FvwmCommand lets you monitor fvwm transaction and issue fvwm command from a shell command line or scripts. FvwmCommand takes each argument as a fvwm command. Quotes can be used to send commands including spaces.
FvwmCommand 'FvwmPager 0 1'
From within .fvwm2rc file:
Module FvwmCommandS
or
AddToFunc StartFunction "I" Module FvwmCommandS
Then, in script file or from shell:
FvwmCommand 'popup Utilities'
(echo "Exec xload"; echo "Beep") | FvwmCommand -c
FvwmCommand -i0 FvwmBanner
will show a banner without any output. On the other hand,
FvwmCommand -i 0 foobar
will return,
[fvwm][executeModule]: <<ERROR>> No such module 'foobar' in ModulePath '/usr/lib/X11/fvwm'
Note that Fvwm doesn't return any error messages in cases like below since 'windowid' itself is a valid command.
FvwmCommand -i 0 'windowid foo bar'
FvwmCommand send_windowlist
Information like below will show up.
0x02000014 window FvwmConsole 0x02000014 icon FvwmConsole 0x02000014 class XTerm 0x02000014 resource FvwmConsole 0x01c00014 window console 0x01c00014 icon console 0x01c00014 class XTerm 0x01c00014 resource console 0x01000003 window Fvwm Pager 0x01000003 icon 0x01000003 class FvwmModule 0x01000003 resource FvwmPager 0x00c0002c window emacs: FvwmCommand.man 0x00c0002c icon FvwmCommand.man 0x00c0002c icon file xemacs.xpm 0x00c0002c class Emacs 0x00c0002c resource emacs end windowlist
The first column shows the window ID number, which can be used in 'windowid' command. The second column shows the information types. The last column shows the information contents. If no information is returned, add -w <time> or -r option. This might be needed in heavily loaded systems.
FvwmCommand -i2 'FvwmPager 0 1'
The below is its output.
0x03c00003 frame x 962, y 743, width 187, height 114 0x03c00003 desktop 0 0x03c00003 StartIconic no 0x03c00003 OnTop yes 0x03c00003 Sticky yes 0x03c00003 WindowListSkip yes 0x03c00003 SuppressIcon no 0x03c00003 NoiconTitle no 0x03c00003 Lenience no 0x03c00003 StickyIcon no 0x03c00003 CirculateSkipIcon no 0x03c00003 CirculateSkip no 0x03c00003 ClickToFocus no 0x03c00003 SloppyFocus no 0x03c00003 SkipMapping no 0x03c00003 Handles no 0x03c00003 Title no 0x03c00003 Mapped no 0x03c00003 Iconified no 0x03c00003 Transient no 0x03c00003 Raised no 0x03c00003 Visible no 0x03c00003 IconOurs no 0x03c00003 PixmapOurs no 0x03c00003 ShapedIcon no 0x03c00003 Maximized no 0x03c00003 WmTakeFocus no 0x03c00003 WmDeleteWindow yes 0x03c00003 IconMoved no 0x03c00003 IconUnmapped no 0x03c00003 MapPending no 0x03c00003 HintOverride yes 0x03c00003 MWMButtons no 0x03c00003 MWMBorders no 0x03c00003 title height 0 0x03c00003 border width 4 0x03c00003 base size width 8, height 7 0x03c00003 size increment width 9, height 9 0x03c00003 min size width 8, height 7 0x03c00003 max size width 32767, height 32767 0x03c00003 gravity SouthEast 0x03c00003 pixel text 0xffffff, back 0x7f7f7f 0x03c00003 window Fvwm Pager 0x03c00003 icon Fvwm Pager 0x03c00003 class FvwmModule 0x03c00003 resource FvwmPager
FvwmCommand -i3 'Killmodule Fvwm*'
This will report which windows are closed.
0x03400003 destroy 0x02400002 destroy
FvwmCommand -mi3 | grep 'iconify'
It will report when windows are iconified or de-iconified.
Note: FvwmCommand does not block buffer its output but many utilities such as grep or sed use block buffer. The output of the next example will not show up until either FvwmCommand is terminated or stdout buffer from grep is filled.
FvwmCommand -mi3 | grep ' map' | sed 's/\(0x[0-9a-f]*\).*/windowid \1 move 0 0/'
Instead, use tools with buffer control such as pty or perl. The below will iconify new windows when opened.
Fvwm -mi3 | perl -ne ' $|=1; print "windowid $1 iconify\n" if /^(0x\S+) add/; ' > ~/.FvwmCommandC
If the <name> is a relative path name, that is relative from where fvwm is running, not from where FvwmCommand is invoked.
FvwmCommand.sh has bourne shell function definitions to keep the syntax similar to fvwm configuration file. This file is to be sourced:
. FvwmCommand.sh
DesktopSize 5x5
FvwmCommand.pm is for perl in order
to keep the syntax similar to fvwm configuration file.
Commas can be used to separate fvwm commands' arguments.
use FvwmCommand;
if( $ARGV[0] eq 'home' ) {
Desk 0,0; GotoPage '1 1';
}elsif( $ARGV[0] eq 'jump' ) {
Desk "0 2"; GotoPage 0, 1;
}
Although arguments in FvwmCommand are not case sensitive as fvwm, the functions defined in FvwmCommand.sh and FvwmCommand.pl are case sensitive.
FvwmCommand error in opening message fifo --No such file or directory--
Fvwm modules don't return error messages to fvwm but output on stderr. These error messages will not be shown as FvwmCommand messages.
FvwmCommand is an interface to send commands to and receive information from Fvwm2 from processes which are not Fvwm modules.
Above examples are not meant to be practical but to show how it can
be done.
focus-link.pl
This is a user programmable window focus script.
Default behavior is:
1. When a window is opened up, focus the window and move the pointer
to it. The parent window regains focus when a window is closed.
Parenthood is determined when a window is opened. It is the last
focused window with the same X class.
2. #1 would not occur to AcroRead opening window.
3. #1 would not occur when SkipMapping is set and the window is the
only window of its class.
4. For Netscape find dialog window, addition to #1, resize the window
to 300x150 pixels and move it to East edge of the screen.
Download/upload windows will not be focused nor be in focus link
list.
5. Move appletviewer to NorthWest corner.
6. Xterm won't focus back to its parent after closed.
7. When a window is de-iconified, focus it and move the pointer.
focus-Netscape.pl
Focuses pop-up windows, such as 'open URL' or 'find' whenever
opened up. This let the user to type in immediately without
moving mouse. This script also moves 'download' window to the
right edge to keep it visible. If this is invoked from
.fvwm2rc, use as:
AddToFunc "StartFunction" "I" Module FvwmCommandS
+ "I" Exec $HOME/scripts/focus-Netscape.pl
push-away.pl <direction> <window name>
Pushes windows away to avoid overlapping. use as:
push-away.pl up 'Fvwm Pager'