrop fork but using an external script xtoolwait (on AUR =xtoolwait-git=).
It was created to support few programs (like suckless tabbed) which doesn't work yet with the upstream version.
A demo showing tdrop's ability to auto-hide windows when opening things from them. First an image is opened in sxiv from ranger in the dropdown. When sxiv is closed, the dropdown automatically re-appears. The image is opened once again, but this time the dropdown is manually toggled before closing sxiv. This cancels the "re-show". [[http://noctuid.github.io/tdrop/assets/auto_hide.gif]]
* Advantages Over Other Dropdown Terminals
- Can be used with any terminal or other program of your choice
- Supports many WMs
- Allows turning any window into a dropdown on the fly
- Allows for control of sizing and placement so that panels aren't hidden
- Supports tiled and floating dropdowns
- Attempts to deal with floating windows on a case by case basis (ability to have a floating dropdown without needing a rule to float all windows of that type)
- Allows for multiple dropdowns of the same type (uses window id)
- Allows for auto-hiding a dropdown when opening programs from it
- Can automatically start programs and tmux or tmuxinator sessions
- Supports automatic resizing based on the current monitor
- Has hooks for executing user commands
* Requirements
- bash and basic utilities (awk, sed, etc.)
- xprop
- xwininfo
- xdotool
Optional:
- xrandr (for -m)
- tmux (for -s)
- tmuxinator (for -s)
* Installation Instructions and Usage
** Installation
Tdrop is in the AUR as =tdrop-git=. It can also be installed by cloning this repo and running ~sudo make install~. One can then bind a key to it (e.g. with sxhkd).
** Basic Sxhkd Example
#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
# negative -w arg to account for a border width (default: 100%)
The positional argument should be the name of a program in =$PATH= (as opposed to the full path to a program) and should not contain any flags (see =-f= if you want to pass additional flags to the program when running it).
** Basic Flags
=-s=/ =--session= should only be used for supported terminals and if the user wants to start a tmux or tmuxinator session. =-a= /=--auto-detect-wm= should be used to automatically set certain options (=-l=, =-L=, =-d=, and/or =-i=) based on the current window manager. These flags (whether automatically or manually set) may be necessary for tdrop to behave correctly (e.g. they are required for =-w= /=--width=, =-h=/ =--height=, =-x= /=--xoff=, and =-y= / =--yoff= to work correctly on tiling window managers). See the manpage for these flags for specific details.
Tdrop has basic checks to print errors for malformed commands (for example to require one positional argument). If a tdrop command does not work, please run it in a terminal or check =/tmp/tdrop/log= for error messages and consult the manpage before making an issue. For more information, see the [[#troubleshooting][Troubleshooting]] section.
*** Changes
Long options can now be used with whitespace instead of requiring a ~=~ (i.e. =--long-opt value= and ~--long-opt=value~ are both fine).
Old users please note that =-W|--normal-window=, =-z|--sleep-terminal=, and =-Z|--sleep-window= are no longer necessary and have been removed. Similarly, the old hook flags (=-p=, =-P=, =-M=, and =-O= as well as =--create-hook= and =--map-hook=) have been replaced with more specific and useful versions.
** Flicker
For some window managers that require a window to be repositioned after re-mapping it, some flicker may be noticeable. This flicker has been mostly fixed for some window managers (e.g. in the Gnome Shell and Cinnamon DEs) and improved for others. It is usually worse on tiling managers where the window must be re-floated every time it is mapped. The way around this is to use rules to either always have the class floated or one-time rules to only float the next instance of a class. For example, since bspwm has oneshot rules and generally doesn't alter the size/position of a window, there isn't any movement flicker.
A more consistent workaround to eliminate visual flickering regardless of the window manager is to enable fade-in for the compositor. For compton this can be done by setting =fading = true;= and adjusting the =fade-delta= in the =~/.config/compton.conf= accordingly.
** Monitor Awareness
Using the =-m= / =--monitor-aware= flag will cause the geometry options to act with respect to the current monitor. This may be helpful for users of multiple monitors who don't want dropdowns spanning across monitors.
This is particularly useful when using a percentage or negative value with =-w=, =-h=, =-x=, and/or =-y=. For example, =-w -4= normally corresponds to a width 4 pixels less than 100% of the screen width (potentially the combined width of multiple monitors). With =-m=, the pixel values are calculated using the dimensions of the current monitor alone. Negative values may be useful when the window manager (possibly due to window decorations) causes a dropdown with =-w 100%= to go over the edge of the screen. The =-m= option will also automatically resize and/or reposition the dropdown when opening it on a different monitor when one or more of the geometry arguments are negative or percentages.
Some window managers allow querying what the current monitor is (e.g. bspwm and i3), but for other window managers, tdrop determines the current monitor based on the position of the active window. For these window managers, if the desktop is empty, tdrop must wait for the dropdown to be created or mapped before getting the monitor info. This may cause a slight delay before the dropdown is properly resized. If =-m= does not work at all or there is a specific way to query for the current monitor in your window manager, please make an issue.
See the manpage for more information.
** Hooks
Tdrop provides various hook flags that can be used to run commands at various stages during execution. These commands can make use of any internal tdrop variable, such as =$width=, =$height=, =$xoff=, =$yoff=, =$class=, and =$wid=. For example, to set a dropdown as always on top, "-P 'wmctrl -i -r $wid -b add,above'" could be added to a tdrop command.
Note that for some of the hooks, the window id is not guarunteed to be known (since the window may not have yet been created), so any scripts that make use of these should check if it is defined (pre-map and pre-float; wid will never be known for pre-create).
*** Pre Create
*Program* The hook will be run before the program is started.
*Current* The hook will be run before unmapping the current window.
*Hide and Show* No effect.
*** Post Create
*Program* The hook will be run after the program is started and its window is active.
*Current* The hook will be run after unmapping the current window.
*Hide and Show* No effect.
*** Pre Float
A command specifically meant to float the window. Note that if you specify this, it will override any defaults from =-a=.
*Program* / *Current* The command will be run before mapping the window.
*Hide* No effect.
*Show* Will be used before mapping the window if it was previously floating.
*** Post Float
A command specifically meant to float the window. Note that if you specify this, it will override any defaults from =-a=.
*Program* / *Current* The command will be run after mapping the window.
*Hide* No effect.
*Show* Will be used after mapping the window if it was previously floating.
*** Pre Map
*Program*/ *Current* /*Show* The command will be run before mapping the window.
*Hide* No effect.
*** Post Map
*Program*/ *Current* /*Show* The command will be run after mapping the window.
*Hide* No effect.
*** Pre Unmap
*Program*/ *Current* /*Hide* The command will be run before unmapping the window.
*Show* No effect.
*** Post Unmap
*Program*/ *Current* /*Hide* The command will be run after unmapping the window.
*Show* No effect.
** Auto-hiding
In addition to creating dropdowns, tdrop can automatically hide a window and later un-hide it. For example, if gvim is opened to write a git commit message from the terminal, tdrop can automatically hide the terminal (dropdown or not) and restore it after the user is finished writing the commit message:
#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
hide_on_open() {
tdrop -a auto_hide && "$@" && tdrop -a auto_show
}
alias gc='hide_on_open git commit'
#+END_EXAMPLE
The most useful application of this functionality is probably when opening videos, images, etc. in an external program from a file manager like ranger. For example, in the =rifle.conf=:
#+BEGIN_EXAMPLE
mime ^video, has mpv, X, flag f = tdrop -a auto_hide && mpv -- "$@" && tdrop -a auto_show
#+END_EXAMPLE
* Tested With
** Terminals
These terminals have been tested with tdrop and support the =-s= and =-a= flags unless otherwise specified:
- Termite
- URxvt (including urxvtd)
- XTerm
- Xfce4-terminal
- Gnome-terminal
- Konsole
- Terminology
- Sakura
- Roxterm
- Tilix (previously terminix)
- st (-s does not work)
- Alacritty
- xiate
If your terminal doesn't work with tdrop, feel free to make an issue. Please follow the steps in the [[#troubleshooting][Troubleshooting]] section.
** Window Managers
The primary goal of tdrop is to "just work" with any window manager. The primary differences between how tdrop deals with different window managers is the strategy it takes for floating only the dropdown (as opposed to all instances of the class that the dropdown is). There are three types of window managers as far as tdrop is concerned:
*** Tiling without Floating Support
If your window manager does not support floating, there's nothing to worry about. Binding a key to =tdrop <flags> terminal= should work. Options for resizing and movement that work only with floating window managers are not supported. One can, however, add post-map and post-unmap commands to do something like change the layout to fullscreen when showing a dropdown then revert the layout when hiding the dropdown. Automatic settings exist to do this for the following window managers (=-a=):
- herbstluftwm
*** Floating/Stacking
For floating window managers, tdrop should also generally "just work", but you may need to add the =-a= option for auto-showing to correctly restore the previous geometry.
That said, these are the floating window managers that currently have been tested:
- mutter (gnome shell)
- muffin (cinnamon)
- xfwm4 (xfce)
- metacity (gnome 2)
- marco (mate)
- kwin (kde)
- openbox (lxde)
- compiz (unity)
- pekwm
- fluxbox
- blackbox
- fvwm
- sawfish
- goomwwm
If your dropdown moves out of place when being shown, make an issue, and I will add settings for it.
*** Tiling with Floating Support
These window managers currently will work with =-a= for a floating (instead of tiled) dropdown:
- bspwm (support for versions prior to 0.9.1 was dropped on 2016/09/22)
- i3
- awesome
Awesome support may be buggy; if you encounter problems, please report them.
* Why Not Use wmctrl?
Necessary features don't work on many window managers, including mine.
* Why Not Use wmutils?
Maybe in the future. The only advantage I can see over xdotool is that it can toggle mapping (=mapw -t=), but this wouldn't be used in this script anyway since different code is executed depending on whether or not the window is mapped or unmapped. Also the command names are somewhat cryptic.
Please make an issue. Including the following information would help resolve the problem more quickly.
Basic:
- The incorrect behavior: Does the window appear at all? Is the problem that it is not floated correctly in a supported wm? Or is it a feature request for =-a= support?
- Whether things work as expected with a basic =tdrop <terminal>= (no flags) or whether the issue occurs with a specific flag (probably =-s=)
Additional helpful information:
- If the problem only occurs with the =-s= flag, the issue is likely due to the fact that not all terminals have compatible =-e= flags. It would be helpful if information on how the terminal's flag for executing a command works. Is it something other than =-e=? Are quotations required or incorrect ("-e 'command -flags ...'" vs "-e command flags")?
- If the issue is with the dropdown behavior (e.g. tdrop keeps opening new windows for the program), does the program share a PID across all instances (e.g. open several windows and provide the output of =pgrep -l <program>=)? Does the program have a daemon and client?
Just don't forget to install xtoolwait, because I basically replaced hundred lines of code with just one call to this utility.
.\" Please make an issue on the online repository if you find errors or typos.
.THTDROP1"11 February 2015""tdrop 0.1" "tdrop man page"
.THTDROP1"11 February 2015""tdrop 0.2" "tdrop man page"
.SHNAME
Tdrop - make dropdown terminals and windows
.SHSYNOPSIS
tdrop [\fIOPTIONS\fR] [program name or cmd]
tdrop [\fIOPTIONS\fR] [program name or cmd] [program options ...]
.SHDESCRIPTION
Tdrop is used for hiding/unhiding programs to acheive quake/dropdown functionality. It can create a dropdown window if one does not already exist or turn the current window into a dropdown on the fly. It provides options to control the intial size and position of dropdowns, for example to leave panels visible or to deal with window borders. When used with a terminal, it provides an option to specify the name of a tmuxinator or tmux session to automatically start. It also allows the user to specify arbitrary options/flags to be used when starting programs. It uses window IDs as opposed to classes, so it can be used with multiple windows of the same program.
Tdrop is used for hiding/unhiding programs to acheive quake/dropdown functionality. It can create a dropdown window if one does not already exist or turn the current window into a dropdown on the fly. It provides options to control the intial size and position of dropdowns, for example to leave panels visible or to deal with window borders. When used with a terminal, it provides an option to specify the name of a tmux session to automatically start. It also allows the user to specify arbitrary options/flags to be used when starting programs. It uses window IDs as opposed to classes, so it can be used with multiple windows of the same program.
It also has the ability to automatically hide and automatically show dropdowns. For example, it can be used to automatically hide a terminal when opening something from it, e.g. an image viewer, video player, etc. Tdrop can then automatically bring back the terminal whenever the image view, video player, etc. is closed. See the Examples section for more information.
.SHCommands
Tdrop expects the name of a program or 'current' (to use the current window) as the last argument to create a dropdown. Alternatively, it can take one of auto_show, auto_hide, or toggle_auto_hide. Neither functionality is particularly useful called directly from the command line; the former should be bound to a key, and the latter is better used in shell functions/aliases or with a file opener (e.g. in the rifle.conf).
Tdrop expects the name of a program or 'current' (to use the current window) as the last argument to create a dropdown (optionally followed by any flags to that program). Alternatively, it can take one of auto_show, auto_hide, toggle_auto_hide, or hide_all. If hide_all is given instead of a program name, tdrop will hide all visible dropdowns.
Tdrop's functionality is not particularly useful called directly from the command line. Commands should either be bound to a key, used in shell functions/aliases, or used with a file opener (e.g. in the rifle.conf).
.SHOPTIONS
.br
E.g.
@ -36,7 +39,7 @@ Specify the x position for a created window as a number or percentage. (default:
Specify the y position for a created window as a number or percentage. (default: 1, see BUGS)
.TP
\fB-s NAME\fR, \fB --session=NAME\fR
Specify a tmuxinator or tmux session name to start. An existing tmux session has highest precedence and will be connected to with '-d', detaching other attached clients. If a there is no tmuxinator session of the given name, a normal tmux session with the name will be created. If this option is not given, tmux will not be used. Note that this option requires that the program be a supported terminal. (default: none)
Specify a tmuxinator, tmuxifier, or tmux session name to start. An existing tmux session has highest precedence and will be connected to with '-d', detaching other attached clients. If a there is no tmuxinator/tmuxifier/etc. session of the given name, a normal tmux session with the name will be created. If this option is not given, tmux will not be used. Note that this option requires that the program be a supported terminal. (default: none)
.TP
\fB-n NUMBER\fR, \fB --number=NUMBER\fR
Specify a number (or any extra text) to differentiate between dropdowns of the same program (this is only needed when using multiple dropdowns of the same program). This flag can also be used for creating multiple different dropdowns on the fly ('current'). Note that it is not necessary to use this to deal with multi-user systems as tdrop stores dropdown information separately for each user. (default: none)
@ -44,8 +47,8 @@ Specify a number (or any extra text) to differentiate between dropdowns of the s
Specify a command to execute before first creating or initializing a dropdown (before mapping a normal dropdown or before unmapping the 'current' window). This flag has no effect for the auto_(hide|show) commands. (default: none)
.TP
\fB-C\fR, \fB --pre-create-hook=COMMAND\fR
NDSpecify a command to execute after first creating or initializing a dropdown (after mapping a normal dropdown or after unmapping the 'current' window). This flag has no effect for the auto_(hide|show) commands. (default: none)
\fB-C\fR, \fB --post-create-hook=COMMAND\fR
Specify a command to execute after first creating or initializing a dropdown (after mapping a normal dropdown or after unmapping the 'current' window). This flag has no effect for the auto_(hide|show) commands. (default: none)
.TP
\fB-p COMMAND\fR, \fB --pre-map-hook=COMMAND\fR
Specify a command to execute before showing/mapping a dropdown. Note that this will run when showing a dropdown for the first time even when --pre-create-hook is used. (default: none)
@ -53,18 +56,18 @@ Specify a command to execute before showing/mapping a dropdown. Note that this w
\fB-P COMMAND\fR, \fB --post-map-hook=COMMAND\fR
Specify a command to execute after showing/mapping a dropdown. Note that this will run when hiding a dropdown for the first time even when --post-create-hook is used. (default: none)
Specify a command execute before showing/mapping a dropdown in order to float the dropdown (e.g. a bspwm oneshot rule). This may be useful if you don't want to float all windows of a given program and tdrop doesn't automatically support this for your window manager with the -a flag. This will override any default floating command when used with -a.
Specify a command execute after showing/mapping a dropdown in order to float the dropdown. This may be useful if you don't want to float all windows of a given program and tdrop doesn't automatically support this for your window manager with the -a flag. This can be used if your window manager does not support floating rules at all; for example, it can be used to fake a key combination (e.g. using xdotool) that will float the current window. This will override any default floating command when used with -a.
.TP
\fB-u COMMAND\fR, \fB --pre-unmap-hook=COMMAND\fR
Specify a command to execute before hiding/unmapping a dropdown. (default: none)
Specify a command execute before showing/mapping a dropdown in order to float the dropdown (e.g. a bspwm oneshot rule). This may be useful if you don't want to float all windows of a given program and tdrop doesn't automatically support this for your window manager with the -a flag. This will override any default floating command when used with -a.
Specify a command execute after showing/mapping a dropdown in order to float the dropdown. This may be useful if you don't want to float all windows of a given program and tdrop doesn't automatically support this for your window manager with the -a flag. This can be used if your window manager does not support floating rules at all; for example, it can be used to fake a key combination (e.g. using xdotool) that will float the current window. This will override any default floating command when used with -a.
Specify a window decoration/border size in the form <x decoration size>x<y decoration size> to be taken into account when saving window position. This should not be necessary for most window managers and is only used with 'auto_show', e.g. 'tdrop -d 1x22 auto_show' for blackbox. (default: none)
.TP
@ -75,7 +78,11 @@ This option is a more complicated companion to -d that is also unlikely to be ne
Specify a command that will determine whether the current window is floating ($wid can be used in the command instead). Only used for the auto_hide command. This will be used to save whether the current window is floating or not. When restoring the window, if there is a float command and the window was previously floating, it will be floated. (default: none)
.TP
\fB-f\fR, \fB --program-flags\fR
Specify flags/options that the terminal or program should be called with. For example, to set the title of the terminal, something like '-f "--title mytitle"' can be used. Caution: If there is a tmux/tmuxinator session specified (with -s), the option to execute a program (usually -e for terminal programs) is implicitly added by tdrop! (default: none)
NOTE: Using this flag is deprecated; it may be removed in the future. Instead, specify program flags after the program (e.g. "tdrop kitty --name foo").
Specify flags/options that the terminal or program should be called with. For example, to set the title of the terminal, something like 'tdrop -f "--title mytitle" <program>' can be used.
Caution: If there is a tmux session specified (with -s), the option to execute a program (usually -e for terminal programs) is implicitly added by tdrop! (default: none)
.TP
\fB-a\fR, \fB --auto-detect-wm\fR
If there are available settings for the detected window manager for the -l, -L, -d, and/or -i options, automatically set them. Takes no argument. Manually specified settings take precedence. This can be used both for dropdowns and the auto_(hide|show) commands. Takes no argument. (default: false)
@ -83,9 +90,12 @@ If there are available settings for the detected window manager for the -l, -L,
\fB-m\fR, \fB --monitor-aware\fR
This option only applies for dropdowns (not auto-hiding and auto-showing). Specify that geometry values should be relative to the current monitor. For example, if the width is a percentage or negative value, the pixel width will be calculated as a percentage of the current monitor's width (instead of the combined width of all monitors). If the monitor changes, this option will cause a dropdown to be resized to fit the given percentages. Note that this option assumes xrandr is being used and requires xrandr to work. (default: false)
.TP
\fB-t\fR, \fB --pointer-monitor-detection\fR
Use mouse pointer location for detecting which monitor is the current one so terminal will be displayed on it. Without this option, the monitor with currently active window is considered the current one. This option is only effective if -m / --monitor-aware option is enabled.
.TP
\fB --wm=NAME\fR
Specify the window manager name (which determines the default settings when -a is specified). This may be useful if you've change the name of your window manager using wmname as this will prevent tdrop from correctly detecting the real window manager name. This could also potentially be useful if the all the default -a settings for another window manager work with the current one (e.g. if using a similar but differently named fork of some window manager). (default: automatically detected)
.TP
Mimic another WM's rules with -a. This is unlikely to be useful. It could potentially be used in the case where a similar fork of a window manager had a different name. (default: automatically detected)
\fB --class=NAME\fR
Providing this option lets tdrop know what the class (or classname) of the window is (it does not actually set the class for a window). This is used for window managers like bspwm that use the class for floating rules. For some commonly used programs, tdrop will already use the correct class. This option is useful when the program name and class are not the same and there is not already a default mapping between the two. (default: the program name or a known substitution)
@ -99,6 +109,8 @@ Used to clear a saved window id for the given program or 'current' instead of cr
.TP
\fB --no-cancel\fR
Specifies that manually re-showing an auto-hidden window with tdrop should not cancel an auto_show. Takes no argument. See the examples.
\fB --timeout\fR
Specifies the timeout in to wait for a window to appear when starting a program before giving up. This prevents a tdrop process from sticking around forever if a program fails to start. (default: 10)
.TP
\fB --help\fR
Print basic help information. Takes no argument.
@ -123,7 +135,7 @@ Tdrop supports controlling the initial size and placement of a terminal. The bor
.br
$ tdrop -a -w 1362 -y 14 xterm
Tdrop can also create a tmux or tmuxinator session if it does not exist:
Tdrop can also create a tmux session if it does not exist:
.br
$ tdrop -a -w 1362 -y 14 -s dropdown xterm
@ -180,9 +192,9 @@ mime ^image, has sxiv, X, flag f = tdrop auto_hide ; sxiv -a -- "$@" && tdrop -a
If -y is set to 0, a window may be subsequently moved to the middle when showing/mapping it with xdotool. This may have to do with the window border.
KuxaBeast
Fox Kiester