wmctrl to open window without focus

Question

I am using the command:

wmctrl -a **id of application** -i

This is very close to what I am looking for, however Is there a away I can use wmctrl without bringing focus to the application.

For example if i run the command to bring up a window on my 2nd screen in terminal the focus of the mouse and keyboard stay on terminal.

Answer 1

xdotool may come in handy in your situation.

1. You should save your active window's ID to temporary file:

   xdotool getactivewindow > ~/.window_id

2. Then focus desired window:

   wmctrl -a **id of application** -i

3. And then restore focus to the previous window:

   xdotool windowfocus $(cat ~/.window_id) xdotool windowactivate $(cat ~/.window_id)

Using xbindkeys , xdotool and wmctrl combined create a very powerful tool-set.