Why gnome window_id is different from xdotool window_id?

Platform
1

The following command giving output like:

% xdotool search --onlyvisible --desktop $i --name ".*" 2> /dev/null
6291459
73400382
56691633
56623114
56652097
56695632
60817412

But command using gnome extension giving:

% dbus-send --print-reply=literal --session --dest=org.gnome.Shell /org/gnome/Shell/Extensions/GnomeUtilsWindows org.gnome.Shell.Extensions.GnomeUtilsWindows.GetWindowsNormal | jq .
[
  {
    "wm_class": "Nemo",
    "wm_class_instance": "nemo",
    "pid": 7354,
    "id": 3622595801
  },
  {
    "wm_class": "Nemo",
    "wm_class_instance": "nemo",
    "pid": 7354,
    "id": 3622595803
  },
  {
    "wm_class": "VSCodium",
    "wm_class_instance": "vscodium",
    "pid": 2300,
    "id": 3622595795
  },
  {
    "wm_class": "Firefox-esr",
    "wm_class_instance": "Navigator",
    "pid": 3955,
    "id": 3622595796
  },
  {
    "wm_class": "Nemo",
    "wm_class_instance": "nemo",
    "pid": 7354,
    "id": 3622595799
  },
  {
    "wm_class": "Nemo",
    "wm_class_instance": "nemo",
    "pid": 7354,
    "id": 3622595800
  },
  {
    "wm_class": "Nemo",
    "wm_class_instance": "nemo",
    "pid": 7354,
    "id": 3622595802
  },
  {
    "wm_class": "Alacritty",
    "wm_class_instance": "Alacritty",
    "pid": 3251,
    "id": 3622595798
  }
]

The function I am using for the dbus command is:

GetWindowsNormal() {
    let win = global.get_window_actors().filter(w => w.meta_window.get_window_type() == 0);

    var winJsonArr = [];
    win.forEach(function (w) {
        winJsonArr.push({
            wm_class: w.meta_window.get_wm_class(),
            wm_class_instance: w.meta_window.get_wm_class_instance(),
            pid: w.meta_window.get_pid(),
            id: w.meta_window.get_id()
        });
    })
    return JSON.stringify(winJsonArr);
}

Here, meta_window.get_id() gives the window id.

My question is, why are they different. I am asking this for interoperability. I mean, I need to pass value found in xdotool to gnome extension and vice versa.

2

Mutter cannot use the XID as window ID, because it does not only support X11 windows. The MetaWindow id is a unique identifier inside mutter. It is meaningless for any other tools.

1 Like
3

Thank you very much.

4

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