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i3wm

i3 is a tiling window manager.

Layout saving⚑

Layout saving/restoring allows you to load a JSON layout file so that you can have a base layout to start working with after powering on your computer.

First of all arrange the windows in the workspace, then you can save the layout of either a single workspace or an entire output:

i3-save-tree --workspace "1: terminal" > ~/.i3/workspace-1.json

You need to open the created file and remove the comments that match the desired windows under the swallows keys, so transform the next snippet:

    ...
    "swallows": [
        {
        //  "class": "^URxvt$",
        //  "instance": "^irssi$"
        }
    ]
    ...

Into:

    ...
    "swallows": [
        {
            "class": "^URxvt$",
            "instance": "^irssi$"
        }
    ]
    ...

Once is ready close all the windows of the workspace you want to restore (moving them away is not enough!).

Then on a terminal you can restore the layout with:

i3-msg 'workspace "1: terminal"; append_layout ~/.i3/workspace-1.json'

It's important that you don't use a relative path

Even if you're in ~/.i3/ you have to use i3-msg append_layout ~/.i3/workspace-1.json.

This command will create some fake windows (called placeholders) with the layout you had before, i3 will then wait for you to create the windows that match the selection criteria. Once they are, it will put them in their respective placeholders.

If you wish to create the layouts at startup you can add the next snippet to your i3 config.

exec --no-startup-id "i3-msg 'workspace \"1: terminal\"; append_layout ~/.i3/workspace-1.json'"

References⚑