Script to maximize an app when it starts

Question

I am aware that this question is duplicated:
How to set window size and location of an application on screen via command line?
Resizing a maximized window from the command line

I was able to solve my question with the first link. But I am struggling to learn Bash language and I would like to know what is going wrong with the following script:

#!/bin/bash

xfce4-settings-manager & sleep 0.1
xwininfo -name "xfce4-settings-manager" | grep xwininfo: | awk {'printf$4'}
wmctrl -i -r $1 -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz &

After running the script I check "xwininfo" takes another ID Value of the app. I don't understand why. Can someone give me a hand with this issue?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The tool you're looking for is Devil's Pie (either version 1 and version 2, note that they use completely different configuration languages). There are a number of examples on this site, e.g. 1 2 3 4.

The problem with your script has already been identified by Jeff Schaller in a comment: the line that extracts the output from xwininfo doesn't plug into the line that calls wmctrl. To use the output of a command in a script, use a command substitution.

windowid=$(xwininfo -name "xfce4-settings-manager" | awk '$1 == "xwininfo:" {printf $4}')
wmctrl -i -r "$windowid" -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz &

I used an intermediate variable to keep the line from becoming unreadably long, but you can do it all inline:

wmctrl -i -r "$(xwininfo -name "xfce4-settings-manager" | awk '$1 == "xwininfo:" {printf $4}')" -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz &

I also combined the grep and awk invocations, I find it simpler to use a single tool here.

You don't need to use xwininfo to find the window ID: wmctrl can do it, just pass it the window name.

wmctrl -r "xfce4-settings-manager" -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz &

Answer 2

Since you want:

the result of the second line is retrieved by $1 of the third line

you could:

#!/bin/bash

xfce4-settings-manager & sleep 0.1
wid=$(xwininfo -name "xfce4-settings-manager" | grep xwininfo: | awk {'printf$4'})
wmctrl -i -r "$wid" -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz &

though if I could suggest another version (untested, as I'm not in front of an X display):

#!/bin/bash

xfce4-settings-manager & 
while ! pgrep xfce4-settings-manager > /dev/null
do
  :
done
wid=$(xwininfo -name "xfce4-settings-manager" | awk '/xwininfo:/ { print $4 }')
wmctrl -i -r "$wid" -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz

Changes:

• I'm not sure that wmctrl has to be put in the background, so I removed that &
• I combined the awk and grep, because awk can "grep"
• I changed the sleep 0.1, which assumes that xfce4-settings-manager starts in that amount of time, into a loop that asks pgrep to look for the process instead

Answer 3

Thanks for replying. I tried to do what @Gilles and @Jeff explained on the above comments, but the script does not work. It has the same problem that I mentioned in my first message.

Let me explain what is happening (line by line):

1. The script starts "xfce4-settings-manager"

   USER@PC:~$ xfce4-settings-manager & sleep 0.1 ;

[3] 9825

2. It requires the value of the "xfce4-settings-manager" window. In this example, I only want the output result. In the script I wrote it as Gilles and Jeff told me.

   USER@PC:~$ xwininfo -name "xfce4-settings-manager" | awk '$1 == "xwininfo:" {printf $4}' 0x5400001

3. I include the window value in the last command (0x5400001), but the window does not maximize.

   USER@PC:~$ wmctrl -i -r 0x5400001 -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz

[4] 9852

4. I run "xwininfo" command and select the "xfce4-settings-manager" window and this is its result:

   USER@PC:~$ xwininfo

xwininfo: Please select the window about which you would like information by clicking the mouse in that window.

xwininfo: Window id: 0x5800003 "Settings"

Absolute upper-left X: 343

Absolute upper-left Y: 286

Relative upper-left X: 5

Relative upper-left Y: 19

Width: 680

Height: 195

Depth: 24

Visual: 0x20

Visual Class: TrueColor

Border width: 0

Class: InputOutput

Colormap: 0x22 (installed)

Bit Gravity State: NorthWestGravity

Window Gravity State: NorthWestGravity

Backing Store State: NotUseful

Save Under State: no

Map State: IsViewable

Override Redirect State: no

Corners: +343+286 -343+286 -343-287 +343-287

-geometry 680x195+338+267

[2] Done xfce4-settings-manager

[4]+ Done wmctrl -i -r 0x5400001 -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz

The window value of "xfce4-settings-manager" is different depending of retrieving the value from the command line or from selecting the window with the cursor (0x5400001 & 0x5800003).

Any ideas?

Answer 4

evince has window titles equal to the PDF file titles, and no word evince in it... so another aproach to try is to wait for a while (sleep 0.4 for evince was enough), and then just maximize the last window in the wmctrl -l list (i.e., last added window) like this:

evince file.pdf & sleep 0.4; wmctrl -i -r "$(wmctrl -l | tail -1 | fgrep -o '^\S+')" -b add,maximized_vert,maximized_horz

This works with ANY app, though you must be sure that you have waited enough for it to be brought up to wmctrl