xpynfo 0.0.0

A handy, pretty-printing X window metadata CLI

This is a simple CLI tool to dump X window info in a tree format.

Current version is a proof-of-concept. The API will potentially change drastically.

Features

• Uses the anytree package to tidy output

• Uses the xcffib package for X interaction via XCB Python bindings

• Provides access to

  • XGetWindowAttributes info

  • XGetGeometry info

  • XListProperties info with properties filled out via xcb_get_property calls

System Dependencies

The core features depend on libxcb. The xcffib docs also mention libxcb-render. I suspect the full list of xcb components is actually necessary, but I haven’t checked from a fresh install yet.

Here’s a good way to discover dependencies in the RPM world. You should be able to replace dnf with yum on older systems.

$ sudo dnf install -y dnf-utils --allowerasing

# For a full XCB install, use this as the first line instead
# UNLISTED_DEPS=($(eval "echo 'xcb-'{'proto','util-*'}{'','-devel'}"));
$ UNLISTED_DEPS=($(eval "echo xcb-util-renderutil{,-devel}")); \
    DEPS=($(\
        repoquery --requires --resolve python2-xcffib \
            | awk -F':' '\
                /^[^:]*:[^:]*$/{ \
                    gsub("-[0-9]+$", "", $1); \
                    print $1; \
                }' \
            | sort -u \
    )); \
    FULL_DEPS=( "${UNLISTED_DEPS[@]}" "${DEPS[@]}" "${DEPS[@]/%/-devel}" )
    eval sudo dnf install \
        --skip-broken \
        $(printf "'%s' " "${FULL_DEPS[@]}")

Package xcb-util-renderutil-0.3.9-10.fc28.x86_64 is already installed, skipping.
Package xcb-util-renderutil-devel-0.3.9-10.fc28.x86_64 is already installed, skipping.
Package libxcb-1.13-1.fc28.x86_64 is already installed, skipping.
Package libxcb-1.13-1.fc28.i686 is already installed, skipping.
Package python2-2.7.15-1.fc28.x86_64 is already installed, skipping.
Package python2-cffi-1.11.2-1.fc28.x86_64 is already installed, skipping.
Package python2-six-1.11.0-3.fc28.noarch is already installed, skipping.
Package libxcb-devel-1.13-1.fc28.x86_64 is already installed, skipping.
Package python2-devel-2.7.15-1.fc28.x86_64 is already installed, skipping.
No match for argument: python2-cffi-devel
No match for argument: python2-six-devel
Dependencies resolved.
Nothing to do.
Complete!

# Or, for an even simpler full install,
$ sudo dnf install 'libxcb*' 'xcb*'

I have no idea how to do this in other ecosystems. It should be possible in the Debian world or the Arch world with some tweaking.

Installation

$ pip install --user xpynfo

Usage

$ export PATH=~/.local/bin:$PATH
$ which xpynfo
~/.local/bin/xpynfo
$ xpynfo --version
xpynfo <version>
$ xpynfo --help
< dumps all the help >
$ xpynfo \
    --recurse \
    --use-names \
    --style AsciiStyle \
    --max-depth 1 \
    --properties \
    $(xprop | awk '/WM_CLIENT_LEADER/{ print strtonum($NF); }')
# Note: you have to click a window to populate xprop
106954753: Sublime Text
|   Properties:
|       WM_CLASS: ['sublime_text', 'Sublime_text']
|       WM_CLIENT_LEADER: 106954753
|       WM_CLIENT_MACHINE: gxc-fedora-28.wotw
|       WM_COMMAND: sublime_text
|       WM_ICON_NAME: sublime_text
|       WM_LOCALE_NAME: en_US.UTF-8
|       WM_NAME: Sublime Text
|       WM_NORMAL_HINTS: <WM_SIZE_HINTS>
|       WM_PROTOCOLS: ['WM_DELETE_WINDOW', 'WM_TAKE_FOCUS', '_NET_WM_PING']
|       _NET_WM_ICON_NAME: sublime_text
|       _NET_WM_NAME: Sublime Text
|       _NET_WM_PID: 637
|       _NET_WM_USER_TIME_WINDOW: 106954754
+-- 106954754

(Very Basic) Documentation

usage: xpynfo [-h] [-V] [-r] [-d MAX_DEPTH] [-a] [-g] [-p] [-n]
              [-s {AsciiStyle,ContRoundStyle,ContStyle,DoubleStyle}]
              [window_id]

A tool to examine various pieces of X info. Without options the command simply
prints the window id.

positional arguments:
  window_id             Specify the window ID; default is the screen's root
                        window

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -V, --version         Displays the package version and exits

Scope Control:
  Options to control the scope of the calls xpynfo makes

  -r, --recurse         Also query children of the given ID recursively
  -d MAX_DEPTH, --max-depth MAX_DEPTH
                        Limit the depth of recursion

X Calls:
  Options to add X information

  -a, --attributes      Add XWindowAttributes info to output
  -g, --geometry        Add XGetGeometry info to output
  -p, --properties      Add XListProperties combined with parsed XGetProperty
                        info to output

Style:
  Options to tweak output look

  -n, --use-names       Add _NET_WM_NAME or WM_NAME (when available) to output
  -s {AsciiStyle,ContRoundStyle,ContStyle,DoubleStyle}, --style {AsciiStyle,ContRoundStyle,ContStyle,DoubleStyle}
                        Set the anytree rendering style