A script that allows you to bring a given app to the foreground, i.e. to focus on it, with a single key.
Say, you are hacking away on a JavaScript in your Atom editor and want to run the script in the terminal.
You are too lazy to hit Alt-Tab three times to get to the correct window. You just want to press , say,
the F2 key so that your gnome-terminal window comes to the foreground. Well, then this script is for you.
This is exactly what it does. And if no gnome-terminal exists at the moment the single key, F2 will
start a terminal for you and bring it to the foreground. No more Alt-Tab-ing! Assign this script to any key
you like in ´Settings ➡️ Keyboard Shortcuts´ like so /bin/bash -i focus-terminal.sh.
Depending on your setup it might alternatively be /bin/bash -l focus-terminal.sh.
The atom editor is somewhere. Not sure if you opened it already. To tired of hitting Alt-Tab five times
to get to it. Assign the script show-atom to, say, key F3 and with one keystroke you are done. F3,
voila, the atom editor is in front of you. Open and focused. Assign this script to any key
you like in ´Settings ➡️ Keyboard Shortcuts´ like so /bin/bash -i focus-atom.sh.
You get it! Use F4 or whatever you wish to always have Firefox ready with the touch of one button.
Assign this script to any key
you like in ´Settings ➡️ Keyboard Shortcuts´ like so /bin/bash -i focus-firefox.sh.
This script brings the first instance of a running app into the foreground and focuses on it.
If the app is currently not running it will start it, and bring it to the foreground.
It uses the utility wmctrl to do the work.
The idea is to assign this script to a shortcut key like F2
with /bin/bash -i /your/path/focus-something.sh
So, by hitting the F2 key, the app is brought to foreground (and is started if necessary).
Tested on Ubuntu 20.04.
- Download the scripts and put them where you want on your local disk.
- Install a window manager with
sudo apt install wmctrl(Debian, Ubuntu, etc.) orsudo dnf install wmctrl(Fedora, etc.). - Set file permisions with
chmod 744 path/to/files/focus-*.sh. Example:chmod 744 $HOME/scripts/focus-*sh. - Go to ´Settings ➡️ Keyboard Shortcuts´ and create a keyboard
shortcut with the command
/bin/bash -i path/to/files/focus-something.sh. Example:/bin/bash -i /home/user/scripts/focus-atom.sh.
The scripts are very simple. Just 3 lines of code. You want it for app foo?
Create your own script. Run wmctrl -l to see what the window title pattern
of app foo is and put that into the script. Easy as pie! 🥧
Bugs? Send PR to 
!