XMonad.Util.NamedScratchpad

Named scratchpads that support several arbitrary applications at the same time.

Usage

Allows to have several floating scratchpads running different applications. Bind a key to namedScratchpadAction. Pressing it will spawn configured application, or bring it to the current workspace if it already exists. Pressing the key with the application on the current workspace will send it to a hidden workspace called NSP.

If you already have a workspace called NSP, it will use that. NSP will also appear in xmobar and dzen status bars. You can tweak your dynamicLog settings to filter it out if you like.

Create named scratchpads configuration in your xmonad.hs like this:

import XMonad.StackSet as W
import XMonad.ManageHook
import XMonad.Util.NamedScratchpad

scratchpads = [
-- run htop in xterm, find it by title, use default floating window placement
    NS "htop" "xterm -e htop" (title =? "htop") defaultFloating ,

-- run stardict, find it by class name, place it in the floating window
-- 1/6 of screen width from the left, 1/6 of screen height
-- from the top, 2/3 of screen width by 2/3 of screen height
    NS "stardict" "stardict" (className =? "Stardict")
        (customFloating $ W.RationalRect (1/6) (1/6) (2/3) (2/3)) ,

-- run gvim, find by role, don't float
    NS "notes" "gvim --role notes ~/notes.txt" (role =? "notes") nonFloating
] where role = stringProperty "WM_WINDOW_ROLE"

Add keybindings:

 , ((modm .|. controlMask .|. shiftMask, xK_t), namedScratchpadAction scratchpads "htop")
 , ((modm .|. controlMask .|. shiftMask, xK_s), namedScratchpadAction scratchpads "stardict")
 , ((modm .|. controlMask .|. shiftMask, xK_n), namedScratchpadAction scratchpads "notes")

... and a manage hook:

 , manageHook = namedScratchpadManageHook scratchpads

For detailed instruction on editing the key binding see the tutorial

For some applications (like displaying your workspaces in a status bar) it is convenient to filter out the NSP workspace when looking at all workspaces. For this, you can use filterOutWsPP, or filterOutWs together with addEwmhWorkspaceSort if your status bar gets the list of workspaces from EWMH. See the documentation of these functions for examples.

If you want to explore this module further, scratchpads can come in many forms and flavours:

+ "Regular" scratchpads: they can be predefined and summoned/banished with a key press. These are the scratchpads that you have seen above.

+ Dynamic scratchpads, which allow you to dynamically declare existing windows as scratchpads. These can be treated as a separate type of scratchpad.

+ Exclusive scratchpads, which can be seen as a property of already existing scratchpads. Marking scratchpads as exclusive will not allow them to be shown on the same workspace; the scratchpad being brought up will hide the others.

See the relevant sections in the documentation for more information.

Further, there is also a logHook that you can use to hide scratchpads when they lose focus; this is functionality akin to what some dropdown terminals provide. See the documentation of nsHideOnFocusLoss for an example how to set this up.

data NamedScratchpad

Single named scratchpad configuration

Constructors

NS

Fields

• name :: String

  Scratchpad name

• cmd :: String

  Command used to run application

• query :: Query Bool

  Query to find already running application

• hook :: ManageHook

  Manage hook called for application window, use it to define the placement. See nonFloating, defaultFloating and customFloating

scratchpadWorkspaceTag :: String

Tag of the scratchpad workspace

nonFloating :: ManageHook

Manage hook that makes the window non-floating

defaultFloating :: ManageHook

Manage hook that makes the window floating with the default placement

customFloating :: RationalRect -> ManageHook

Manage hook that makes the window floating with custom placement

type NamedScratchpads = [NamedScratchpad]

Named scratchpads configuration

namedScratchpadAction

Arguments

:: NamedScratchpads

Named scratchpads configuration

-> String

Scratchpad name

-> X ()

Action to pop up specified named scratchpad

Note [Ignored Arguments]: Most of the time, this function ignores its first argument and uses NSPState instead. The only time when it does not is when no other window has been opened before in the running xmonad instance. If this is not your use-case, you can safely call this function with an empty list.

spawnHereNamedScratchpadAction

Arguments

:: NamedScratchpads

Named scratchpads configuration

-> String

Scratchpad name

-> X ()

Action to pop up specified named scratchpad, initially starting it on the current workspace.

This function almost always ignores its first argument; see Note [Ignored Arguments] for namedScratchpadAction.

customRunNamedScratchpadAction

Arguments

:: (NamedScratchpad -> X ())

Function initially running the application, given the configured scratchpad cmd

-> NamedScratchpads

Named scratchpads configuration

-> String

Scratchpad name

-> X ()

Action to pop up specified named scratchpad, given a custom way to initially start the application.

This function almost always ignores its second argument; see Note [Ignored Arguments] for namedScratchpadAction.

allNamedScratchpadAction :: NamedScratchpads -> String -> X ()

Like namedScratchpadAction, but execute the action for all scratchpads that match the query.

This function almost always ignores its first argument; see Note [Ignored Arguments] for namedScratchpadAction.

namedScratchpadManageHook

Arguments

:: NamedScratchpads

Named scratchpads configuration

-> ManageHook

Manage hook to use with named scratchpads

nsHideOnFocusLoss :: NamedScratchpads -> X ()

A logHook to hide scratchpads when they lose focus. This can be useful for e.g. dropdown terminals. Note that this also requires you to use the refocusLastLogHook.

Example

import XMonad.Hooks.RefocusLast (refocusLastLogHook)
import XMonad.Util.NamedScratchpad

main = xmonad $ def
  { logHook = refocusLastLogHook
           >> nsHideOnFocusLoss myScratchpads
              -- enable hiding for all of @myScratchpads@
  }

nsSingleScratchpadPerWorkspace :: NamedScratchpads -> X ()

A logHook to have only one active scratchpad on a workspace. This can be useful when working with multiple floating scratchpads which would otherwise be stacked. Note that this also requires you to use the refocusLastLogHook.

Example

import XMonad.Hooks.RefocusLast (refocusLastLogHook)
import XMonad.Util.NamedScratchpad

main = xmonad $ def
  { logHook = refocusLastLogHook
           >> nsHideOnNewScratchpad myScratchpads
              -- enable hiding for all of @myScratchpads@
  }

Dynamic Scratchpads

Dynamic scratchpads allow you to declare existing windows as scratchpads. You can bind a key to make a window start/stop being a scratchpad, and another key to toggle its visibility. Because dynamic scratchpads are based on existing windows, they have some caveats in comparison to "normal" scratchpads:

• xmonad has no way of knowing how windows were spawned and thus one is not able to "start" dynamic scratchpads again after the associated window has been closed.
• If you already have an active dynamic scratchpad "dyn1" and you call toggleDynamicNSP with another window, that window will henceforth occupy the "dyn1" scratchpad. If you still need the old window, you might have to travel to your scratchpad workspace (scratchpadWorkspaceTag) in order to retrieve it.

As an example, the following snippet contains keybindings for two dynamic scratchpads, called "dyn1" and "dyn2":

import XMonad.Util.NamedScratchpads

, ("M-s-a", withFocused $ toggleDynamicNSP "dyn1")
, ("M-s-b", withFocused $ toggleDynamicNSP "dyn2")
, ("M-a"  , dynamicNSPAction "dyn1")
, ("M-b"  , dynamicNSPAction "dyn2")

dynamicNSPAction :: String -> X ()

Toggle the visibility of a dynamic scratchpad.

toggleDynamicNSP :: String -> Window -> X ()

Either create a dynamic scratchpad out of the given window, or stop a window from being one if it already is.

Exclusive Scratchpads

Exclusive scratchpads allow you to hide certain scratchpads in relation to others. There can be multiple groups of pairwise exclusive scratchpads; whenever one such scratchpad gets called, it will hide all other scratchpads on the focused workspace that are in this group.

For example, having defined Calc, Mail, and Term scratchpads, you can use addExclusives to make some of them dislike each other:

myExclusives = addExclusives
  [ ["Calc", "Mail"]
  , ["Mail", "Term"]
  ]

You now have to add myExclusives to you startupHook:

main :: IO
main = xmonad . … . $ def
  { …
  , startupHook = myStartupHook >> myExclusives
  }

This will hide the Mail scratchpad whenever the Calc scratchpad is brought up, and vice-versa. Likewise, Mail and Term behave in this way, but Calc and Term may peacefully coexist.

If you move a scratchpad it still gets hidden when you fetch a scratchpad of the same family. To change that behaviour—and make windows not exclusive anymore when they get resized or moved—add these mouse bindings (see XMonad.Doc.Extending):

    , ((mod4Mask, button1), floatMoveNoexclusive)
    , ((mod4Mask, button3), resizeNoexclusive)

To reset a moved scratchpad to the original position that you set with its hook, focus is and then call resetFocusedNSP. For example, if you want to extend M-<Return> to reset the placement when a scratchpad is in focus but keep the default behaviour for tiled windows, set these key bindings:

, ((modMask, xK_Return), windows W.swapMaster >> resetFocusedNSP)

addExclusives :: [[String]] -> X ()

Make some scratchpads exclusive.

Keyboard related

resetFocusedNSP :: X ()

If the focused window is a scratchpad, the scratchpad gets reset to the original placement specified with the hook and becomes exclusive again.

Mouse related

setNoexclusive :: Window -> X ()

setNoexclusive w makes the window w lose its exclusivity features.

resizeNoexclusive

Arguments

:: Window

Window which should be resized

-> X ()

Resize window and make it lose its exclusivity status in the process.

floatMoveNoexclusive

Arguments

:: Window

Window which should be moved

-> X ()

Float and drag the window; make it lose its exclusivity status in the process.

Deprecations

namedScratchpadFilterOutWorkspace :: [WindowSpace] -> [WindowSpace]

Deprecated: Use XMonad.Util.WorkspaceCompare.filterOutWs [scratchpadWorkspaceTag] instead

Transforms a workspace list containing the NSP workspace into one that doesn't contain it. Intended for use with logHooks.

namedScratchpadFilterOutWorkspacePP :: PP -> PP

Deprecated: Use XMonad.Hooks.StatusBar.PP.filterOutWsPP [scratchpadWorkspaceTag] instead

Transforms a pretty-printer into one not displaying the NSP workspace.

A simple use could be:

logHook = dynamicLogWithPP . namedScratchpadFilterOutWorkspace $ def

Here is another example, when using XMonad.Layout.IndependentScreens. If you have handles hLeft and hRight for bars on the left and right screens, respectively, and pp is a pretty-printer function that takes a handle, you could write

logHook = let log screen handle = dynamicLogWithPP . namedScratchpadFilterOutWorkspacePP . marshallPP screen . pp $ handle
          in log 0 hLeft >> log 1 hRight