Description: An enhanced window manager control
Copyright: 2010-2025 Fabio Castelli (Muflone) muflone@muflone.com
License: GPL-3+
Source code: https://github.com/muflone/wmectrl/
Documentation: http://www.muflone.com/wmectrl/
wmectrl is a command-line tool to control your applications windows by moving, resize, minimize, maximize, set your windows to full screen and so on.
You can also use wmectrl to get some details about a specific window or the currently active window.
- Python >= 3.9 (developed and tested for Python 3.13)
- GObject library for Python 3 ( https://pypi.org/project/PyGObject/ )
- GTK+ 3.x library
- Wnck 3.x library
wmectrl is a command line utility and requires some arguments to be passed:
wmectrl
-h, --help Show this help message and exit
--version Show program's version number and exit
Actions:
-L, --list-windows List all windows titles
-d, --show-desktop Show the desktop
-I, --show-information Show information about selected screen
Selection:
-w, --window WINDOW Select window
-s, --screen SCREEN Select screen number
-S, --workspace WORKSPACE Select workspace number
--exact-title Select window by exact title
--exact-pid Select window by exact PID
--exact-xid Select window by exact XID
--exact-app-title Select window by application title
--exact-app-pid Select window by application PID
Window control:
-A, --activate Activate the selected window
-C, --close Close the selected window
-P, --pin BOOL Pin/unpin the window
-G, --skip-pager BOOL Set/unset skip pager for the window
-K, --skip-tasklist BOOL Set/unset skip tasklist for the window
-D, --shade BOOL Shade/unshade the window
-J, --sticky BOOL Stick/unstick the window
Window position:
-E, --above BOOL Set/unset the window above others
-B, --below BOOL Set/unset the window below others
-T, --move-to Move the window to the selected workspace
-U, --manual-move Move the window using keyboard/mouse
-X, --left LEFT Set left/X position of the window
-Y, --top TOP Set top/Y position of the window
Window size:
-m, --minimized BOOL Minimize/unminimize the window
-M, --maximized BOOL Maximize/unmaximize the window
-O, --horizontally BOOL Maximize/unmaximize horizontally the window
-V, --vertically BOOL Maximize/unmaximize vertically the window
-W, --width WIDTH Set width of the window
-H, --height HEIGHT Set height of the window
-F, --fullscreen BOOL Enter/exit fullscreen for the window
-R, --manual-resize Start window resize using keyboard/mouse
Workspace control:
--set-workspaces-count COUNT Change the number of workspaces
--set-workspace-name NAME Change the workspace name
--set-workspace-active Change the active workspace
Some commands require you to specify a window to act on it (for example to
minimize it). If a window is not specified with the -w/--window argument
(see the window selection section below) the currently active window is used
and the other arguments will be used with it.
Using the --show-information argument you can obtain details about the
selected window.
$ wmectrl --show-information
Screen number : 0
Screen size : 3280x1080
WM name : GNOME Shell
Showing desktop : False
Windows count : 10
Window name : wmectrl – README.md
Window PID : 223212
Window XID : 14690447
Window position : 0,32
Window size : 1920x1048
Client position : 0,32
Client size : 1920x1048
Window is active : True
Window is above : False
Window is below : False
Window is fullscreen : False
Window is minimized : False
Window is maximized : True
Window is maximized H : True
Window is maximized V : True
Window is pinned : False
Window is shaded : False
Window is sticky : False
Window skip pager : False
Window skip tasklist : False
Window in workspace : True
Window in viewport : True
Window needs attention : False
Application PID : 223212
Application name : jetbrains-pycharm
Application startup ID :
Workspaces count : 6
Workspace number : 0
Workspace name : Workspace 1
Workspace size : 3280x1080
Workspace viewport : 0x0
Workspace is virtual : False
Many arguments will require you to specify a BOOL value which may be true to
enable the command, while false is used to disable the command.
When no window is selected using -w/--window argument the currently active
window is automatically selected, therefore any window control/position/size
command will act upon that window.
You can specify the needed window in multiple ways, using a partial search
on the window title or an exact match (--exact-title) on the window title
or its XWindow ID (--exact-xid) or the application name (--exact-app-title)
or by using the application Process ID (--exact-app-pid).
To obtain some information about the currently visibile windows you can use
the --list-windows argument which lists both XID, PID and window title.
$ wmectrl --list-windows
XID PID Name
52428870 7156 Mozilla Thunderbird
85983302 224285 Mozilla Firefox
14689320 223212 PixelColor – README.md
14690447 223212 wmectrl – README.md
To get a window by a partial search on its name you can use:
$ wmectrl --show-information --window 'PixelColor'
This will print all the details for the first window having PixelColor on its title.
To narrow the search for your window you can also specify a full title with
the --exact-title argument.
$ wmectrl --show-information --window 'PixelColor – README.md' --exact-title
You can also specify the exact XWindow ID using --exact-xid:
$ wmectrl --show-information --window 14689320 --exact-xid
At the same way you can specify the process ID using --exact-pid, but please
be aware multiple windows can have the same process ID as an application can
open multiple windows:
$ wmectrl --show-information --window 223212 --exact-xid
If you know the exact application name you can get the window using it with
--exact-app-title:
$ wmectrl --show-information --window 'jetbrains-pycharm' --exact-app-title