Tribblix: manual page: icesh.1

ICESH(1) User Commands ICESH(1)

NAME

icesh - control window properties and the IceWM window manager

SYNOPSIS

icesh OPTIONS|ACTIONS+

DESCRIPTION

icesh provides two types of commands:

1. Commands to directly interact with icewm:
These are listed in the section "MANAGER ACTIONS" below. They
are easy to use, because they don't require to select one or more
windows. For example, "icesh restart" will restart icewm and
"icesh clients" lists the applications that are managed by icewm.

2. Commands that operate on a selection of windows:
See the section "WINDOW ACTIONS" below. For example, "icesh
close" is a request to close a window, but which window? Now
icesh will turn the mouse pointer into a crosshair. Click on a
window and a close request will be sent to that application.

The power of icesh lies in its ability to programmatically select
one or more windows and operate on that selection. This can be
used in scripts and in icewm-keys(5) to define your own window
management hotkeys. For example, to immediately close all xterm
windows do "icesh -c xterm close".

There are a dozen "SELECT OPTIONS" to select windows. They start
with a '-' or a '+'. The '-' starts a new selection, while the
'+' adds more windows to an existing selection.

This selection of windows can be reduced by "FILTER OPTIONS".
These remove unwanted windows from the current selection.
Multiple filter options can be given. For example, "icesh -c
xterm -W this close" will close only those xterms that are shown
on the current workspace. The xterms on other workspaces are
filtered out by the "-W this" filter option.

There is no limit to the number of commands, selections, filters and
actions that you can give to a single icesh command. They are
processed and evaluated one by one from left to right. This makes
icesh a small declarative programming language. Have a look at some
examples near the end of this document.

OPTIONS

icesh recognizes the following options:

SELECT OPTIONS

Select options specify the window or windows to which subsequent
actions apply. If none is given, but an action does require a window,
then a selection crosshair is shown to select the desired window
interactively. The manager actions do not require window options.

The following options select one or more client windows. If needed,
they can be repeated for successive actions.

-a, -all
Selects all client windows of the window manager.

-f, -focus, +f, +focus
Selects the application window that is currently focused. The
option with minus sign replaces the existing selection with the
focused window. With a plus sign the focused window is added to
an existing selection.

+g, +group
Extend the current selection with client windows that belong to
the same application window group.

-r, -root, +r, +root
Selects the root window. The option with minus sign replaces the
existing selection with the root window. With a plus sign the
root window is added to an existing selection.

-s, -shown
Selects all client windows that are on the current workspace.

-t, -top
Selects all toplevel windows from the display unconditionally.
This includes windows that have never been mapped and windows
with the override redirect bit set to evade management.

-w, -window, +w, +window WINDOW_ID
Specifies the identifier of the window, WINDOW_ID, for which the
action applies. Special identifiers are root for the root window
and focus for the currently focused window. The option with
minus sign replaces the existing selection. With a plus sign the
window is added to an existing selection.

-x, -xembed
Selects all windows that are embedded using the XEMBED protocol.

+c, +class CLASS
Extend the current selection with client windows that have a
WM_CLASS property equal to CLASS. This is the resource instance
and class name. If CLASS contains a period, only windows with
exactly the same WM_CLASS property are matched. If there is no
period, windows of the same class and windows of the same
instance are selected.

+C, +Class
Extend the current selection with client windows that have a
WM_CLASS property similar to the already selected set of windows.

-D, -Dockapps
Selects all Dockapp applications that are managed by icewm.

+P, +Pid
Extend the current selection with client windows that have the
same process identifier as one of the selected windows.

-T Selects the IceWM taskbar.

FILTER OPTIONS

The following options filter the currently selected set of windows.
If no previous select option was given then a -all option is
implicitly assumed to filter all client windows.

-c, -class CLASS
Filters the set of windows on their WM_CLASS property. This is
the resource instance and class name. If CLASS contains a period,
only windows with exactly the same WM_CLASS property are matched.
If there is no period, windows of the same class and windows of
the same instance (aka. -name) are selected.

-l, -last
Filter clients and keep only the most recent client.

-m, -machine HOST
Filters clients by host name. Clients with a WM_CLIENT_MACHINE
property equal to HOST are selected.

-n, -name NAME
Filters clients by _NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME. NAME matches any part
of the property value. To match at the beginning use a "^"
prefix. To match at the end use a "$" suffix.

-p, -pid PID
Filters clients by process ID. Clients with a _NET_WM_PID
property equal to PID are selected.

-u, -unmapped
Filter clients and keep those that are currently not viewable.
These are hidden, minimized, rolled-up, or on another workspace.

-v, -viewable
Filter clients and keep only those that are currently viewable.
These clients are mapped on the current workspace.

-G, -Gravity GRAVITY
Filters clients by the window gravity field of the
WM_NORMAL_HINTS property. Clients with a gravity equal to
GRAVITY are selected. If GRAVITY starts with an exclamation mark
then the filtering is inverted.

-L, -Layer LAYER
Filters clients by GNOME window layer, which can either be a
layer name or a layer number. See EXPRESSIONS below. If LAYER
starts with an exclamation mark then the filtering is inverted.

-N, -Netstate STATE
Filters clients by EWMH window state. Clients that have at least
an EWMH window state of STATE are selected. This state refers to
details like MINIZED or MAXIMIZED. See EXPRESSIONS below. If
STATE starts with an exclamation mark then the filtering is
inverted. A question mark "?" filters clients with any bit set
in STATE.

-P, -Property PROP[=value]
Filters clients by property. Clients that have a property PROP
are selected. If the optional value is given, the match succeeds
only if PROP is a string, window, cardinal, or atom, with a value
equal to value. The filtering is inverted if PROP starts with an
exclamation mark.

-R, -Role ROLE
Filters clients by WM_WINDOW_ROLE. Clients that have a
WM_WINDOW_ROLE property value equal to ROLE are selected. The
filtering is inverted if ROLE starts with an exclamation mark.

-W, -Workspace WORKSPACE
Filter clients by workspace. Workspace WORKSPACE is either a
workspace name, or a workspace number counting from zero, or the
word "this" for the current workspace, or the word "All" for all
workspaces. If WORKSPACE starts with an exclamation mark then
the filtering is inverted.

-X, -Xinerama MONITOR
Limit clients by RandR/Xinerama monitor. Only operate on clients
that are displayed on MONITOR, where MONITOR can be "All" for all
monitors, "this" for the monitor where the active window is
displayed, or a monitor number starting from zero. See the
output of "randr" or "xinerama" below.

GENERAL OPTIONS

The following options are identical for every IceWM command.

-d, -display DISPLAY
Specifies the X11 DISPLAY. If unspecified, defaults to $DISPLAY.

-h, --help
Print a brief usage statement to stdout and exit.

-V, --version
Print the program version to stdout and exit.

-C, --copying
Print copying permissions to stdout for the program and exit.

-q, --quiet
Don't complain if no matching windows could be found.

ACTIONS

icesh expects one or more action arguments. There are two kinds of
actions: window actions and manager actions. The first operates on
the selected windows. The second directly interacts with the icewm
window manager.

WINDOW ACTIONS

The following actions affect the selected window or windows.

activate
Activate the window, aka. to focus.

close
Send a close request to the client that created the window.

kill
Force an immediate close down of the client that created the
window.

id Print window identifiers for the selected windows.

pid Print process identifiers for the selected windows.

list
Show window details, like geometry and names.

lower
Lower the window.

raise
Raise the window.

above
Stack the window above others.

below
Stack the window below others.

rollup
Rollup the specified window.

fullscreen
Set the window to fullscreen.

maximize
Maximize the window.

horizontal
Maximize the window only horizontally.

vertical
Maximize the window only vertically.

minimize
Minimize the window.

restore
Restore the window to normal and clear urgency.

hide
Hide the window.

unhide
Reveal the window.

skip
Don't show the window on the taskbar.

unskip
Do show the window on the taskbar.

sticky
Show the window on all workspaces.

unsticky
Show the window on just one workspace.

urgent
Set the urgency flag to flash the task button.

resize WIDTH HEIGHT
Resize window to WIDTH by HEIGHT window units. For text based
applications like terminals, a window unit is the size of a
single character cell.

sizeto WIDTH HEIGHT
Resize window to WIDTH by HEIGHT pixels. If WIDTH or HEIGHT ends
with a percent sign "%", then they refer to a percentage of the
desktop work area. For instance, "sizeto 50% 100%" resizes to
half the desktop width and whatever height is available above or
below the taskbar.

sizeby WIDTH HEIGHT
Resize window by WIDTH by HEIGHT pixels. If WIDTH or HEIGHT ends
with a percent sign "%", then they refer to a percentage of the
current window size. For instance, "sizeby 50% 200" increases the
width by 50% and increases the height by 200 pixels.

move X Y
Move the selected window or windows to the screen position X Y.
To specify X or Y values relative to the right side or bottom
side precede the value with an extra minus sign, like in "move
-+10 --20". When X or Y end with a percent sign "%", they refer
to a percentage of the desktop work area.

moveby X Y
Displace window by X Y pixels.

center
Position the window in the center of the desktop work area.

left
Position the window against the left side of the desktop work
area.

right
Position the window against the right side of the desktop work
area.

top Position the window against the top side of the desktop work
area.

bottom
Position the window against the bottom side of the desktop work
area.

setIconTitle TITLE
Set the icon title to TITLE.

getIconTitle
Print the icon title.

setWindowTitle TITLE
Set the window title to TITLE.

getWindowTitle
Print the window title.

setGeometry GEOMETRY
Set the window geometry to GEOMETRY. This geometry should be
specified in a format that can be parsed by XParseGeometry(3).
Negative offsets are with respect to the bottom or right side of
the screen. Use "+-" for a truly negative position.

getGeometry
Print the window geometry.

setClass CLASS
Set the resource name and class to CLASS, which should be a
resource name and a resource class connected by a dot. To
preserve either the existing name or class, use a percentage sign
for that part.

getClass
Print the resource name and class.

netState [STATE]
If STATE is omitted then it shows the EWMH window state. If
STATE starts with a "+" then flags in STATE are appended to the
existing EWMH window state. If STATE starts with a "-" then
flags in STATE are removed from the existing EWMH window state.
If STATE starts with a "^" then flags in STATE are toggled with
respect to the existing EWMH window state. If STATE starts with
a "=" then the EWMH window state is set to STATE. See EXPRESSIONS
below. A list of EWMH flags can be found in the output of "icesh
symbols".

setLayer LAYER
Move the specified window to another window layer. See
EXPRESSIONS below for a list of LAYER symbols.

getLayer
Print the window layer for the specified window.

setWorkspace WORKSPACE
Move the specified window to another workspace. Select the root
window to change the current workspace. If WORKSPACE is "All"
then the specified window becomes visible on all workspaces.
Specify "this" for the current workspace, "next" for the
subsequent workspace or "prev" for the preceding workspace.

getWorkspace
Print the workspace for the specified window.

opacity [OPACITY]
Print the window opacity if OPACITY is not given, otherwise set
the window opacity to OPACITY.

setTrayOption TRAYOPTION
Set the IceWM tray option for the specified window to TRAYOPTION.
See IceWM tray options, below, for TRAYOPTION symbols.

getTrayOption
Print the IceWM tray option for the specified window.

setNormalGravity GRAVITY
Set the window gravity field in the WM_NORMAL_HINTS property for
the specified window to GRAVITY. See below for GRAVITY symbols.

getNormalGravity
Print the window gravity from the WM_NORMAL_HINTS property for
the specified window.

setWindowGravity GRAVITY
Set the window gravity for the specified window to GRAVITY. See
below for GRAVITY symbols.

getWindowGravity
Print the window gravity for the specified window.

setBitGravity GRAVITY
Set the bit gravity> for the specified window to GRAVITY. See
below for GRAVITY symbols.

getBitGravity
Print the bit gravity for the specified window.

motif [funcs FUNCTIONS | decor DECORATIONS | remove]
Query, set or modify the "_MOTIF_WM_HINTS" property for the
specified window. Without arguments motif will show the current
value, but only if the window has such a property. The property
can be removed or reset with the remove argument. With funcs and
decor individual fields of this property can be enabled or
disabled. If FUNCTIONS or DECORATIONS starts with a minus or plus
sign then the existing value is modified, otherwise it is set to
the new value. Note that if "All" is set, other set fields are
disabled and cleared fields are enabled.

borderless
Hide the frame borders and title.

bordered
Show the frame borders and title.

denormal
Remove the WM_NORMAL_HINTS property, if it exists. This lifts
font-size restrictions on resizing, especially for terminals.

prop PROPERTY
Print the value of property PROPERTY, if it is present.

properties
Print all properties and their values.

frame
Print the identifier of the window frame.

extents
Print the window identifier and the frame border sizes: left,
right, top and bottom.

focusmodel
Print the ICCCM focus model as advertised by the client window.
This is either Locally, Passive, Globally or NoInput.

override [0|1]
Print the override redirect status for the window, or if either 0
or 1 is given, then disable or enable the override redirect
status.

tabto label
Move the windows as tabs to a frame that has "frame" label label.
Such a frame is created if needed.

untab
Move each window to its own frame, if it is currently tabbed.

loadicon image.pam
Load an icon from file, which must be in the PAM image format,
with dimensions at most 256, a depth of 4, and type RGB_ALPHA.

saveicon file000.pam
Save an icon to a new file in the PAM image format. Digits are
increased to generate a unique new filename for each window.

click window-x window-y button
Send a button press and release event at position (window-x,
window-y). A negative position is relative to the bottom right
corner. The mouse pointer is warped to the position before
sending the events. The button number should be between 1 and 5
inclusive.

monitors top bottom left right
This sets the monitors to use for fullscreen. Top, bottom, left,
and right are indices of the icesh xinerama command.

spy Observe the selected windows and report any changes. This
includes focus, visibility, position, size and all window
properties. To monitor all of the protocol request messages that
client applications may send to icewm, also spy on the root
window.

stacking
Sort the list of windows from topmost to bottom-most.

reverse
Reverse the order of the list of windows.

MANAGER ACTIONS

The following actions control the IceWM window manager and therefore
do not require a window select or filter option:

listWorkspaces
List the names of all workspaces.

current
Show the number and name of the current workspace.

goto WORKSPACE
Change the current workspace to WORKSPACE. Specify "next" for the
subsequent workspace or "prev" for the preceding workspace.

workspaces [COUNT]
Print the number of workspaces if COUNT is not given, otherwise
set the number of workspaces to COUNT.

setWorkspaceName INDEX NAME
Change the name of the workspace INDEX to NAME, where INDEX is a
workspace number starting from zero.

setWorkspaceNames NAME [NAME]*
Change the workspace names to the list of NAMEs.

addWorkspace NAME
Create a new workspace with name NAME.

desktop [SHOWING]
If SHOWING is 1 then set "showing the desktop" mode. If SHOWING
is 0 then turn off "showing the desktop". Print the current mode
if SHOWING is not given.

workarea
Print the dimensions of the work area for the current workspace.
This is the desktop, but minus space occupied by dock and panel
windows.

randr
Summarize the RandR configuration.

xinerama
Summarize the Xinerama configuration.

check
Print information about the current window manager, like name,
version, class, locale, command, host name and pid.

clients
List all managed client windows, their titles and geometries.

shown
List all mapped client windows for the current desktop, their
titles and geometries.

windows
List all toplevel windows, their titles and geometries.

systray
List applications that are managed by the IceWM system tray.

xembed
List application windows that are embedded using the XEMBED
protocol. This is another way to discover system tray
applications.

logout
Let icewm execute the "LogoutCommand".

reboot
Let icewm execute the "RebootCommand".

shutdown
Let icewm execute the "ShutdownCommand".

cancel
Let icewm cancel the logout/reboot/shutdown.

about
Let icewm show the about window.

windowlist
Let icewm show the window list window.

restart
Let icewm restart itself.

suspend
Let icewm execute the "SuspendCommand".

hibernate
Let icewm execute the "HibernateCommand".

winoptions
Let icewm reload the "winoptions". This only affects new
windows.

keys
Let icewm reload the "keys" file.

refresh
Let icewm refresh the desktop background.

guievents
Monitor the ICEWM_GUI_EVENT property and report all changes. Hit
"Ctrl+C" to abort this and continue with the next command.

delay [time]
Stop execution for time or 0.1 seconds.

runonce program [arguments...]
This action is meant to be used together with the -class option.
Only if no window is matched by WM_CLASS then program
[arguments...] is executed.

loop [count]
Loop back to the beginning of the command and repeat. The
optional count limits the number of repetitions.

pick
Choose a window by a mouse button click.

sync
Synchronize with the IceWM window manager. That is, wait for
icewm to process all previous actions.

symbols
List all named symbols.

CONDITIONALS

Icesh supports "if-then-else" expressions. The full syntax is:

if selection
then
actions
elif selection
then
actions
else
actions
end

Where "selection" is a sequence of selection and filtering options,
which evaluates to true when it is non-empty. That is, if one or more
windows fulfilled the condition. If it is empty, then its "actions"
clause is ignored and the subsequent "elif" or "else" clause is tried
or taken. Each clause is optional.

Whenever a selection condition evaluates to false, the window
selection that existed before the "if" clause is immediately
restored. This also happens after an "end" clause.

EXPRESSIONS

Some of the window actions require one or two EXPRESSION arguments.

EXPRESSION ::= SYMBOL | EXPRESSION { "+" | "|" } SYMBOL

Each SYMBOL may be from one of the following applicable domains:

Window layer
Named symbols of the domain Window layer (numeric range: 0-15):

Desktop (0)
Below (2)
Normal (4)
OnTop (6)
Dock (8)
AboveDock (10)
Menu (12)
Fullscreen (14)
AboveAll (15)

These symbols are used with the LAYER argument to the "setLayer"
action.

IceWM tray option
Named symbols of the domain IceWM tray option (numeric range:
0-2):

Ignore (0)
Minimized (1)
Exclusive (2)

These symbols are used with the TRAYOPTION argument to the
"setTrayOption" action.

Gravity symbols
Named symbols for window and bit gravity (numeric range: 0-10):

ForgetGravity (0)
NorthWestGravity (1)
NorthGravity (2)
NorthEastGravity (3)
WestGravity (4)
CenterGravity (5)
EastGravity (6)
SouthWestGravity (7)
SouthGravity (8)
SouthEastGravity (9)
StaticGravity (10)

Motif functions
All (1)
Resize (2)
Move (4)
Minimize (8)
Maximize (16)
Close (32)

Motif decorations
All (1)
Border (2)
Resize (4)
Title (8)
Menu (16)
Minimize (32)
Maximize (64)

EWMH window state symbols
Named symbols of the domain EWMH state (numeric range: 0-8191):

ABOVE (1)
BELOW (2)
DEMANDS_ATTENTION (4)
FOCUSED (8)
FULLSCREEN (16)
HIDDEN (32)
MAXIMIZED_HORZ (64)
MAXIMIZED_VERT (128)
MODAL (256)
SHADED (512)
SKIP_PAGER (1024)
SKIP_TASKBAR (2048)
STICKY (4096)

EXAMPLES

List all workspace names:

icesh listWorkspaces

Example output:

workspace #0: `main'
workspace #1: `web'
workspace #2: `doc'
workspace #3: `dev'

Close terminal work and activate terminal fun.

icesh -c work.XTerm close -a -c fun.XTerm activate

Print opacity for all xterms.

icesh -c XTerm opacity

Change opacity for all xterms.

icesh -c XTerm opacity 84

Move all windows on workspace "Top" to the current workspace.

icesh -W "Top" setWorkspace "this"

Restore all hidden clients, minimize all clients on the current
workspace and activate Firefox.

icesh -N HIDDEN restore -a -W "this" minimize -a -c Firefox activate

Resize the focused window to occupy the right half of the desktop
area.

icesh -f sizeto 49% 100% top right raise

Toggle the frame border of the focused window.

if icesh -f motif | grep -q 'decor:$'; then \
icesh -f motif decor All; else icesh -f motif decor ""; fi

Here is a different solution using conditionals.

icesh -f if -P _NET_FRAME_EXTENTS=0 then bordered else borderless

Here is a conditional to either toggle the visibility of a roxterm
that has a WM_ROLE value of "special" or start it with runonce.

icesh if -c roxterm.Roxterm -R special then \
if -v then hide \
elif -u then setWorkspace this activate end \
else runonce roxterm --role=special

Collect all urxvt terminals from the fourth workspace in a single
frame on the current workspace.

icesh -W 3 -c urxvt tabto myfunnyname

Use the loop construct conditionally to wait for a certain window to
appear.

icesh -t if -n Tooltip then list else delay 0.05 loop end

ENVIRONMENT

DISPLAY
The default display.

EXIT STATUS

0 The last action completed successfully.

1 The last action completed unsuccessfully, or no window met the
condition.

2 A conditional has invalid syntax.

3 The display could not be opened.

4 The X server reports an error while processing a request.

COMPLIANCE

icesh is largely compliant with the EWMH and ICCCM specifications.
Some commands, like manager actions, are specific to IceWM.

BUGS

Please report bugs at <https://github.com/bbidulock/icewm/issues>.

AUTHOR

Brian Bidulock <mailto:bidulock@openss7.org>.

See --copying for full copyright notice and copying permissions.

LICENSE

IceWM is licensed under the GNU Library General Public License. See
the COPYING file in the distribution or use the --copying flag to
display copying permissions.

icewm 3.6.0 2024-06-16 ICESH(1)