Sai Karthik

Balancing the braces ...

Sway Monitor Swapping Script

May 16, 2024 | 1 minute read

This is a simple python script i wrote & use swap between monitors in sway window manager.
Although, there is a more advanced tool named kanshi where the user can setup profiles to switch between & supports hotswapping of monitors when plugged in/out, My use case is simple. So, i wrote my own.
This script takes advantage of the swaymsg command’s json output feature. This command is used to configure sway while it’s running.
When invoked, This script checks if more than one monitor is attached & switches the output to the monitor with defined name.

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#!/usr/bin/python3
import subprocess as s
import json


def swap():
    r = s.run(["swaymsg", "-t", "get_outputs", "-r"], capture_output=True)

    monitors = json.loads(r.stdout)

    if len(monitors) > 1:
        for i in monitors:
            if i["name"] == "HDMI-A-1":
                s.run(["swaymsg", "output", i["name"], "enable"])
                s.run(["swaymsg", "output", "LVDS-1", "disable"])
                return

    # enable native monitor if no ext monitor is attached
    else:
        s.run(["swaymsg", "output", monitors[0]["name"], "enable"])

swap()

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Tags: sway linux