XMonad.Actions.WindowGo

Defines a few convenient operations for raising (traveling to) windows based on XMonad's Query monad, such as runOrRaise. runOrRaise will run a shell command unless it can find a specified window; you would use this to automatically travel to your Firefox or Emacs session, or start a new one (for example), instead of trying to remember where you left it or whether you still have one running.

Usage

Import the module into your ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs:

import XMonad.Actions.WindowGo

and define appropriate key bindings:

, ((modm .|. shiftMask, xK_g), raise (className =? "Firefox"))
, ((modm .|. shiftMask, xK_b), runOrRaise "firefox" (className =? "Firefox"))

(Note that Firefox v3 and up have a class-name of "Firefox" and "Navigator"; lower versions use other classnames such as "Firefox-bin". Either choose the appropriate one, or cover your bases by using instead something like:

(className =? "Firefox" <||> className =? "Firefox-bin")

For detailed instructions on editing your key bindings, see XMonad.Doc.Extending.

raise :: Query Bool -> X ()

See raiseMaybe. If the Window can't be found, quietly give up and do nothing.

raiseNext :: Query Bool -> X ()

See raise and raiseNextMaybe. Version that allows cycling through matches.

runOrRaise :: String -> Query Bool -> X ()

action is an executable to be run via safeSpawnProg (of XMonad.Util.Run) if the Window cannot be found. Presumably this executable is the same one that you were looking for. Note that this does not go through the shell. If you wish to run an arbitrary IO action (such as spawn, which will run its String argument through the shell), then you will want to use raiseMaybe directly.

runOrRaiseNext :: String -> Query Bool -> X ()

See runOrRaise and raiseNextMaybe. Version that allows cycling through matches.

raiseMaybe :: X () -> Query Bool -> X ()

raiseMaybe queries all Windows based on a boolean provided by the user. Currently, there are 3 such useful booleans defined in XMonad.ManageHook: title, resource, className. Each one tests based pretty much as you would think. ManageHook also defines several operators, the most useful of which is (=?). So a useful test might be finding a Window whose class is Firefox. Firefox 3 declares the class "Firefox", so you'd want to pass in a boolean like (className =? "Firefox").

If the boolean returns True on one or more windows, then XMonad will quickly make visible the first result. If no Window meets the criteria, then the first argument comes into play.

The first argument is an arbitrary IO function which will be executed if the tests fail. This is what enables runOrRaise to use raiseMaybe: it simply runs the desired program if it isn't found. But you don't have to do that. Maybe you want to do nothing if the search fails (the definition of raise), or maybe you want to write to a log file, or call some prompt function, or something crazy like that. This hook gives you that flexibility. You can do some cute things with this hook. Suppose you want to do the same thing for Mutt which you just did for Firefox - but Mutt runs inside a terminal window? No problem: you search for a terminal window calling itself "mutt", and if there isn't you run a terminal with a command to run Mutt! Here's an example (borrowing runInTerm from XMonad.Util.Run):

, ((modm, xK_m), raiseMaybe (runInTerm "-title mutt" "mutt") (title =? "mutt"))

raiseNextMaybe :: X () -> Query Bool -> X ()

See raiseMaybe. raiseNextMaybe is an alternative version that allows cycling through the matching windows. If the focused window matches the query the next matching window is raised. If no matches are found the function f is executed.

raiseNextMaybeCustomFocus :: (Window -> WindowSet -> WindowSet) -> X () -> Query Bool -> X ()

See raiseMaybe and raiseNextMaybe. In addition to all of the options offered by raiseNextMaybe raiseNextMaybeCustomFocus allows the user to supply the function that should be used to shift the focus to any window that is found.

raiseBrowser :: X ()

raiseBrowser and raiseEditor grab $BROWSER and $EDITOR respectively and they either take you to the specified program's window, or they try to run it. This is most useful if your variables are simple and look like "firefox" or "emacs".

raiseEditor :: X ()

raiseBrowser and raiseEditor grab $BROWSER and $EDITOR respectively and they either take you to the specified program's window, or they try to run it. This is most useful if your variables are simple and look like "firefox" or "emacs".

runOrRaiseAndDo :: String -> Query Bool -> (Window -> X ()) -> X ()

If a window matching the second argument is found, the window is focused and the third argument is called; otherwise, the first argument is called.

runOrRaiseMaster :: String -> Query Bool -> X ()

If the window is found the window is focused and set to master otherwise, action is run.

runOrRaiseMaster "firefox" (className =? "Firefox")) 

raiseAndDo :: X () -> Query Bool -> (Window -> X ()) -> X ()

If the window is found the window is focused and the third argument is called otherwise, the first argument is called See raiseMaster for an example.

raiseMaster :: X () -> Query Bool -> X ()

if the window is found the window is focused and set to master otherwise, the first argument is called.

raiseMaster (runInTerm "-title ghci"  "zsh -c 'ghci'") (title =? "ghci") 

ifWindows :: Query Bool -> ([Window] -> X ()) -> X () -> X ()

If windows that satisfy the query exist, apply the supplied function to them, otherwise run the action given as second parameter.

ifWindow :: Query Bool -> ManageHook -> X () -> X ()

The same as ifWindows, but applies a ManageHook to the first match instead and discards the other matches

raiseHook :: ManageHook

A manage hook that raises the window.