Background
https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/WI-39812
Something in the application is causing a window or entry to temporarily appear on the task bar (or "Window list" in my panel).
The maintainers asked if I can track the process id or anything, to narrow down what is creating the window.
The taskbar entry only appears temporarily, and usually only as long as the main application has focus. I can hover the entry for a preview image, and right-click it for maximize/minimize, but so far this has not resulted in better understanding where it is coming from.
Linux Mint 18.1 Serena Cinnamon 64-bit
Question
Is there a log file or a monitoring tool in Cinnamon, that provides information about windows opening and closing, or windows currently active, and the originating process?
I assume there is a 1:1 relationship between windows and entries in the task bar. Please correct me if this is not the case. In this case, I am more interested in task bar entries than windows.
Resolution
This section is not part of the question! It just fits better here than in a comment!
The accepted answer by mviereck was helpful.
Here is my version of the commands:
mkdir ~/troubleshooting; cd ~/troubleshooting
sleep 10; wmctrl -lp > list1; xwininfo -root -children -tree > tree1
# Focus on phpstorm, do NOT make the strange window appear.
# Wait long enough!
sleep 10; wmctrl -lp > list2; xwininfo -root -children -tree > tree2
# Focus on phpstorm, do something to let the strange window appear.
# Wait long enough!
diff -U30 list1 list2 > list.diff
diff -U30 tree1 tree2 > tree.diff
# Open in gedit for nice colors.
gedit list.diff tree.diff & disown
These are changes in tree.diff:
xwininfo: Window id: 0xf5 (the root window) (has no name)
Root window id: 0xf5 (the root window) (has no name)
Parent window id: 0x0 (none)
- 44 children:
+ 46 children:
+ 0x22004e9 "win13": ("sun-awt-X11-XWindowPeer" "jetbrains-phpstorm") 502x224+1209+354 +1209+354
0x4a0000c (has no name): () 1x1+-1+-1 +-1+-1
[..]
0x3c00001 "mintUpdate.py": ("mintUpdate.py" "") 10x10+10+10 +10+10
+ 0x22004fc "win15": ("sun-awt-X11-XWindowPeer" "jetbrains-phpstorm") 9x18+1696+355 +1696+355
0x1a0347e (has no name): () 1920x1053+0+0 +0+0
This means these two lines were added, but in different positions in tree.diff:
+ 0x22004e9 "win13": ("sun-awt-X11-XWindowPeer" "jetbrains-phpstorm") 502x224+1209+354 +1209+354
+ 0x22004fc "win15": ("sun-awt-X11-XWindowPeer" "jetbrains-phpstorm") 9x18+1696+355 +1696+355
This is the added line I found in list.diff:
+0x022004fc 0 7177 asus-mint-2017 win15
The label of the task bar entry was "win15", and the preview looked like "9x18" could be the dimensions.
The "win13" did not show up in the task bar.
I will report these findings in https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/WI-39812 and see what they say.
UPDATE after the comment by mviereck:
ps -f -p 7177
shows
USERNAME 7177 7113 8 09:52 ? 00:09:31 /home/USERNAME/phpstorm/jre64/bin/java -classpath /home/USERNAME/phpstorm/lib/bootstrap.jar:...
I am not sure if any private information is in there, so I don't paste the complete thing. But it seems to be the main phpstorm process.
list.diff
also shows pid7177
. You can get additional info withps -f -p 7177
to see the window creating process.