Provided by: wmctrl_1.07-7_amd64 
NAME
wmctrl - interact with a EWMH/NetWM compatible X Window Manager.
SYNOPSIS
wmctrl [ options | actions ]...
DESCRIPTION
wmctrl is a command that can be used to interact with an X Window manager that is compatible with the
EWMH/NetWM specification. wmctrl can query the window manager for information, and it can request that
certain window management actions be taken.
wmctrl is controlled entirely by its command line arguments. The command line arguments are used to
specify the action to be performed (with options that modify behavior) and any arguments that might be
needed to perform the actions.
The following sections define the supported actions and options. Arguments to the actions and options are
written in the form <ARGNAME> in the descriptions below. The detailed syntax for writing arguments are in
a single section dedicated to that purpose.
ACTIONS
The following command line arguments can be specified to invoke a wmctrl action. Only one action can be
executed with the invocation of the wmctrl command.
-a <WIN>
Switch to the desktop containing the window <WIN>, raise the window, and give it focus.
-b ( add | remove | toggle),prop1 [,prop2 ]
Add, remove, or toggle up to two window properties simultaneously. The window that is being
modified must be identified with a -r action. The property change is achived by using the EWMH
_NET_WM_STATE request. The supported property names (for prop1 and prop2) are modal, sticky,
maximized_vert, maximized_horz, shaded, skip_taskbar, skip_pager, hidden, fullscreen, above and
below. Two properties are supported to allow operations like maximizing a window to full screen
mode. Note that this action is made up of exactly two shell command line arguments.
-c <WIN>
Close the window <WIN> gracefully.
-d List all desktops managed by the window manager. One line is output for each desktop, with the
line broken up into space separated columns. The first column contains an integer desktop number.
The second column contains a '*' character for the current desktop, otherwise it contains a '-'
character. The next two columns contain the fixed string DG: and then the desktop geometry as
'<width>x<height>' (e.g. '1280x1024'). The following two columns contain the fixed string VP: and
then the viewport position in the format '<y>,<y>' (e.g. '0,0'). The next three columns after this
contains the fixed string WA: and then two columns with the workarea geometry as 'X,Y and WxH'
(e.g. '0,0 1280x998'). The rest of the line contains the name of the desktop (possibly containing
multiple spaces).
-e <MVARG>
Resize and move a window that has been specified with a -r action according to the <MVARG>
argument.
-g w,h Change the geometry (common size) of all desktops so they are w pixels wide and h pixels high. w
and h must be positive integers. A window manager may ignore this request.
-h Print help text about program usage.
-I name
Set the icon name (short title) of the window specified by a -r action to name.
-k ( on | off )
Turn on or off the window manager's "show the desktop" mode (if the window manager implements this
feature).
-l List the windows being managed by the window manager. One line is output for each window, with the
line broken up into space separated columns. The first column always contains the window identity
as a hexadecimal integer, and the second column always contains the desktop number (a -1 is used
to identify a sticky window). If the -p option is specified the next column will contain the PID
for the window as a decimal integer. If the -G option is specified then four integer columns will
follow: x-offset, y-offset, width and height. The next column always contains the client machine
name. The remainder of the line contains the window title (possibly with multiple spaces in the
title).
-m Display information about the window manager and the environment.
-n N Change the number of desktops to N (a non-negative integer).
-N name
Set the name (long title) of the window specified by a -r action to name.
-o x,y Change the viewport for the current desktop. The values x and y are numeric offsets that specify
the position of the top left corner of the viewport. A window manager may ignore this request.
-r <WIN>
Specify a target window for an action.
-R <WIN>
Move the window <WIN> to the current desktop, raise the window, and give it focus.
-s <DESK>
Switch to the desktop <DESK>.
-t <DESK>
Move a window that has been specified with the -r action to the desktop <DESK>.
-T name
Set the both the name (long title) and icon name (short title) of the window specified by a -r
action to name. This action is like using the -N and -I actions at the same time (which would
otherwise be impossible since wmctrl can execute only one action at a time).
OPTIONS
The following options modify the default actions, or they modify the interpretation of arguments.
-F Window name arguments (<WIN>) are to be treated as exact window titles that are case sensitive.
Without this options window titles are considered to be case insensitive substrings of the full
window title.
-G Include geometry information in the output of the -l action.
-i Interpret window arguments (<WIN>) as a numeric value rather than a string name for the window. If
the numeric value starts with the prefix '0x' it is assumed to be a hexadecimal number.
-p Include PIDs in the window list printed by the -l action. Prints a PID of '0' if the application
owning the window does not support it.
-u Override auto-detection and force UTF-8 mode.
-v Provide verbose output. This is really useful when debugging wmctrl itself.
-w [ <WORKAROUND>[,<WORKAROUND>]... ]
Use workarounds specified in the argument.
-x Include WM_CLASS in the window list or interpret <WIN> as the WM_CLASS name.
ARGUMENTS
<DESK> A Desktop is always specified by an integer which represents the desktop numbers. Desktop numbers
start at 0.
<MVARG>
A move and resize argument has the format 'g,x,y,w,h'. All five components are integers. The
first value, g, is the gravity of the window, with 0 being the most common value (the default
value for the window). Please see the EWMH specification for other values.
The four remaining values are a standard geometry specification: x,y is the position of the top
left corner of the window, and w,h is the width and height of the window, with the exception that
the value of -1 in any position is interpreted to mean that the current geometry value should not
be modified.
<WIN> This argument specifies a window that is the target of an action. By default the argument is
treated as if were a string, and windows are examined until one is found with a title the contains
the specified string as a substring. The substring matching is done in a case insensitive manner.
The -F option may be used to force exact, case sensitive title matching. The option -i may be used
to interpret the window target as a numeric window identity instead of a string.
The window name string :SELECT: is treated specially. If this window name is used then wmctrl
waits for the user to select the target window by clicking on it.
The window name string :ACTIVE: may be used to instruct wmctrl to use the currently active window
for the action.
<WORKAROUND>
There is only one work around currently implemeted. It is specified by using the string
DESKTOP_TITLES_INVALID_UTF8 and it causes the printing of non-ASCII desktop tiles correctly when
using Window Maker.
EXAMPLES
Getting a list of windows managed by the window manager
wmctrl -l
Getting a list of windows with PID and geometry information.
wmctrl -p -G -l
Going to the window with a name containing 'emacs' in it
wmctrl -a emacs
Shade a window with a title that contains the word 'mozilla'
wmctrl -r mozilla -b add,shaded
Close a very specifically titled window sticky
wmctrl -F -c 'Debian bug tracking system - Mozilla'
Toggle the 'stickiness' of a window with a specific window identity
wmctrl -i -r 0x0120002 -b add,sticky
Change the title of window to a specified string but choose the window by clicking on it
wmctrl -r :SELECT: -T "Selected Window"
SEE ALSO
zenity(1) is a useful dialog program for building scripts with wmctrl. Some examples of EWMH/NetWM compatible window managers include recent versions of Enlightenment, Icewm, Kwin, Sawfish and Xfce.
AUTHOR
wmctrl was written by Tomas Styblo <tripie@cpan.org>. This manual page was written by Shyamal Prasad <shyamal@member.fsf.org> for the Debian project (but may be used by others). December 12, 2004 WMCTRL(1)