i3dropdown

2020-01-23 - How to use i3dropdown to pump up your graphical environment
Tags: linux toolbox

Introduction

i3dropdown is a tool to make any X application drop down from the top of the screen, in the famous quake console style back in the day.

Compilation

First of all, you have get i3dropdown and compile it. It does not have any dependencies so it is really easy :

git clone https://gitlab.com/exrok/i3dropdown
cd i3dropdown
make
cp build/i3dropdown ~/bin/

i3 configuration

Here is a working example of the pavucontrol app, a volume mixer I use :

exec --no-startup-id i3 --get-socketpath > /tmp/i3wm-socket-path
for_window [instance="^pavucontrol"] floating enable
bindsym Mod4+shift+p exec /home/julien/bin/i3dropdown -W 90 -H 50 pavucontrol pavucontrol-qt

To work properly, i3dropdown needs to have the path to the i3 socket. Because the command to get the socketpath from i3 is a little slow, it is best to cache it somewhere. By default i3dropdown recognises /tmp/i3wm-socket-path. Then each window managed by i3dropdown needs to be floating. The last line bind a key to invoke or mask the app.