Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

HippopotamusMan · 2026-01-18 15:17:25

I'm running XFCE4 version 4.20 on my Debian 13 system.

Is there a way from a shell script that I can temporarily make xfce-panel disappear? ... and also via a shell script to make it re-appear in its full, previously configured state?

When running a certain XWindows application, I sometimes want the panel to not be present until I decide to turn it on again.

I do not want to manually do this. I want to be able to do this totally programmatically from a shell script.

Is this possible?

Added later 04 min 23 s:
PS: or if not from a shell script, doing it from a C program by making some sort of XWindows calls would also be acceptable to me.

Last edited by HippopotamusMan (2026-01-18 15:22:47)

eriefisher · 2026-01-18 18:16:14

This has been discussed here:
https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=18564

HippopotamusMan · 2026-01-18 18:47:54

eriefisher wrote:

This has been discussed here:
https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=18564

Thank you very much. I already saw this and tried the two things that were described, but neither works on my system:

% xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /panels/panel-1/autohide-behavior -s 0
Property "/panels/panel-1/autohide-behavior" does not exist on channel "xfce4-panel". If a new property should be created, use the --create option.

... and ...

% xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /panels/panel-1/autohide -T          
Property "/panels/panel-1/autohide" does not exist on channel "xfce4-panel".

I also tried getting the C program described there to build and run on my system, but so far, no luck. But I'll keep trying with that. Maybe I'll eventually get it running.

Are there any other possibilities?

Last edited by HippopotamusMan (2026-01-18 18:48:46)

eriefisher · 2026-01-18 18:52:07

HippopotamusMan wrote:

Are there any other possibilities?

Not that I'm aware of but I'm not a programmer. You could look into the panel source code itself. Maybe some clues.

HippopotamusMan · 2026-01-18 19:31:08

eriefisher wrote:

HippopotamusMan wrote:
Are there any other possibilities?
Not that I'm aware of but I'm not a programmer. You could look into the panel source code itself. Maybe some clues.

Thank you. I have already been looking into all of the xfce4-panel source code. The C program mentioned above needs that source code to compiie, but I can't even get the standard xfce4-panel code to build on my Debian 13 system due to package incompatibilities between it and this C code. Debian 13 is the newest Debian, and I don't want to regress my system back to an older Debian version or perhaps change to LinuxMint or Ubuntu or some other linux version, just to get this one piece of functionality to work.

But I'll keep digging for more info.

Added later 38 min 53 s:
OMG! I just discovered a very easy way to accomplish this:

To make the xfce4-panel disappear: /usr/bin/xfce4-panel --quit

To make the xfce4-panel re-appear: /usr/bin/xfce4-panel &

eriefisher · 2026-01-18 20:30:46

I thought you wanted something like xfconf or similar.

HippopotamusMan · 2026-01-18 21:02:34

eriefisher wrote:

I thought you wanted something like xfconf or similar.

Yes, that's what I was originally thinking that I needed, but I didn't realize that these xfce4-panel commands existed.

They are good enough for my use.

eriefisher · 2026-01-18 21:44:06

For the future, most of the xfce4 "parts" have a similar stop/start/restart feature.

HippopotamusMan · 2026-01-18 23:11:14

eriefisher wrote:

For the future, most of the xfce4 "parts" have a similar stop/start/restart feature.

Oh ... do you mean that future versions of xfce4-panel are planned to have more stop/start/restart features than the current version offers?

I certainly would be happy if this indeed will be coming in the future.

eriefisher · 2026-01-18 23:14:31

No, I meant if your doing something in the future with another part of xfce4.

HippopotamusMan · 2026-01-18 23:19:12

eriefisher wrote:

No, I meant if your doing something in the future with another part of xfce4.

Oh, I see. Yes, I agree.

And also, over time, I might work with the xfce4-panel source code to perhaps add some of those new features.

eriefisher · 2026-01-18 23:22:55

I'm sure the developers would consider any or all submissions.

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#1 2026-01-18 15:17:25

Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

#2 2026-01-18 18:16:14

Re: Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

#3 2026-01-18 18:47:54

Re: Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

#4 2026-01-18 18:52:07

Re: Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

#5 2026-01-18 19:31:08

Re: Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

#6 2026-01-18 20:30:46

Re: Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

#7 2026-01-18 21:02:34

Re: Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

#8 2026-01-18 21:44:06

Re: Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

#9 2026-01-18 23:11:14

Re: Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

#10 2026-01-18 23:14:31

Re: Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

#11 2026-01-18 23:19:12

Re: Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

#12 2026-01-18 23:22:55

Re: Programmatically making xfce4-panel disappear and re-appear?

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