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Rae

Member

Registered: 2025-08-04

Posts: 5

[Solved]Xfce4/Xfwm Keybinds & Keynames

I am using Xfce4, sadly can't copy paste versions out of the About window.

Xfce: 4.20.
GTK: 3.24.49

Windows manager: Xfwm4

I have had a little trouble finding the keybinds already there on install to clear them to free up keys, and make new. So first let me share what I found:

Applications -> Setting -> Keyboard
  Has a few hotkeys, mainly related to opening programs.

Applications -> Setting -> Windows Manager -> Keyboard
  Has the keybinds related to switching desktops/workspaces and moving windows on and between workspaces.

xfconf-query -c xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts -lv
  List keybinds, possible for all Xfce elements.

The keys
<Primary> means CTRL or Command on Mac.
<Super> is the Start / Left Win Key (guess there is a Mac equivalent too)

Now the Questions / Issues:
1: Does xfconf-query list all Xfce applications, or are there exceptions that store shortcuts elsewhere?

2: A couple questions for same issue I ran into: Trying to bind screenshot of entire screen, save instantly to PRINT.

https://docs.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-screenshooter/usage shows an example

xfce4-screenshooter -f -s "$HOME/Desktop/Screenshot_$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S).png"

However trying to use that as a command in Applications -> Settings -> Keyboard -> Application Shortcuts results in an error:

Failed to open "/home/<username>/$HOME/Desktop/Screenshot_$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S).png

If I try replace $HOME with ~ same error, just with $HOME replaced.

$HOME is set.

$ echo $HOME
/home/<username>

Replacing the command with

xfce4-screenshooter -f -s "Desktop/Screenshot_$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S).png"

saves a file on Desktop. But the name is literally Screenshot_$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S).png, apart from missing out on nice information, it also means each new one overwrites the old.

2a: Where is it set what path is applied in front of Desktop/ here?

2b: Where to find what options should be available for file naming (%Y etc)?

2c: Anyone know why it breaks and apparently not translate the parameters into the date/time information?

Last edited by Rae (2025-08-05 01:15:47)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,341

Re: [Solved]Xfce4/Xfwm Keybinds & Keynames

1: Does xfconf-query list all Xfce applications, or are there exceptions that store shortcuts elsewhere?

Only for xfsettings (includes keyboard shortcuts) and xfwm4. Other Xfce components still store their keyboard shortcuts in scm files:

• Thunar = ~/.config/Thunar/accels.scm

• Mousepad = ~/.config/Mousepad/accels.scm

• xfce4-terminal = ~/.config/xfce4/terminal/accels.scm

2: A couple questions for same issue I ran into: Trying to bind screenshot of entire screen, save instantly to PRINT

The built-in command interpreter is not a proper shell and as such is unable to handle special characters. This is what is causing all these issues. The way to deal with this is to embed this command in a shell interpreter sequence like this:

sh -c "xfce4-screenshooter -f -s $HOME/Desktop/Screenshot_$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S).png"

2b: Where to find what options should be available for file naming (%Y etc)?

It uses the same parameters from the linux date command:

man date

2b: Where to find what options should be available for file naming (%Y etc)?

I don't understand. Can you explain further what you mean by this?

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Rae

Member

Registered: 2025-08-04

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved]Xfce4/Xfwm Keybinds & Keynames

Let me start with a thank you for the detailed answer.

2b: Where to find what options should be available for file naming (%Y etc)?

I don't understand. Can you explain further what you mean by this?

You already answered above with same parameters as date, so I guess you meant the question 2a: Where is it set what path is applied in front of Desktop/ here?

In the Application Shortcut window, when creating a new keybind and entering any path directly into the command like the example given, the error message contains the path "/home/<username>" applied in front, which happens to be my home but I didn't tell it to do that, and it seems to always be added with varies paths I tried. It is not a typo from redacting the username that the part in bold tags is there (sorry that is ugly but no idea how to emphasize it inside the code block)

Failed to open "[b]/home/<username>/[/b]$HOME/Desktop/Screenshot_$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M-%S).png

Now your solution already given for the entire problem, removes my concern with not knowing where exactly things end up and why, so I will mark it as solved already, just curious what happened to add my home directory.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,341

Re: [Solved]Xfce4/Xfwm Keybinds & Keynames

just curious what happened to add my home directory.

Because it was not able to properly process the directory you specified (because of the special characters) it defaulted to your home directory and appended your malformed directory to it. This is probably a bug that you could report: https://gitlab.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-scre … r/-/issues

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