i3-sway-switch-window

In i3wm, or sway, replace currently focused window with emacs buffer, file from emacs recentf, browser window showing URL from a browser tab, or another window. Can also place selected buffer window, recentf window, browser tab, or another window, adjacent to currently focused window. Emacs buffer and file from emacs recentf are displayed with emacsclient. Currently only tested under Ubuntu 23.04.

Installation

pipx install -U i3-sway-switch-window

It is necessary to install with 'pipx' rather than 'pip', as a number of command line entry points are included in the package.

Then you can run

browser_tab -h
emacs_buffers -h
emacs_recentf -h
wm_window_switch -h

To uninstall the package run:

pipx uninstall i3-sway-switch-window

Install requirements:

To use commands emacs_buffers and emacs_recentf, emacs must be running in server (daemon) mode. emacsclient must be available.

To use browser_tab, brotab must be installed. See https://github.com/balta2ar/brotab for how to install the command line application. You must also have the brotab browser extensiom installed in your browser, and enabled.

Note that the brotab command line application 'bt', is currently unable to communicate with browsers installed via flatpak and snap. On Ubuntu I have had success with the vivaldi browser. It is still possible to open the URLs with for example chrome. Note 2023-06-22: bt now works also with chrome on Ubuntu.

The browser_tab command can be configured to display in for example chrome and vivaldi. It can also be configured to display in the nyxt browser, see the details in the config example below.

Beside getting info from brotab, browser_tab can be configured to also get info from the nyxt browser, but that requires some extra configuration. See below.

The i3-sway-switch-window applications expect to find a configuration file in "i3_sway_switch_window/config.ini" in your config directory. The file can be empty.

A sample config.ini is:

[roficommand]
# Default is "rofi -dmenu"
roficommand = /usr/local/bin/rofi -dmenu

[webbrowser]
# Default is "vivaldi"
webbrowser = google-chrome
# commandlineoptions is default --new-window
# urlprefix is default empty
# urlsuffix is default empty

# Config for displaying in the nyxt browser:
# webbrowser = nyxt
# commandlineoptions = -r -q -e
# urlprefix = '(make-window (make-buffer :url "
# urlsuffix = "))'
#
# Besides this the following is needed in nyxt config
# (define-configuration browser
#   (
#    ;; Whether code sent to the socket gets executed.  You must understand the
#    ;; risks before enabling this: a privileged user with access to your system
#    ;; can then take control of the browser and execute arbitrary code under your
#    ;; user profile.
#    (remote-execution-p t)))

# Should we try to get a list of titles and URLs from nyxt webbrowser.
# There are some requirements: See the project README.
# default is no
get_urls_from_nyxt = yes

# Config for displaying in qutebrowser:
# webbrowser = qutebrowser
# commandlineoptions = --target window

# Should we try to get a list of titles and URLs from qutebrowser.
# There are some requirements: See the project README.
# default is no
get_urls_from_qutebrowser = yes

[workspace]
# i3, or sway, workspace to which focused window will be swapped
# Default is "2"
swap_workspace = 9

How to use

The commands can be run from the command line. They can also be part of the i3, or sway, configuration. Here are some sample lines from my i3 configuration file:

# get wm window names, select one, display at current desktop window
bindsym $mod+w exec ~/.local/bin/wm_window_switch swap

# get wm window names, select one, display next to current desktop window
bindsym $mod+Shift+w exec ~/.local/bin/wm_window_switch add

# get web browser tab titles and URLs, select one, display at current desktop window
bindsym $mod+u exec ~/.local/bin/browser_tab swap

# get web browser tab titles and URLs, select one, display next to current desktop window
bindsym $mod+Shift+u exec ~/.local/bin/browser_tab add

# get current buffers from emacs, select one, display at current desktop window
bindsym $mod+b exec ~/.local/bin/emacs_buffers swap

# get current buffers from emacs, select one, display next to current desktop window
bindsym $mod+Shift+b exec ~/.local/bin/emacs_buffers add

# get recentf list from emacs, select one, display at current desktop window
bindsym $mod+r exec ~/.local/bin/emacs_recentf swap

# get recentf list from emacs, select one, display next to current desktop window
bindsym $mod+Shift+r exec ~/.local/bin/emacs_recentf add

Note for sway: An alternative to wm_window_switch is to use swayr command 'swap-focused-with', see https://sr.ht/~tsdh/swayr

Requirements to get info from the nyxt browser

i3-sway-switch-window currently uses emacsclient and emacs server to communicate with nyxt. This is a stopgap measure until a simpler means of getting info from nyxt, has been implemented.

browser_tab will attempt to get info from nyxt, only if nyxt is running. The check for a running nyxt is done using python package psutil.

emacs currently uses a modified version of https://github.com/ag91/emacs-with-nyxt to communicate with nyxt, as the version in the ag91 repo seems to be for an older version of nyxt (the elisp file is dated 230327). You can find the modified version of 'emacs-with-nyxt.el' here: emacs-with-nyxt.el A few functions have been commented out, and the require for 'sly' has been uncommented.

In my emacs config I have the following code to load 'emacs-with-nyxt.el':

(defun load-emacs-with-nyxt ()
  (interactive)
  (load "/home/someuser/.config/doom/emacs-with-nyxt.el"))

You need to add this (with the correct file path), to your emacs config, if you do not load 'emacs-with-nyxt.el' at start of emacs.

Nyxt must also be configured to start a 'slynk' server. To do this add the line:

(start-slynk)

to your nyxt config.

Developer info

To build the package:

• Download the repo. E.g. git clone https://github.com/johanwiden/i3-sway-switch-window.git
• Create a virtual environment, for development. E.g. with conda
  • conda create --name i3env
  • conda activate i3env
  • conda install -c anaconda pip
  • pip install i3ipc This is a package dependency
  • pip install psutil This is a package dependency
  • pip install pyyaml This is a package dependency
  • pip install build This is the tool to build the package.
• Change directory to the downloaded repo
• python3 -m build This should build the package, the result is stored in subdirectory 'dist'

Running the applications

One can execute the entry points directly in the development environment, from the repo directory, without installing the package:

• python3 -c "import i3_sway_switch_window.main; import sys; sys.argv = [sys.argv[0]] + ['swap']; i3_sway_switch_window.main.cli_browser_tab()"
• python3 -c "import i3_sway_switch_window.main; import sys; sys.argv = [sys.argv[0]] + ['--browser','google-chrome','add']; i3_sway_switch_window.main.cli_browser_tab()"
• python3 -c "import i3_sway_switch_window.main; import sys; sys.argv = [sys.argv[0]] + ['--config','foo']; i3_sway_switch_window.main.cli_browser_tab()"
• python3 -c "import i3_sway_switch_window.main; import sys; sys.argv = [sys.argv[0]] + ['--version']; i3_sway_switch_window.main.cli_browser_tab()"

To test installation of the package:

• From outside the virtual environment, or in a different virtual environment:
  • Install pipx, if it is not already installed.
  • pipx ensurepath Ensure directories necessary for pipx operation are in your PATH environment variable.
  • pipx install --force PATH-TO-REPO/dist/i3_sway_switch_window-0.1.0.tar.gz
  • One should now be able to execute the apps. They are usually stored in ~/.local/bin.

📈 Releases

You can see the list of available releases on the GitHub Releases page.

We follow Semantic Versions specification.

We use Release Drafter. As pull requests are merged, a draft release is kept up-to-date listing the changes, ready to publish when you’re ready. With the categories option, you can categorize pull requests in release notes using labels.

List of labels and corresponding titles

Label	Title in Releases
enhancement, feature	🚀 Features
bug, refactoring, bugfix, fix	🔧 Fixes & Refactoring
build, ci, testing	📦 Build System & CI/CD
breaking	💥 Breaking Changes
documentation	📝 Documentation
dependencies	⬆️ Dependencies updates

You can update it in release-drafter.yml.

GitHub creates the bug, enhancement, and documentation labels for you. Dependabot creates the dependencies label. Create the remaining labels on the Issues tab of your GitHub repository, when you need them.

🛡 License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT license. See LICENSE for more details.

📃 Citation

@misc{i3-sway-switch-window,
  author = {Johan Widén},
  title = {In i3wm replace current window with emacs buffer, emacs recentf file, or browser tab},
  year = {2023},
  publisher = {GitHub},
  journal = {GitHub repository},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/johanwiden/i3-sway-switch-window}}
}