How I open and resize all my applications with just a keyboard shortcut
Tags: python, linux
Published: 2020-07-13 22:45:50

---
title: How I open and resize all my applications with just a keyboard shortcut
published: true
description: 
tags: python, linux
cover_image: https://res.cloudinary.com/dje4crtui/image/upload/v1594681549/keyboard_zkhqcu.jpg
---

Every morning I have to open, resize and reposition all applications I need to work, so I thought: What if I only had to press a keyboard shortcut that could do that for me...

To make this happen I would need to write a script that will be executed by that shortcut, this script would have to do three tasks: Open applications, wait for it to start, and resize and reposition them.

Before continuing, this was developed and tested on [Pop!_OS 20.04 LTS](https://pop.system76.com/), a Ubuntu-based Linux distro. The source code is [here](https://github.com/ricardo93borges/desktop-bootstrap). I could just use suspend mode, but I use dual boot, so that doesn't always work for me, and exploring other tools to find a solution is way more fun.

This script was written in Python 3.8, I called it **desktop-bootstrap.py**, to open the applications I used the [subprocess module](https://docs.python.org/3/library/subprocess.html). And to resize and reposition I used the command line tool [wmctrl](http://tripie.sweb.cz/utils/wmctrl/). The script accepts arguments, so you can open one application at a time, but it also supports a configuration file to open a set of applications, I'll cover in this article the latter approach.

In each line of the configuration file, you write the application you want to open, the command to open it, size and position, like this:

`<command> <Application name> <X Axios> <Y Axios> <Window width> <Window height>`

An example of a configuration file would be:

```
insomnia insomnia 960 0 960 1080
google-chrome google 0 0 960 1080 https://dev.to/ricardo93borges https://github.com/ricardo93borges
```

Note that most browsers accept as arguments the websites to open when it starts, each website open in a different tab, so we'll take advantage of that. You can name the configuration file as `config-sample.txt`.

Now we need a shell script that will be executed when we use the keyboard shortcut, this shell script will call the python script passing as an argument the location of the configuration file. I want to open a terminal too, so I also included the command to do so in the shell script:

```sh
# desktop-bootstrap.sh

#!/bin/sh
gnome-terminal --geometry 170x25+1920+890 --working-directory=/home
/usr/bin/python3.8 /path/to/desktop-bootstrap.py --file /path/to/config-sample.txt
```

Here is the python script with comments to explain some pieces of the code:

```python
# desktop-bootstrap.py

import subprocess
import time
import sys

"""
I limited the retries, so the script doesn't run 
forever waiting for an application to start 
"""
max_retries = 20

"""
This method get an application ID looking for its name 
in a list obtained by a wmctrl command, 
that ID is used in the resize command
"""
def get_id_by_name(applications_running, name):
    for app in applications_running:
        if app.lower().find(name) > -1:
            return app.split(' ')[0]

"""
This method receives a list of applications and 
for each one check if is running. If is running resize and 
reposition it, if not check again in the next iteration
"""
def resize(applications):
    retry = 0
    while len(applications) > 0:
# Get a list of running applications
        applications_running = subprocess.check_output(["wmctrl", "-lp"]).decode("utf-8").split("\n")
        for index, app in enumerate(applications):
            application_id = get_id_by_name(applications_running, app['name'])
            if application_id:
# Resize and reposition
                dimensions = "-e " f"0,{app['x']},{app['y']},{app['width']},{app['height']}"
                command = ["wmctrl", "-i", "-r", application_id, dimensions]
                subprocess.run(command)
                applications.pop(index)

        retry += 1
        if retry > max_retries:
            break

        time.sleep(5)

"""
This method open the application and send it to 
resize() method to resize and reposition it 
accordingly to the arguments passed
"""
def handle_args():
    command = [sys.argv[1]]

"""
If the application is a browser it may have more 
arguments (the websites to open when it starts)
"""
    for i in range(len(sys.argv) - 7):
        command.append(sys.argv[7 + i])

    output = subprocess.Popen(command)

    applications = [{
        'name': sys.argv[2],
        'pid': output.pid,
        'x': sys.argv[3],
        'y': sys.argv[4],
        'width': sys.argv[5],
        'height': sys.argv[6]
        }]

    resize(applications)

"""
This method handles the configuration file, open 
the applications and send it to resize() method 
to resize and reposition it.
"""
def handle_file(file):
    applications = []
    with open(file) as f:
        for index, line in enumerate(f):
            props = line.split(' ')
            command = [props[0]]

"""
If the application is a browser it may have 
more arguments (the websites to open when it starts)
"""
            for i in range(len(props) - 6):
                command.append(props[6+i])

            output = subprocess.Popen(command)
            applications.append({
                'name': props[1],
                'pid': output.pid,
                'x': props[2],
                'y': props[3],
                'width': props[4],
                'height': props[5]
            })
    resize(applications)

"""
Main method, check the arguments and call the 
appropriated method to process the applications.
"""
def run():
    if len(sys.argv) > 2:
        if sys.argv[1] == "--file":
            handle_file(sys.argv[2])
        else:
            handle_args()
    else:
        print("\nInvalid number of arguments")
        print("\nUse the following arguments: ")
        print("\n<command> <Application name> <X Axios> <Y Axios> <Window width> <Window height>")
        print("\nOr: ")
        print("\n--file <path/to/configuration/file>")

    sys.exit(0)


run()

```

Finally, we'll create the keyboard shortcut, this may differ from one Linux distribution to another, in Pop_OS! 20.04 you open **settings menu** go to **keyboard shortcuts**, then scroll down to the bottom of the list of shortcuts and click on the **+** button. In the window that launched you set a name for the shortcut, in the command input you type the path to that shell script (desktop-bootstrap.sh), for example: `/home/ricardo/workspace/desktop-bootstrap/desktop-bootstrap.sh`. In shortcut, you choose the combinations of keys that will execute the shell script.

And that's it, you can find more details on this [repository](https://github.com/ricardo93borges/desktop-bootstrap).