How to create a launcher in XFce4 that does not open items twice?

Question

I have a custom launcher that opens a command such as:

leafpad ~/file1.txt

That opens a specific file that I must work on quite often.

Is it possible to adjust the command so that it is aware if the file has already been open in Leafpad, so by pressing it a second time, it just switches to that file and application, instead of opening a new instance?

Answer 1

You can install wmctrl to achieve this with the following command:

bash -c 'wmctrl -a file1.txt || leafpad ~/file1.txt'

The -a option switches to the window with the title containing file1.txt. However if the command fails, i.e. ||, then it will open your file.