swaymsg(1) General Commands Manual swaymsg(1)
NAME
swaymsg - Send messages to a running instance of sway over the IPC
socket.
SYNOPSIS
swaymsg [options...] [message]
OPTIONS
-h, --help
Show help message and quit.
-m, --monitor
Monitor for responses until killed instead of exiting after the
first response. This can only be used with the IPC message type
subscribe. If there is a malformed response or an invalid event
type was requested, swaymsg will stop monitoring and exit.
-p, --pretty
Use pretty output even when not using a tty. Not available for all
message types.
-q, --quiet
Sends the IPC message but does not print the response from sway.
-r, --raw
Use raw JSON output even if using a tty.
-s, --socket <path>
Use the specified socket path. Otherwise, swaymsg will ask sway
where the socket is (which is the value of $SWAYSOCK, then of
$I3SOCK).
-t, --type <type>
Specify the type of IPC message. See below.
-v, --version
Print the version (of swaymsg) and quit.
IPC MESSAGE TYPES
<command>
The message is a sway command (the same commands you can bind to
keybindings in your sway config file). It will be executed immedi-
ately.
See sway(5) for a list of commands.
swaymsg can return pretty printed (standalone-default) or JSON-for-
matted (--raw) output. For detailed documentation on the returned
JSON-data of each message type listed below, refer to sway-
ipc(7). The JSON-format can contain more information than the
pretty print.
Tips:
• Command expansion is performed twice: once by swaymsg, and
again by sway. If you have quoted multi-word strings in your
command, enclose the entire command in single-quotes. For exam-
ple, use swaymsg 'output "Foobar Display" enable' instead of
swaymsg output "Foobar Display" enable. Furthermore, note that
comma separated options also count as multi-word strings, be-
cause commas can be used to execute commands on the same line.
• If you are providing a command that contains a leading hyphen
(-), insert two hyphens (--) before the command to signal to
swaymsg not to parse anything beyond that point as an option.
For example, use swaymsg -- mark --add test instead of swaymsg
mark --add test.
get_workspaces
Gets a list of workspaces and their status.
get_inputs
Gets a list of current inputs.
get_outputs
Gets a list of current outputs.
get_tree
Gets a JSON-encoded layout tree of all open windows, containers,
outputs, workspaces, and so on.
get_seats
Gets a list of all seats, its properties and all assigned devices.
get_marks
Get a JSON-encoded list of marks.
get_bar_config
Get a JSON-encoded configuration for swaybar.
get_version
Get version information for the running instance of sway.
get_binding_modes
Gets a JSON-encoded list of currently configured binding modes.
get_binding_state
Gets JSON-encoded info about the current binding state.
get_config
Gets a copy of the current configuration. Doesn't expand includes.
send_tick
Sends a tick event to all subscribed clients.
subscribe
Subscribe to a list of event types. The argument for this type
should be provided in the form of a valid JSON array. If any of the
types are invalid or if a valid JSON array is not provided, this
will result in a failure.
RETURN CODES
0
Success
1
swaymsg errors such as invalid syntax, unable to connect to the ipc
socket or unable to parse sway's reply
2
Sway returned an error when processing the command (ex. invalid
command, command failed, and invalid subscription request)
SEE ALSO
sway(5) sway-bar(5) sway-input(5) sway-output(5) sway-ipc(7)
2022-10-14 swaymsg(1)
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