command line options for WM_CLASS and WM_ROLE do not work

[Gregor Santner]

Data: Terminator 1.91, Arch Linux x64, XFCE 4.12

Setting WM_CLASS and/or WM_ROLE attributes via the available "-r"/"-c" option do not work.
Resolving the WM attributes always yields >>>WM_CLASS(STRING) = "terminator", "Terminator"<<< , supplied parameters are getting ignored. This makes window-lists/docks believe this is just another terminator window, and therefore it can't be distinguished from others.

Example call: terminator -c mocp -r mocp -x mocp
Should show: mocp as WM_CLASS and mocp as WM_ROLE
Current: "terminator", "Terminator"

See attachment.

[Stephen Boddy (stephen-j-boddy)]

See https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/GtkWindow.html#gtk-window-set-wmclass

First sentence: "Don't use this function." It is also deprecated in 3.22, so it will disappear completely at some point in the future (possibly 4.0).

So this option was removed in http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~gnome-terminator/terminator/gtk3/revision/1758

Instead we are told to use the set_role function, which should still be done and working. I'm not currently in a position to test it though, so I'll check that later.

[Gregor Santner (gsantner)]

Hm, thats somewhat dumb. That destroys the use of the StartUpWmClass attribute in FreeDesktop files.

Just asking, there must be some constructor that which leads to the Terminator WM_CLASS. Couldn't be the value set in there (with terminator as default of course) instead of using the deprecated setter?

[Sean Dilda (seandilda)]

I ran into the same issue. While not a fix, I found that if I can work around this with a symlink.

Just create a symlink with the name of the WM_CLASS you want that points to terminator. Call the symlink instead of terminator and it will update the WM_CLASS. This worked for me with gnome under wayland well enough to match to a .desktop file with StartupWMClass set

[Francesco Minnocci (qwerty1214)]

 I experience the same issue as OP on Ubuntu 18.04: WM_WINDOW_ROLE is respected, while WM_CLASS set via `--classname` is ignored.

 While I understand the dev's comment referring to gtk3 non-support of WM_CLASS, I also agree with OP that this function, although for limited use cases, is very useful when customizing .desktop files.

 Example use case: I want to use `terminator -c ncmpcpp` ncmpcpp` for the `exec` field of a FreeDesktop file, in order to set StartupWM_CLASS and display a custom icon an name in the Ubuntu dock (or any app launcher).