I use KDE on arch and would like to achieve the following behavior:

Whatever way I launch Konsole, I want it to check whether there already is a Konsole instance. If one exists, it should be brought into focus, and if no instance exists, one should be launched.

I am unable to find such an option in the Konsole settings, even though I found a roughly 1 year old forum entry mentioning such a setting. Was it removed or am I just blind? Or do I need some optional dependency?

Alternatively, it would be fine if this could simply kick in when I use my Super+K shortcut, which I’ve set up. Maybe there’s a way to call Konsole from the terminal like that? I tried using konsole --force-reuse but it didn’t seem to do the trick, and konsole --new-tab does not bring Konsole into the foreground.

Edit: Here’s a script that does this, by @[email protected]

#!/bin/bash
WIN="$(kdotool search --class org.kde.konsole | head -1)"
if [[ "$WIN" != "" ]]; then 
    kdotool windowactivate "$WIN"
else 
    konsole
fi

kdotool is available in AUR as kdotool-git

  • @AudalinEnglish
    5•16 days ago

    If you don’t find such a setting, you can try writing a script that checks if it’s running already (e.g. with pgrep), activates the window if found (no idea how to do that in Wayland properly) and launches a new instance otherwise. Then use a custom .desktop launcher for Konsole.

    • silly goose meekahOPEnglish
      4•16 days ago

      Thanks for your reply :) I might look into it if I don’t find anything easier

      • @AudalinEnglish
        8•16 days ago

        Here’s a KDE-specific script with kdotool (Wayland always needs custom solutions for simple things):

        #!/bin/bash
WIN="$(kdotool search --class org.kde.konsole | head -1)"
if [[ "$WIN" != "" ]]; then 
    kdotool windowactivate "$WIN"
else 
    konsole
fi
          • @AudalinEnglish
            3•16 days ago

            Well, that’s exactly what I did. My point was rather that there’s no single consistent way to do this across different DEs with different Wayland implementations - and that’s supposedly considered a feature from Wayland design’s perspective.

          • silly goose meekahOPEnglish
            1•15 days ago

            How have you read the part you quoted without reading the package name right in front of it?

  • @johsnyEnglish
    4•16 days ago

    I would like to know too. Subscribed.

    • silly goose meekahOPEnglish
      2•16 days ago

      in case you weren’t notified despite subscribing to the post, there is a solution now :)

      • @johsnyEnglish
        1•16 days ago

        Thank you!!

  • silly goose meekahOPEnglish
    3•16 days ago

    @mods: If I should cool it on the questions today, let me know.

    • @[email protected]English
      2•16 days ago

      I’m not a mod here, but two should be fine. Just don’t keep asking simple questions day after day or week after week. That’s when it gets annoying.

      • silly goose meekahOPEnglish
        2•16 days ago

        Is this a simple question? It’s hard to tell from my inexperienced position. I have a few friends who are more experienced with linux than I am, and they help me out from time to time. But when they are not available and I am unable to find something on google after 15-30 minutes, I tend to start posting to forums haha

        • @johsnyEnglish
          2•16 days ago

          Google search is so useless these days too!