Linux get notification on focused gui window change

Question

In linux, is it possible to get notifications when the currently focused GUI app changes? I\'m writing an app that tracks how long a user stays on each GUI app(per process, not

Answer 1

Finally I got it.
compile: g++ ./a.cpp -lX11

#include <X11/Xlib.h>
#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>
#define MAXSTR 1000
using namespace std;

Display* display;
unsigned char *prop;

void check_status(int status, Window window)
{
    if (status == BadWindow)
    {
        printf("window id # 0x%lx does not exists!", window);
    }

    if (status != Success)
    {
        printf("XGetWindowProperty failed!");
    }
}

unsigned char *get_string_property(const char *property_name, Window window)
{
    Atom actual_type, filter_atom;
    int actual_format, status;
    unsigned long nitems, bytes_after;

    filter_atom = XInternAtom(display, property_name, True);
    status = XGetWindowProperty(display, window, filter_atom, 0, MAXSTR, False, AnyPropertyType,
                                &actual_type, &actual_format, &nitems, &bytes_after, &prop);
    check_status(status, window);
    return prop;
}

unsigned long get_long_property(const char *property_name, Window window)
{
    if (window == 0)
        return 0;
    get_string_property(property_name, window);
    unsigned long long_property = static_cast<unsigned long>(prop[0] + (prop[1] << 8) + (prop[2] << 16) + (prop[3] << 24));
    return long_property;
}

unsigned long getActiveWindowPID(Window root_window)
{
    unsigned long window;
    window = get_long_property("_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW", root_window);
    return get_long_property(("_NET_WM_PID"), window);
}

int main()
{
    Display * d;
    Window w;
    XEvent e;

    d = XOpenDisplay( 0 );
    if ( !d ) {
        cerr << "Could not open display" << endl;
        return 1;
    }
    display = d;

    w = DefaultRootWindow( d );
    XSelectInput( d, w, PropertyChangeMask );

    pid_t window_pid;

    for ( ;; ) {
        XNextEvent( d, &e );
        if ( e.type == PropertyNotify ) {
            if ( !strcmp( XGetAtomName( d, e.xproperty.atom ), "_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW" ) ) {
                window_pid = getActiveWindowPID(w );
                cout << window_pid << endl;
            }
        }
    }

    return 0;
}

Answer 2

Example in JavaScript using node-x11:

var x11 = require('x11');
x11.createClient(function(err, display) {
  var X = display.client;
  X.ChangeWindowAttributes(display.screen[0].root, { eventMask: x11.eventMask.PropertyChange });
  X.on('event', function(ev) {
    if(ev.name == 'PropertyNotify') {
      X.GetAtomName(ev.atom, function(err, name) {
        if (name == '_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW') {
          X.GetProperty(0, ev.window, ev.atom, X.atoms.WINDOW, 0, 4, function(err, prop) {
            console.log('New active window:' + prop.data.readUInt32LE(0));
          });
        }
      });
    }
  });
});