Wmnice: a window manager aware process renicer.

Question

Here is a little gambas script which makes the current window prioritized.
When the active window changes, an event is triggered, then it manages to discover the pid of the current application and renice it with "Current nice - nicestep" value (default -5).
The previous active window is then restored to the previous nice value (if it was reniced).
To exit the script, you have to hit the ENTER key so that it can restore the last window pid (or else it is left 'niced')
Also, you probably need to run [EDIT] with suid bit set or give your user the rights to set priorities under 0[/EDIT]
There is no configuration, all you need is to run the script.
Required packages:
* gambas3-gb-gui
* gambas3-gb-image
* gambas3-gb-desktop
* wmctrl
' Gambas module file
Public Extern getpriority(which As Integer, who As Integer) As Integer In "libc:6"
Public Extern setpriority(which As Integer, who As Integer, nice As Integer) As Integer In "libc:6"
Public MyDesktopWatcher As Desktopwatcher
Public LastWindowName As String
Public LastPid As Integer = -9999
Private NiceStep As Integer = 5 'niceness step value
Private Function PidFromWid(Wid As String) As Integer
Dim wmctrl As String
Shell "wmctrl -lp | grep " & wid To wmctrl
Print "-------------------"
Return Trim(Mid(wmctrl, 15, 6))
End
Public lastnice As Integer = -9999
Public Sub MakeFasterAndRestore(pid As Integer, lastpid As Integer)
'Restore last pid nice
If ((lastnice > -9999) And (lastpid <> -9999)) Then
setpriority(0, lastpid, lastnice)
Debug "RESTORE: Setpriority OK, PID=", lastpid, "NewPri=", getpriority(0, lastpid)
Endif
'Get the current pid nice and store it
lastnice = getpriority(0, pid)
'make the current pid faster
setpriority(0, pid, lastnice - NiceStep)
Debug "FASTER : Setpriority OK, PID=", pid, "NewPri=", getpriority(0, pid)
End
Public Sub Restore(pid As Integer)
If lastnice = -9999 Then Return
setpriority(0, pid, lastnice)
Debug "RESTORE: Setpriority OK, PID=", pid, "NewPri=", getpriority(0, pid)
End
Public Function ActiveWid() As String
Return Lower(Hex(Desktop.activewindow))
End
Public Sub MyDesktopWatcher_activewindow()
'raised when the active window has changed
Dim ActiveWindowName As String
Dim pid As Integer
'avoid double events:
Try ActiveWindowName = Desktop.Windows.FromHandle(Desktop.ActiveWindow).Name
If Error Then Return
If ActiveWindowName = LastWindowName Then Return
lastwindowname = ActiveWindowName
Try PID = PidFromWid(ActiveWid())
If Error Then Return
Debug "Active window caption= ", ActiveWindowName
Debug "PID", pid
If (pid <> "") Then
MakeFasterAndRestore(pid, lastpid) 'renice current pid and restore previous
Endif
LastPid = pid
Print "** hit ENTER to quit, NOT CTRL-C **"
End
Public Sub Application_read() 'ENTER key to exit
'restore last pid with priority from lastnice (global var)
Restore(PidFromWid(ActiveWid()))
Print "bye"
Quit
End
Public Sub Main()
MyDesktopWatcher = New DesktopWatcher(True) As "MyDesktopWatcher"
End
Last edited by kokoko3k (2011-10-12 17:38:33)

Answer 1

Interesting concept, have to try that out sometime. Though I won't use your implementation, too much/uncommon deps imho. I'm sure this concept could be quite easily done directly with some WMs, i.e. FVWM (via the Event-Intercafe).
But I'll do it less generic, i.e. I don't see the point giving f.e. my mail-client a high priority when there's things like video conversion running in the background.
There's also verynice, which I found by a quick search.
Thanks for the idea, though