Using || in keyboard shortcut

[vid512]

Due to some weird bug with FluxBox (messing up behavior of some GUI apps a bit), I'm now trying out IceWM.

In FluxBox, I have defined a keyboard shortcut that either focuses an application if it is started already, or starts it otherwise. When I tried to do the same in IceWM, it doesn't seem to work:

~/.icewm/keys:

key "Super+w" wmctrl -a "Firefox" || firefox

This correctly switches to Firefox if it is already started, but otherwise it doesn't start Firefox. It seems like the || isn't processed in usual shell-like manner in IceWM.

Any idea how to do this simply?

[gijsbers]

What happens when you try:

key "Super+w" pstree

or:

key "Super+w" echo "$@" || echo false

[vid512]

Nothing happens, but I am probably missing some step here. IceWM is started by the display manager, and I can't see any console output from it. If it is logged somewhere, then I don't know where to look for it.

However, when I try:
key "Super+w" firefox
Then Win+W will correctly start another instance of Firefox. (If that's what you wanted to test)

[gijsbers]

lsof -p $(pgrep -x icewm) | grep -e 1w -e 2w

gives you the file where icewm output is logged. That enables you to discover by experimenting what is the matter. I want you to become self-sufficient, because I don't wish to answer loads of questions by every new user, as you may understand, hopefully.

[vid512]

Both your help and your approach are appreciated. I prefer to understand things I use.

So, using
key "Super+w" echo "$@" || echo false
outputs
$@ || echo false

That means IceWM directly executes echo command, with rest as arguments, not passing it through bash, which would process the || chaining.

So, the solution is:
key "Super+w" bash -c "wmctrl -a \"Firefox\" || firefox"

So far it seems to work as expected. Thanks.

[gijsbers]

I'll give you a more icewm-ish style solution as a reward for your hard work:

icesh if -c firefox -l then activate else runonce firefox

Depending on your configuration and goals this may also work:

icesh -c firefox runonce firefox