How to start application from command line without blocking but move the focus on it?

Question

I am trying to start a file compare application from the console by runnning bcompare ... & but this will start the application without activating it (focus).

Is there a way to start it and switch to it? I'm looking for something similar to Windows start command.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 11 '17 at 19:00

1

You can do it with wmctrl . Install it with sudo apt-get install wmctrl.

Manual: [wmctrl manpage]

Example:

wmctrl -a chrome

Switches to the desktop containing the chrome window, raises it, and gives focus.

So after starting your program, run wmctrl -a bcompare.

As for your request, this is a not-so-elegant-way to check if the command is available, and if not it, try to install the package. (Consider it a bad hack, I think it should be a different question to answer this properly. For starters: it should have queried the package database.)

package="wmctrl"
required_command="wmctrl"
installed=`type -p $required_command`
if [ "$installed" == "" ]
then
    sudo apt-get install "$package"
fi

edited Mar 11 '17 at 19:00

Community

1

answered Mar 30 '12 at 09:36

lgarzo

19,832

Thanks! Extra points if you update the command to try to install wmctrl if it does not exist ;) – sorin Mar 30 '12 at 13:19
1

Added a simple installation method if the command does not exist, but it is more of a joke, rather than a real solution. – lgarzo Mar 30 '12 at 13:52

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 30 '12 at 10:00

0

append with & . It denotes background application.

like

chrome &

answered Mar 30 '12 at 10:00

Web-E

21,418

How to start application from command line without blocking but move the focus on it?

2 Answers2