How can I get the Wayland Application ID (WM_CLASS equivalent) for a running application?

Question

To get Gnome-Shell to correctly detect that an application is already running I need to specify the StartupWWClass in the desktop file. On X11 this is easy to get using xprop (to get WM_CLASS), but on Wayland I cannot find a way to get this information (called in Wayland the application ID I believe). Is there a way to get it?

PS: I'm aware that in general Wayland doesn't allow getting information about other apps like X11 did. However, this information is not particularly sensitive, so I figure either Wayland or Gnome-Shell (the compositor) may have made an exception for this identifier to allow people to determine what applications call themselves and which applications are running.

I'm facing the same problem. Any workarounds so far? – aaguilera Apr 12 '18 at 09:37 — aaguilera, Apr 12 '18 at 09:37

BlueManCZ · Answer 1 · 2021-09-09T17:22:25.960

6

On Gnome-Shell you can use a built-in tool looking glass.

Press Alt + F2, type lg and press enter. In the top-right panel select "Windows".

You can start inspecting by clicking on any title in the revealed list. Just make sure you don't click on an app.

You will find wm_class right away in the list of windows or as the last item in the list of attributes.

edited Sep 09 '21 at 17:22

answered Sep 09 '21 at 16:51

BlueManCZ

543

1

What would be the command to get this information? – vanadium Sep 09 '21 at 16:54
There's a convenient gnome shell extension: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/2296/looking-glass-button/ – ocodo Jan 24 '24 at 15:38

How can I get the Wayland Application ID (WM_CLASS equivalent) for a running application?

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