- run shell commands when a window receives or loses focus
- optional delay
- optional retry period for failed commands
I use it to prevent too many idling applications from surreptitiously stealing cpu cycles, but you may find it useful in other ways.
With node.js installed on the target X11 box:
$ npm install -g xawt # might need to prefix with sudo
$ xawt
You should see echo commands run whenever the window focus changes.
On its first run xawt copies the default configuration file to
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/xawt.conf which defaults to
$HOME/.config/xawt.conf. Edit this leanconf file with one or more rules:
/regex/:
in: action
out: action
-
regex: a unique JavaScript regular expression -
in:: (optional) action to perform when regex matches the title of a window receiving focus (activating). -
out:: (optional) action to perform when regex matches the title of a window losing focus (de-activating). -
action: either the shell command to run immediately, orcommand: shell-command delay: delay-secs retry: retry-secsdelay:: (optional) number of seconds to wait before running the shell command, as long as the window's focus remains unchanged. If not supplied, a value of 0 is used.retry:: (optional) number of seconds to wait before retrying a failed shell command. If not supplied, a failed command is never retried.
Commands can include parenthesised substring matches by the $ symbol where
$1 is the first submatch, $2 the second, etc.
# xawt.conf example configuration
# freeze Firefox (after 10 seconds) unless it has the focus
/- (Mozilla Firefox|Vimperator)$/:
in: pkill -CONT firefox
out:
command: pkill -STOP firefox
delay: 10
# unpause any virtualbox guest immediately on gaining focus
/^(\w+) \[Paused\] - Oracle VM VirtualBox$/:
in: vboxmanage controlvm $1 resume
# unconditionally pause virtualbox guest 30 seconds after losing focus
/^(HERBERT|SANDPIT) \[Running\] - Oracle VM VirtualBox$/:
out:
command: vboxmanage controlvm $1 pause
delay: 30
# pause virtualbox guest 60 seconds after losing focus unless vlc is running,
# in which case keep retrying every 90 seconds until vlc closes.
/^(SWEEP) \[Running\] - Oracle VM VirtualBox$/:
out:
command: (! vboxmanage guestcontrol $1 run --wait-stdout --exe /bin/pgrep -- arg0 vlc) && vboxmanage controlvm $1 pause
delay: 60
retry: 90
$ xawt --help
Usage: xawt [Options]
Options:
-h, --help output usage information
-V, --version output the version number
-c, --config-path [path] path to configuration file (default:~/.config/xawt.conf)
-d, --dry-run trace commands without executing
-v, --verbose emit detailed trace for debugging
$ git clone --branch=dev https://github.com/dizzib/xawt.git
$ cd xawt
$ npm install # install dependencies
$ npm test # build all and run tests
$ npm start # start the task runner and dry-run xawt
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