Is it possible with I3Wm to populate an entire workspace with determined size, position and commands for each window?
I know I can do i3-msg "exec xterm -e 'ls; bash'" to create a new window, but I can’t specify his position and size.
Maybe there is also an alternative by declaring via JSON the layout or something like that?
Answers:
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Method 1
Since version 4.8, something like that is part of i3 and there’s a detailed guide on the website, but here’s a short version:
Once you’ve set up a workspace like you want it to be, save its layout with
i3-save-tree --workspace <whichever workspace you want> > ~/.i3/layout-ws-<xyz>.json
into the file ~/.i3/layout-ws-xyz.json. You’ll then need to edit that file to enable criteria that match windows in the layout.
After that, you can restore that layout with
i3-msg "workspace <your workspace>; append_layout ~/.i3/layout-ws--<xyz>.json"
This will open placeholder windows on that workspace and when a window matching the criteria enabled in the layout file appears, it will be placed in the corresponding placeholder window.
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