Automatically invoke xprop at a named point on the desktop (X11, Ubuntu)

Question

 xprop | grep WM_CLASS\(STRING\)

After typing that into a terminal, I have to click onto a window to get a result.

I want to automatize this. I'd like to get the WM_NAME-Window name at a named position, say, x=10 and y=40 (BFB).

xprop | grep WM_NAME\(STRING\) 
sleep(1)
xdotool mousemove 10 40 click 1

Each command on its own is working, but not all together. How can I put this into a script that executes all commands?

Wny not use the window ID or name? – n. m. could be an AI Aug 01 '13 at 18:27 — n. m. could be an AI, Aug 01 '13 at 18:27

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 01 '13 at 12:09

0

The problem is that xprop is blocking for the mouse click so it needs to be done in the background. The wait is not strictly necessary, but makes the script exit more cleanly by waiting for xprop to complete.

#!/bin/bash
xprop | grep WM_NAME\(STRING\) &
pid=!$
sleep 1
xdotool mousemove 10 40 click 1
wait $pid

answered Aug 01 '13 at 12:09

parkydr

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Hm, it would also be good to reset the mouse to its previous position. Do you know how to do that? – user2366975 Aug 01 '13 at 23:31
Try xdotool mousemove 10 40 click 1 mousemove restore – parkydr Aug 02 '13 at 07:53

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 03 '13 at 00:53

To get that in python code, if someone else is interested:

import subprocess as s

p=s.Popen(["xprop", "WM_NAME"], stdout=s.PIPE)
r=s.Popen(["xdotool", "mousemove", "10", "40", "click", "1", "mousemove", "restore"], stdout=s.PIPE)

out, err = p.communicate()
print(out)

If you want to adjust the output slightly, type "WM_CLASS".

Automatically invoke xprop at a named point on the desktop (X11, Ubuntu)

2 Answers2