Utilities

Quake

A Quake-like dropdown container for your favourite application.

Usage

Define it globally to have a single instance for all screens:

local quake = lain.util.quake()

or define it in connect_for_each_screen to have one instance for each screen:

awful.screen.connect_for_each_screen(function(s)
    -- Quake application
    s.quake = lain.util.quake()
    -- [...]

Keybinding example

If using a global instance:

awful.key({ modkey, }, "z", function () quake:toggle() end),

If using a per-screen instance:

awful.key({ modkey, }, "z", function () awful.screen.focused().quake:toggle() end),

Input table

Variable	Meaning	Type	Default
app	client to spawn	string	"xterm"
name	client name	string	"QuakeDD"
argname	how to specify client name	string	"-name %s"
extra	extra app arguments	string	empty string
border	border width	integer	1
visible	initially visible	boolean	false
followtag	always spawn on currently focused screen	boolean	false
overlap	Overlap the wibox or not	boolean	false
settings	Additional settings to make on the client	function	nil
screen	screen where to spawn the client	integer	awful.screen.focused()
height	dropdown client height	float in [0,1] or exact pixels number	0.25
width	dropdown client width	float in [0,1] or exact pixels number	1
vert	vertical position	string, possible values: "top", "bottom", "center"	"top"
horiz	horizontal position	string, possible values: "left", "right", "center"	"left"

height and width express a fraction of the workspace.

settings is a function which takes the client as input, and can be used to customize its properties. For instance:

-- set the client sticky
s.quake = lain.util.quake { settings = function(c) c.sticky = true end }

Read here for the complete list of properties.

Notes

• Does not work with gnome-terminal, konsole, or any other terminal which is strictly designed for a Desktop Environment. Just pick a better terminal, there's plenty.
• Set followtag = true if experiencing issues with multiple screens.
• If you have a awful.client.setslave rule for your application, ensure you use an exception for QuakeDD (or your defined name). Otherwise, you may run into problems with focus.
• If you are using a VTE-based terminal like termite, be sure to set argname = "--name %s".
• If you are using a terminal that does not always set its class_id to your specified name, such as Alacritty, then toggling will not work. You can solve this issue as explained here.

Separators

Adds Cairo separators.

local separators = lain.util.separators

A separator function separators.separator takes two color arguments, defined as strings. "alpha" argument is allowed. Example:

arrl_dl = separators.arrow_left(beautiful.bg_focus, "alpha")
arrl_ld = separators.arrow_left("alpha", beautiful.bg_focus)

You can customize height and width by setting separators_height and separators_width in your theme.lua. Default values are 0 and 9, respectively.

List of functions:

 +-- separators
 |
 |`-- arrow_right()    Draw a right arrow.
  `-- arrow_left()     Draw a left arrow.

Markup

Easier markup.

local markup = lain.util.markup

List of functions:

 +-- markup
 |
 |`-- bold()        Set bold.
 |`-- italic()      Set italicized text.
 |`-- strike()      Set strikethrough text.
 |`-- underline()   Set underlined text.
 |`-- monospace()   Set monospaced text.
 |`-- big()         Set bigger text.
 |`-- small()       Set smaller text.
 |`-- font()        Set the font of the text.
 |`-- font()        Set the font of the text.
 |`-- color()       Set background and foreground color.
 |`-- fontfg()      Set font and foreground color.
 |`-- fontbg()      Set font and background color.
  `-- fontcolor()   Set font, plus background and foreground colors.
 |
 |`--+ bg
 |   |
 |    `-- color()   Set background color.
 |
  `--+ fg
     |
      `-- color()   Set foreground color.

they all take one argument, which is the text to markup, except the following:

markup.font(font, text)
markup.color(fg, bg, text)
markup.fontfg(font, fg, text)
markup.fontbg(font, bg, text)
markup.fontcolor(font, fg, bg, text)
markup.fg.color(color, text)
markup.bg.color(color, text)

Dynamic tagging

That is:

• add a new tag;
• rename current tag;
• move current tag;
• delete current tag.

If you delete a tag, any rule set on it shall be broken, so be careful.

Use it with key bindings like these:

awful.key({ modkey, "Shift" }, "n", function () lain.util.add_tag(mylayout) end),
awful.key({ modkey, "Shift" }, "r", function () lain.util.rename_tag() end),
awful.key({ modkey, "Shift" }, "Left", function () lain.util.move_tag(1) end),   -- move to next tag
awful.key({ modkey, "Shift" }, "Right", function () lain.util.move_tag(-1) end), -- move to previous tag
awful.key({ modkey, "Shift" }, "d", function () lain.util.delete_tag() end),

The argument in lain.util.add_tag represents the tag layout, and is optional: if not present, it will be defaulted to awful.layout.suit.tile.

Useless gaps resize

Changes beautiful.useless_gaps on the fly.

lain.util.useless_gap_resize(thatmuch, s, t)

The argument thatmuch is the number of pixel to add to/substract from gaps (integer).

The arguments s and t are the awful.screen and awful.tag in which you want to change the gap. They are optional.

Following are example keybindings for changing client gaps on current screen and tag.

Example 1:

-- On the fly useless gaps change
awful.key({ altkey, "Control" }, "+", function () lain.util.useless_gaps_resize(1) end),
awful.key({ altkey, "Control" }, "-", function () lain.util.useless_gaps_resize(-1) end),

where altkey = Mod1. Example 2:

mywidget:buttons(awful.util.table.join (
        awful.button({}, 4, function() lain.util.useless_gaps_resize(-1) end),
        awful.button({}, 5, function() lain.util.useless_gaps_resize(1) end)
    end)
))

so when hovering the mouse over mywidget, you can adjust useless gaps size by scrolling with the mouse wheel.

tag_view_nonempty

This function lets you jump to the next/previous non-empty tag. It takes two arguments:

• direction: 1 for next non-empty tag, -1 for previous.
• sc: Screen which the taglist is in. Default is mouse.screen or 1. This argument is optional.

You can use it with key bindings like these:

-- Non-empty tag browsing
awful.key({ altkey }, "Left", function () lain.util.tag_view_nonempty(-1) end),
awful.key({ altkey }, "Right", function () lain.util.tag_view_nonempty(1) end),

where altkey = "Mod1".

magnify_client

Set a client to floating and resize it in the same way the "magnifier" layout does it. Place it on the "current" screen (derived from the mouse position). This allows you to magnify any client you wish, regardless of the currently used layout. Use it with a client keybinding like this:

clientkeys = awful.util.table.join(
    -- [...]
    awful.key({ modkey, "Control" }, "m", lain.util.magnify_client),
    -- [...]
)

If you want to "de-magnify" it, just retype the keybinding.

If you want magnified client to respond to incmwfact, read here.

menu_clients_current_tags

Similar to awful.menu.clients, but this menu only shows the clients of currently visible tags. Use it with a key binding like this:

awful.key({ "Mod1" }, "Tab", function()
    lain.util.menu_clients_current_tags({ width = 350 }, { keygrabber = true })
end),

menu_iterator

A generic menu utility which enables iteration over lists of possible actions to execute. The perfect example is a menu for choosing what configuration to apply to X with xrandr, as suggested on the Awesome wiki page.

An example Synergy menu, courtesy of sim590

You can either manually create a menu by defining a table in this format:

{ { "choice description 1", callbackFuction1 }, { "choice description 2", callbackFunction2 }, ... }

or use lain.util.menu_iterator.menu. Once you have your menu, use it with lain.menu_iterator.iterate.

Input tables

lain.menu_iterator.iterate

Argument	Description	Type
menu	the menu to iterate on	table
timeout	time (in seconds) to wait on a choice before the choice is accepted	integer (default: 4)
icon	path to the icon to display in naughty.notify window	string

lain.menu_iterator.menu

Argument	Description	Type
choices	list of choices (e.g., { "choice1", "choice2", ... })	array of strings
name	name of the program related to this menu	string
selected_cb	callback to execute for each selected choice, it takes one choice (string) as argument; can be nil (no action to execute)	function
rejected_cb	callback to execute for all rejected choices (the remaining choices, once one is selected), it takes one choice (string) as argument; can be nil (no action to execute)	function
extra_choices	more choices to be added to the menu; unlike choices, these ones won't trigger rejected_cb	array of { choice, callback } pairs, where choice is a string and callback is a function
combination	how choices have to be combined in the menu; possible values are: "single" (default), the set of possible choices will simply be the input set ; "powerset", the set of possible choices will be the power set of the input set	string

Examples

A simple example is:

local mymenu_iterable = lain.util.menu_iterator.menu {
    choices     = {"My first choice", "My second choice"},
    name        = "My awesome program",
    selected_cb = function(choice)
        -- do something with selected choice
    end,
    rejected_cb = function(choice)
        -- do something with every rejected choice
    end
}

The variable mymenu_iterable is a menu compatible with the function lain.util.menu_iterator.iterate, which will iterate over it and displays notification with naughty.notify every time it is called. You can use it like this:

local confirm_timeout = 5 -- time to wait before confirming the menu selection
local my_notify_icon = "/path/to/icon" -- the icon to display in the notification
lain.util.menu_iterator.iterate(mymenu_iterable, confirm_timeout, my_notify_icon)

Once confirm_timeout has passed without anymore calls to iterate, the choice is made and the associated callbacks (both for selected and rejected choices) are spawned.

A useful practice is to add a Cancel option as an extra choice for canceling a menu selection. Extending the above example:

local mymenu_iterable = lain.util.menu_iterator.menu {
    choices     = {"My first choice", "My second choice"},
    name        = "My awesome program",
    selected_cb = function(choice)
        -- do something with selected choice
    end,
    rejected_cb = function(choice)
        -- do something with every rejected choice
    end
    -- nil means no action to do
    extra_choices = { {"Cancel"}, nil }
}