Getting detailed information about a window on your Linux desktop is very easy. The Xwininfo command is very useful for getting this information.
Run the command and then click a window to get detailed information about a window.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ xwininfo |
Absolute upper-left X: 498 Absolute upper-left Y: 47 Relative upper-left X: 4 Relative upper-left Y: 23 Width: 1417 Height: 994 Depth: 24 Visual: 0x2b Visual Class: TrueColor Border width: 0 Class: InputOutput Colormap: 0x3800009 (installed) Bit Gravity State: NorthWestGravity Window Gravity State: NorthWestGravity Backing Store State: NotUseful Save Under State: no Map State: IsViewable Override Redirect State: no Corners: +498+47 -5+47 -5-39 +498-39 -geometry 175x62-1+24 |
To view the WM class of a window, use the xprop utility. Run this command, then click a window.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ xprop WM_CLASS WM_CLASS(STRING) = "mate-terminal", "Mate-terminal" |
Using the xprop command with no parameters, and then clicking a window will print a massive amount of information about the window. Even the icons in different sizes.
Example icon output.
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Get more information about your window manager.
Install wmctrl.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ sudo apt install wmctrl |
Then run it to get info about your desktop environment.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ wmctrl -m Name: Metacity (Marco) Class: N/A PID: N/A Window manager's "showing the desktop" mode: N/A |
Use this command to change the title of a window. Run the command, then click a window to set the window title.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ wmctrl -r :SELECT: -T "Hi" |
List all running applications on your Linux MATE desktop and the window ID`s.
jason@jason-desktop:~$ wmctrl -l 0x00c00003 -1 jason-desktop Top Panel 0x00c00017 -1 jason-desktop Bottom Panel 0x02c00010 0 jason-desktop Analytics - Mozilla Firefox 0x0380000a 0 jason-desktop Hi 0x02c001cf 0 jason-desktop VOY S05E06 Timeless - Google Drive - Mozilla Firefox |
This is very useful to find a window to manipulate with another utility.