Window search fails

[lll-Death-lll]

The windows are not always found, even though they are present

Operating System: EndeavourOS
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.18.9-arch1-2 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland

[steveyh25]

ever since KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.0, something weird has been happening to me too - windows are found, but they are not brought to the foreground unless I click on a window to change focus or otherwise alt-tab. not sure if your issue is related somehow

for example I'm trying both the following commands:

kdotool search --classname "firefox" windowactivate
kdotool search --classname "firefox" windowraise

and also logging window details:

Feb 27 15:28:09 fedora ctrl3.sh[13565]: firefox: {73d8faf2-e4cc-48f3-8223-6a66b0d1ad52}
Feb 27 15:28:09 fedora systemd[2609]: Started app-net.local.ctrl3.sh@6c74dbf18cf74af6b935dbb4bef948d0.service - Ctrl+3.
Feb 27 15:28:09 fedora ctrl3.sh[13571]: firefox: {73d8faf2-e4cc-48f3-8223-6a66b0d1ad52}
Feb 27 15:28:09 fedora systemd[2609]: Started app-net.local.ctrl3.sh@eb1d628b22d44386a67d208be5ee75bc.service - Ctrl+3.
Feb 27 15:28:09 fedora ctrl3.sh[13577]: firefox: {73d8faf2-e4cc-48f3-8223-6a66b0d1ad52}

so the script is for sure being ran but the kdotool commands don't appear to be affecting the found window. I then click on the active window with my mouse and / or manually alt-tab and it starts working again, even though the logging is still finding the same window:

Feb 27 15:28:36 fedora systemd[2609]: Started app-net.local.ctrl3.sh@3846c551a38c450eba0360c6496e3088.service - Ctrl+3.
Feb 27 15:28:36 fedora ctrl3.sh[13681]: firefox: {73d8faf2-e4cc-48f3-8223-6a66b0d1ad52}

Operating System: Fedora Linux 43
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.18.12-200.fc43.x86_64 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland

[OrbitalHustler]

Same here. It used to work perfectly but since a few weeks ago it has become unreliable. kdotool search will find an existing window maybe 75% of the time only.

Decent workaround is to wrap the kdotool search in a for loop. I try up to 10 times with 0.02 sleep between each.

[jinliu]

TBH it has this problem since day 1, but it was quite rarely and I've never figured it out. But if it's failing that frequently now, I'll try again fixing it.

[steveyh25]

In my case I think there is a bug with kde because opening any window via shortcut goes under the current window - i.e. for me it's more than a kdotool issue because it happens generally. @OrbitalHustler are you also using Plasma 6.6? that would be interesting as I think my issues only started happening after upgrading to that

[OrbitalHustler]

@steveyh25 I'm on KDE Plasma 6.6.2

[jinliu]

@OrbitalHustler do you have an exact sequence of actions that triggers "kdotool search will find an existing window maybe 75% of the time only"? I'm also on 6.6.2 but can't reproduce the problem.

$ kinfo
Operating System: Arch Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.2
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.18.13-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 5600H with Radeon Graphics
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15.0 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon Graphics

[OrbitalHustler]

$ kinfo
Operating System: CachyOS Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.6.2
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.23.0
Qt Version: 6.10.2
Kernel Version: 6.19.5-2-cachyos-bore-lto (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 24 × Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 275HX
Memory: 32 GiB of RAM (30.8 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU
Graphics Processor 2: Intel® Graphics

The bug happens when using the following script:

#!/bin/bash

usage() {
    cat <<EOF
Usage: toggle-app (--class CLASS | --title TITLE) [--width W] [--height H] -- command...

Toggle a window by class or title. If not found, launches it.

Options:
    --class CLASS   Search by window class
    --title TITLE   Search by window title
    --width W       Window width (pixels, -pixels from edge, or %)
    --height H      Window height (pixels, -pixels from edge, or %)
    -h, --help      Show this help

Size formats:
    1200        Absolute pixels
    -100        Screen dimension minus 100 pixels
    50%         Percentage of screen dimension

Examples:
    toggle-app --class myterm -- kitty --class myterm
    toggle-app --title notes --width 80% --height -100 -- emacs --title notes
EOF
    exit 0
}

[[ "$1" == "-h" || "$1" == "--help" || -z "$1" ]] && usage

# Get active screen dimensions and position (accounting for scale)
get_screen_dims() {
    local output
    output=$(qdbus6 org.kde.KWin /KWin org.kde.KWin.activeOutputName 2>/dev/null)
    [[ -z "$output" ]] && return 1

    local info
    info=$(kscreen-doctor --outputs 2>&1 | sed 's/\x1b\[[0-9;]*m//g' | grep -A 20 "$output")

    local geom_line pos size scale w h
    geom_line=$(echo "$info" | grep "Geometry:" | awk '{print $2, $3}')
    pos=$(echo "$geom_line" | awk '{print $1}')
    size=$(echo "$geom_line" | awk '{print $2}')
    scale=$(echo "$info" | grep "Scale:" | awk '{print $2}')

    # Screen position
    SCREEN_X=$(echo "$pos" | cut -d, -f1)
    SCREEN_Y=$(echo "$pos" | cut -d, -f2)

    # Screen size (effective, accounting for scale)
    w=$(echo "$size" | cut -dx -f1)
    h=$(echo "$size" | cut -dx -f2)
    SCREEN_W=$(awk "BEGIN {printf \"%.0f\", $w / $scale}")
    SCREEN_H=$(awk "BEGIN {printf \"%.0f\", $h / $scale}")
}

# Calculate dimension from format: pixels, -pixels, or %
calc_dim() {
    local val="$1" screen_dim="$2"
    if [[ "$val" == *% ]]; then
        local pct=${val%\%}
        awk "BEGIN {printf \"%.0f\", $screen_dim * $pct / 100}"
    elif [[ "$val" == -* ]]; then
        local offset=${val#-}
        awk "BEGIN {printf \"%.0f\", $screen_dim - $offset}"
    else
        echo "$val"
    fi
}

# Parse arguments
SEARCH_TYPE=""
SEARCH_VALUE=""
WIDTH=""
HEIGHT=""

while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
    case "$1" in
        --class)
            SEARCH_TYPE="class"
            SEARCH_VALUE="$2"
            shift 2
            ;;
        --title)
            SEARCH_TYPE="name"
            SEARCH_VALUE="$2"
            shift 2
            ;;
        --width)
            WIDTH="$2"
            shift 2
            ;;
        --height)
            HEIGHT="$2"
            shift 2
            ;;
        --)
            shift
            break
            ;;
        *)
            echo "Unknown option: $1" >&2
            exit 1
            ;;
    esac
done

if [[ -z "$SEARCH_TYPE" || -z "$SEARCH_VALUE" ]]; then
    echo "Must specify --class or --title" >&2
    exit 1
fi

# Search for window (retry to handle transient KWin failures)
WID=$(kdotool search --"$SEARCH_TYPE" "$SEARCH_VALUE" 2>/dev/null | head -1)

if [[ -z "$WID" ]]; then
    if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then
        echo "No window found and no command provided" >&2
        exit 1
    fi

    "$@" &

    # If size specified, wait for window and resize
    if [[ -n "$WIDTH" || -n "$HEIGHT" ]]; then
        get_screen_dims

        # Wait for window to appear (up to 5 seconds)
        for _ in {1..50}; do
            WID=$(kdotool search --"$SEARCH_TYPE" "$SEARCH_VALUE" 2>/dev/null | head -1)
            [[ -n "$WID" ]] && break
            sleep 0.1
        done

        if [[ -n "$WID" ]]; then
            FINAL_W=$(calc_dim "${WIDTH:-$SCREEN_W}" "$SCREEN_W")
            FINAL_H=$(calc_dim "${HEIGHT:-$SCREEN_H}" "$SCREEN_H")

            # Center on screen
            CENTER_X=$(awk "BEGIN {printf \"%.0f\", $SCREEN_X + ($SCREEN_W - $FINAL_W) / 2}")
            CENTER_Y=$(awk "BEGIN {printf \"%.0f\", $SCREEN_Y + ($SCREEN_H - $FINAL_H) / 2}")

            kdotool windowmove "$WID" "$CENTER_X" "$CENTER_Y"
            kdotool windowsize "$WID" "$FINAL_W" "$FINAL_H"
        fi
    fi
    exit 0
fi

if [[ $(kdotool getactivewindow 2>/dev/null) == "$WID" ]]; then
    kdotool windowminimize "$WID"
else
    kdotool windowactivate "$WID"
fi

It will happen when I use that script for emacs or kitty:
toggle-app --title emacs-notes-toggle -- emacs --title emacs-notes-toggle
toggle-app --class kitty-toggle -- kitty --class kitty-toggle

If I repeatedly press the shortcut for one of these, sometimes the search fails and another emacs/kitty opens, instead of the existing one showing/minimizing

[jinliu]

I created a new user, and assigned Meta+K and Meta+M to the commands above (System settings - Shortcut). Pressed those repeatedly as fast as I can, but can't reproduce the problem.

Does it happen only in certain scenarios, e.g., after the system runs for a while, or when in heavy load?

Could you add a debug flag to the kdotool search command, like

kdotool --debug search --classname "firefox" 2> /tmp/kdotool-log-$(date +%s%N) | grep '^{'

And see what in the log file when the search fails?

[OrbitalHustler]

I added --debug to the kdotool commands in my script. Then, I couldn't reproduce the problem at all. I thought it fixed itself somehow

But then I realized, adding the --debug flag fixed it. I call kdotool twice in my script:

• First to find the window ID. Without --debug, sometimes it doesn't find the window and so will open an extra emacs window. With --debug, this never happens
• Second, to minimize OR put the focus on the window. Again, without --debug, this sometimes fail (even if we found the windows ID with the first kdotool command!). But with --debug, this also never happens

It completely fixes it. I can spam the hotkey and it works perfectly

Side note: --debug prints an extra line to stdout, maybe something to fix:

❯ kdotool search --name brave
{de91a2cc-cbb0-41f3-aca0-2715aea7f6e6}
{a57b5b01-898c-43f9-b47b-54a4dd991a25}

~/.local/bin
❯ kdotool --debug search --name brave 2> /dev/null
debug: STEP search brave
{de91a2cc-cbb0-41f3-aca0-2715aea7f6e6}
{a57b5b01-898c-43f9-b47b-54a4dd991a25}

[jinliu]

I have a guess of what caused the bug. Could you test if this build fixes it:

kdotool.gz

Side note: --debug prints an extra line to stdout, maybe something to fix:

--quiet suppresses it.

[OrbitalHustler]

Unfortunately no, the issue still happens with that version, if I drop the --debug flag

[ericholtz]

I should've checked this GitHub issues page earlier. I use kdotool in a script and it kept failing because of this bug. Thanks @OrbitalHustler for the temporary fix! I just use --debug with --quiet and redirect stderr with 2>/dev/null. My script works again! :D

Hopefully the actual main version without the debug flag will get fixed soon, but since it's contained within the script, this will work fine for now.