i3wm remember window floating mode

readme.md

When plugged in, this script remembers and restores window floating mode. So that if you don't want certain windows to go fullscreen (e.g. arandr, volume control, etc.) you can simply switch them into floating mode once and it will always start floating. You can of course do this in i3 config, but it's more hustle.

Install

1. pip install i3ipc

2. Add this to ~/.config/i3/config:

exec --no-startup-id ~/.config/i3/auto_floating.py

auto_floating.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os

from i3ipc import Connection
from i3ipc import Event

i3 = Connection()

os.system('touch ~/.config/i3/.auto_floating_windows')

def cacheKey(container):
    props = [
            container.window_class,
            container.window_instance,
            container.window_role,
            container.window_title,
            ]

    # Filter out None values
    props = [p for p in props if isinstance(p, str)]

    return '\t'.join(props)


def on_window_new(i3, e):
    key = cacheKey(e.container)

    if len(key) == 0:
        return

    with open(os.path.expanduser('~/.config/i3/.auto_floating_windows'), 'r') as f:
        if key in f.read():
            i3.command('[con_id=%s] floating enable' % e.container.id)


def on_window_floating(_, e):
    key = cacheKey(e.container)

    if len(key) == 0:
        return

    with open(os.path.expanduser('~/.config/i3/.auto_floating_windows'), 'r+') as f:
        lines = f.read().splitlines()

        if e.container.floating == 'user_on' and key not in lines:
            lines.append(key)

        if e.container.floating == 'user_off' and key in lines:
            lines.remove(key)

        f.seek(0)
        f.truncate()
        f.write("\n".join(lines))


i3.on(Event.WINDOW_FLOATING, on_window_floating)
i3.on(Event.WINDOW_NEW, on_window_new)

i3.main()