sway-workspace-extras

This application contains a set of additional Sway commands. Use

sway-workspace-extras --help

to see the supported commands. Currently those are:

• next
• prev
• move-next
• move-prev
• shift

Belowe are more detailed information about them and how they are different than the built-in Sway commands.

The commands are highly influenced by the way I use Sway workspaces. I want to keep the workspaces of the same output next to each other and avoid any intermediate workspaces on a different output. I also don't like the wrap around to the first or last workspace of the built-in commands. Instead I want the possibility to easily create new empty intermediate and trailing workspaces to open windows on them.

The commands might not be useful for you if you have a different workflow than me.

Current limitations

This tool currently has some limitations:

• Workspaces must have different numbers
• Workspaces without a number are not supported. There might be some subtle bugs if there are workspaces without a number.

I think they can be fixed. I just didn't have a reason to fix them, because I do not use those features of Sway. If you consider using this tool and suffer from one of the limitaions feel free to open an issue.

Command Description

next

This command is similar to the workspace next command. It moves the focus to the next workspace on the current output. But there are key differences regarding output handling, wrap around and gaps between workspaces.

The command will never move to a workspace on a different output. It only targets workspaces that are on the same output.

Furthermore it doesn't move to the first workspace if you are currently on the last workspace of the current output and execute the command. Instead it will move to a new empty trailing workspace. This makes opening a window on a fresh workspace fairly simple.

It also move to missing (w.r.t the number) workspaces that are between the first and last workspace on the current output.

prev

This command is similar to the workspace prev command. It moves the focus to the previous workspace on the current output. But it will not move to the last workspaces if you are currently on the first workspace. It will never move to a workspace on a different output but will move the focus to missing workspaces between the first and last one on the current output.

move-next

This command moves the focused container to the next workspace and then also moves the focus to the next workspace. So it is similar to a combination of move container to workspace <num> and workspace next.

Most of the described behavior of the sway-workspace-extras next command also applies to this command. One notable difference is the behavior on the last workspace. This command will not do anything if the last workspace contains only the focused window.

move-prev

This command moves the focused container to the previous workspace and then also moves the focus to the previous workspace. So it is similar to a combination of move container to workspace <num> and workspace prev.

The same described behavior of the sway-workspace-extras prev command also applies to this command.

shift

This command creates a new empty workspace after the current one. It does this by incrementing the workspaces number of the successors. If the next workspace is already empty it does nothing.

Development

Sway workspace naming details

• Leading or trailing whitespace in a workspace name is removed. If you navigate to such a workspace and then look at the tree output

  swaymsg workspace "  2:name  "
  swaymsg -t get_tree -r
  

  you see that the workspace is named 2:name

• The documentation mentions a : character to separate the number and the display name. This seems to be completely optional. The workspace gets a number as long as it starts with one or more digits. E.g.

  swaymsg workspace "2 name"
  swaymsg -t get_tree -r
  

  results in a workspace with a number of 2.

• The same number can be used for different workspaces as long as the whole workspace name is different. The ordering of workspaces with the same number seems to be a lexigraphical order. E.g. 1:a comes before 1:b.

• Equality comparison of workspace names is case insensitive. So, if you already have a workspace 1:name and execute the command swaymsg workspace "2:NAME" you will end up at the existing workspace.

• Numbering of workspaces is optional. E.g. swaymsg workspace without_name is valid. Such a workspace has -1 as num property in the output of swaymsg -t get_tree -r.

• Workspaces without a number seem to come always last in the workspace list. Within the group of not numbered workspaces the individual workspaces are ordered by creation order.