xcwd - X current working directory

xcwd is a simple tool which print the current working directory of the currently focused window.

The main goal is to launch applications directly into the same directory as the focused applications. This is especially useful if you want to open a new terminal for debugging or compiling purpose.

How it works

Since there is no proper options to get the pid of the currently focused windows, xcwd first try to read the _NET_WM_PID property. If it fails, it reads the _NET_WM_CLASS and compares it to the name of all the running processes (it's kind of pidof name).

When xcwd has got the PID, it search the deepest child he has, thus avoiding getting the working directory of the terminal emulator instead of the shell.

Finally it prints the content of /proc/pid/cwd on the standard output. If xcwd was unable to find the PID, it prints the content of the HOME variable.

Disclaimer

This script can't retrieve the working directory of a shell in tmux, screen or in an instance of urxvtc.

Requirements

• Linux
• libX11-dev

Running xwcd

Simply invoke the 'xcwd' command.

You probably want to use it this way: urxvt -cd "`xcwd`"