1swaymsg(1) General Commands Manual swaymsg(1)
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6 swaymsg - Send messages to a running instance of sway over the IPC
7 socket.
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10 swaymsg [options...] [message]
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13 -h, --help
14 Show help message and quit.
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16 -m, --monitor
17 Monitor for responses until killed instead of exiting after the
18 first response. This can only be used with the IPC message type
19 subscribe. If there is a malformed response or an invalid event
20 type was requested, swaymsg will stop monitoring and exit.
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22 -p, --pretty
23 Use pretty output even when not using a tty.
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25 -q, --quiet
26 Sends the IPC message but does not print the response from sway.
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28 -r, --raw
29 Use raw output even if using a tty.
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31 -s, --socket <path>
32 Use the specified socket path. Otherwise, swaymsg will ask sway
33 where the socket is (which is the value of $SWAYSOCK, then of
34 $I3SOCK).
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36 -t, --type <type>
37 Specify the type of IPC message. See below.
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39 -v, --version
40 Print the version (of swaymsg) and quit.
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43 <command>
44 The message is a sway command (the same commands you can bind to
45 keybindings in your sway config file). It will be executed immedi‐
46 ately.
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48 See sway(5) for a list of commands.
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50 Tips:
51 · Command expansion is performed twice: once by swaymsg, and
52 again by sway. If you have quoted multi-word strings in your
53 command, enclose the entire command in single-quotes. For exam‐
54 ple, use swaymsg 'output "Foobar Display" enable' instead of
55 swaymsg output "Foobar Display" enable.
56 · If you are proving a command that contains a leading hyphen
57 (-), insert two hyphens (--) before the command to signal to
58 swaymsg not to parse anything beyond that point as an option.
59 For example, use swaymsg -- mark --add test instead of swaymsg
60 mark --add test.
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63 get_workspaces
64 Gets a JSON-encoded list of workspaces and their status.
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66 get_inputs
67 Gets a JSON-encoded list of current inputs.
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69 get_outputs
70 Gets a JSON-encoded list of current outputs.
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72 get_tree
73 Gets a JSON-encoded layout tree of all open windows, containers,
74 outputs, workspaces, and so on.
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76 get_seats
77 Gets a JSON-encoded list of all seats, its properties and all
78 assigned devices.
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80 get_marks
81 Get a JSON-encoded list of marks.
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83 get_bar_config
84 Get a JSON-encoded configuration for swaybar.
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86 get_version
87 Get JSON-encoded version information for the running instance of
88 sway.
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90 get_binding_modes
91 Gets a JSON-encoded list of currently configured binding modes.
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93 get_binding_state
94 Gets JSON-encoded info about the current binding state.
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96 get_config
97 Gets a JSON-encoded copy of the current configuration.
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99 send_tick
100 Sends a tick event to all subscribed clients.
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102 subscribe
103 Subscribe to a list of event types. The argument for this type
104 should be provided in the form of a valid JSON array. If any of the
105 types are invalid or if a valid JSON array is not provided, this
106 will result in a failure.
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109 0
110 Success
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112 1
113 swaymsg errors such as invalid syntax, unable to connect to the ipc
114 socket or unable to parse sway's reply
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117 Sway returned an error when processing the command (ex. invalid
118 command, command failed, and invalid subscription request)
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121 sway(5) sway-bar(5) sway-input(5) sway-output(5) sway-ipc(7)
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125 2020-10-22 swaymsg(1)