i3bang

A preprocessor for i3 config files aimed to drastically reduce their length.

Examples

A full config file that employs heavy use of i3bang can be found in my dotfiles repo, and indeed is my own. In my obviously unbiased and completely objective opinion, it is elegant and beautiful. ;)

Here are a few select snippets:

Firstly, you're probably going to want to put this in your config file:

#!nobracket

This allows you to use i3bang without angle brackets (<>) and instead use no open delimiter and whitespace as a "close delimiter." This is typically what you want, and it's only not set by default for backwards compatibility.

Very simple expansions:

bindsym !!Return,Escape,space,$mod+r mode "default"

becomes

bindsym Return mode "default"
bindsym Escape mode "default"
bindsym space mode "default"
bindsym $mod+r mode "default"

Dual expansions and line continuation:

bindsym $mod+!!q,w,e \                      # change container layout
  layout !!<stacking,tabbed,toggle split>

becomes

bindsym $mod+q layout stacking
bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed
bindsym $mod+e layout toggle split

Separate expansions:

bindsym $mod!!<2!,+Shift>+!!1!1..9,0 \      # workspaces!
  !!<2!,move container to >\
  workspace number !!1!1..10

becomes

bindsym $mod+1 workspace number 1
bindsym $mod+2 workspace number 2
bindsym $mod+3 workspace number 3
bindsym $mod+4 workspace number 4
bindsym $mod+5 workspace number 5
bindsym $mod+6 workspace number 6
bindsym $mod+7 workspace number 7
bindsym $mod+8 workspace number 8
bindsym $mod+9 workspace number 9
bindsym $mod+0 workspace number 10
bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace number 1
bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace number 2
bindsym $mod+Shift+3 move container to workspace number 3
bindsym $mod+Shift+4 move container to workspace number 4
bindsym $mod+Shift+5 move container to workspace number 5
bindsym $mod+Shift+6 move container to workspace number 6
bindsym $mod+Shift+7 move container to workspace number 7
bindsym $mod+Shift+8 move container to workspace number 8
bindsym $mod+Shift+9 move container to workspace number 9
bindsym $mod+Shift+0 move container to workspace number 10

Variables and sections:

!@<*mousemove
exec xdotool mousemove_relative !!1!-!s,0,0,!s,-!s,!s,-!s,!s \
                                !!1!0,!s,-!s,-,-!s,-!s,!s,!s>
mode "mouse" {
        !s = 20  # hjkl speed
        bindsym !!1!h,j,k,l,y,u,b,n !@mousemove
        !s = 8  # numpad speed
        bindsym KP_!!1!4,2,8,6,7,9,1,3 !@mousemove

becomes

mode "mouse" {
        bindsym h exec xdotool mousemove_relative -20 0
        bindsym j exec xdotool mousemove_relative 0 20
        bindsym k exec xdotool mousemove_relative 0 -20
        bindsym l exec xdotool mousemove_relative 20 -
        bindsym y exec xdotool mousemove_relative -20 -20
        bindsym u exec xdotool mousemove_relative 20 -20
        bindsym b exec xdotool mousemove_relative -20 20
        bindsym n exec xdotool mousemove_relative 20 20
        bindsym KP_4 exec xdotool mousemove_relative -8 0
        bindsym KP_2 exec xdotool mousemove_relative 0 8
        bindsym KP_8 exec xdotool mousemove_relative 0 -8
        bindsym KP_6 exec xdotool mousemove_relative 8 -
        bindsym KP_7 exec xdotool mousemove_relative -8 -8
        bindsym KP_9 exec xdotool mousemove_relative 8 -8
        bindsym KP_1 exec xdotool mousemove_relative -8 8
        bindsym KP_3 exec xdotool mousemove_relative 8 8

Environment variable conditionals:

!?<USER=someusername
  ...
>

This will only add the content inside the conditional to your config file if i3bang is run by user "someusername."

Raw sections:

!@<+default_keybindings
  ...  # (you can have !!<expansions> and !<math> inside here)
>

mode "foo" {
        ...
        !@default_keybindings
}

This allows you to keep your default mode keybindings in different modes. When you prepend a + to a section's name, it is interpreted as meaning "raw mode," which means that a.) all !!<expansions> and !<math> is treated as it normally would, and b.) only a > on its own line can end the section (allowing you to still be able to use !!<expansions>/!<math> with brackets. Hence, you can simply wrap all your default keybindings in a !@<+default_keybindings ... >, and then stick a !@default_keybindings at the end of every mode that you want to keep them in (put it at the end because for some reason keybindings that come first take precedence and override bindings to the same key that come later).

Usage

1. Place i3bang.rb in your ~/.i3 (copy it there, move it there, or make a symlink).

2. Rename your config file to something else (mine is _config).

3. When you want to generate the normal config file, run ./i3bang.rb _config (or whatever you named your non-preprocessed config file).

4. (recommended) Change this line in your i3 config file:

    bindsym $mod+Shift+c reload
   

   to this:

    bindsym $mod+Shift+c exec ~/.i3/i3bang.rb _config; reload
   

   in order to automatically preprocess the config file whenever you reload your config (hit mod+shift+c).

Advanced Examples

Advanced line continuations + expansions, plus math:

bindsym Alt_L !!<\>
  exec echo !!1..9,0 | dzen2 -x 175 -y !<55+40*!!<0..9>> -w 30 -h 30 -p 1; !!<\>
  nop

becomes

bindsym Alt_L exec echo 1 | dzen2 -x 175 -y 55 -w 30 -h 30 -p 1; exec echo 2 | dzen2 -x 175 -y 95 -w 30 -h 30 -p 1; exec echo 3 | dzen2 -x 175 -y 135 -w 30 -h 30 -p 1; exec echo 4 | dzen2 -x 175 -y 175 -w 30 -h 30 -p 1; exec echo 5 | dzen2 -x 175 -y 215 -w 30 -h 30 -p 1; exec echo 6 | dzen2 -x 175 -y 255 -w 30 -h 30 -p 1; exec echo 7 | dzen2 -x 175 -y 295 -w 30 -h 30 -p 1; exec echo 8 | dzen2 -x 175 -y 335 -w 30 -h 30 -p 1; exec echo 9 | dzen2 -x 175 -y 375 -w 30 -h 30 -p 1; exec echo 0 | dzen2 -x 175 -y 415 -w 30 -h 30 -p 1; nop

Note that !!<\> acts as a line continuation that is only applied after expansions have been... expanded. This is helpful for expanding many actions to a single bindsym, which requires each separate command to be semicolon-separated on the same line.