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@fbrinker
Last active November 21, 2023 00:33
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What would you like to do?
Swap i3 displays / workspaces between displays
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# requires jq
DISPLAY_CONFIG=($(i3-msg -t get_outputs | jq -r '.[]|"\(.name):\(.current_workspace)"'))
for ROW in "${DISPLAY_CONFIG[@]}"
do
IFS=':'
read -ra CONFIG <<< "${ROW}"
if [ "${CONFIG[0]}" != "null" ] && [ "${CONFIG[1]}" != "null" ]; then
echo "moving ${CONFIG[1]} right..."
i3-msg -- workspace --no-auto-back-and-forth "${CONFIG[1]}"
i3-msg -- move workspace to output right
fi
done
@FredericoFavaro
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FredericoFavaro commented Feb 19, 2022

Hi! I really try to use this script and with the alternatives here but i get always the same problem, just one screen actually swaps. I learn o lot throw your codes and because that i achieve a solution that works here.

#!/usr/bin/env zsh

# Dependencies: jq

# The default settings always focus on primary display. To change that to
# maintain focus on the screen/window focused after run this script just
# uncomment the two comment lines below (10 and 18).

DISPLAY_CONFIG=($(i3-msg -t get_outputs | jq -r '.[]|select(.active == true) |"\(.current_workspace)"'))
#ACTIVE_WS=($(i3-msg -t get_workspaces | jq -r '.[]|select(.focused == true) | "\(.name)"'))
for ROW in "${DISPLAY_CONFIG[@]}"
do
read -r CONFIG <<< "${ROW}"
    i3-msg -- workspace --no-auto-back-and-forth "${CONFIG}"
    i3-msg -- move workspace to output right
done
i3-msg -- output primary
#i3-msg -- workspace "${ACTIVE_WS}"

I try my best to make it simple. As the comments in code says, you can change the behavior of where the focus will be at the end. Take in consideration that will only work on dual monitor setup (or monitor + projector and so on).

@mark2185
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i3 v4.20.1 throws an error for this:

i3-msg -- output primary
ERROR: Your command: output primary
ERROR:               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ERROR: Expected one of these tokens: <end>, '[', 'move', 'exec', 'exit', 'restart', 'reload', 'shmlog', 'debuglog', 'border', 'layout', 'append_layout', 'workspace', 'focus', 'kill', 'open', 'fullscreen', 'sticky', 'split', 'floating', 'mark', 'unmark', 'resize', 'rename', 'nop', 'scratchpad', 'swap', 'title_format', 'title_window_icon', 'mode', 'bar', 'gaps'
[{"success":false,"parse_error":true,"error":"Expected one of these tokens: <end>, '[', 'move', 'exec', 'exit', 'restart', 'reload', 'shmlog', 'debuglog', 'border', 'layout', 'append_layout', 'workspace', 'focus', 'kill', 'open', 'fullscreen', 'sticky', 'split', 'floating', 'mark', 'unmark', 'resize', 'rename', 'nop', 'scratchpad', 'swap', 'title_format', 'title_window_icon', 'mode', 'bar', 'gaps'","input":"output primary","errorposition":"^^^^^^^^^^^^^^"}]

And I've found it's not needed at all, the i3-msg -- workspace "${ACTIVE_WS}" will switch to the output anyway.

But it also needs --no-auto-back-and-forth in order to work as expected.

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