How do I look up the name of the current workspace?

You can do it with wmctrl -d to list all workspaces. The * represents the current workspace:

~$ wmctrl -d
0  * DG: 3840x1080  VP: 0,0  WA: 0,25 3840x1055  1
1  - DG: 3840x1080  VP: N/A  WA: 0,25 3840x1055  2
2  - DG: 3840x1080  VP: N/A  WA: 0,25 3840x1055  3
3  - DG: 3840x1080  VP: N/A  WA: 0,25 3840x1055  4

So, to get only the current, grep for the *:

~$ wmctrl -d | grep -w '*'
0  * DG: 3840x1080  VP: 0,0  WA: 0,25 3840x1055  1

Hope this helps!

Viewports in Unity

If you are using Unity, the current viewport cannot be retrieved directly from

wmctrl -d

since Unity has viewports, which are not detected directly by wmctrl -d. The output will show only one workspace:

0  * DG: 5040x2100  VP: 1680,1050  WA: 59,24 1621x1026  N/A

• where my resolution is 1680 x 1050 (from xrandr)
• the spanning workspace (all viewports) is 5040x2100. That is 3x2 viewports: 5040/1680 = 3 and 2100 / 1050 = 2.
• I am currently on (viewport-) position 1680,1050 (x,y)

The script below calculates the current viewport from this information:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import subprocess

def get_res():
    # get resolution
    xr = subprocess.check_output(["xrandr"]).decode("utf-8").split()
    pos = xr.index("current")
    return [int(xr[pos+1]), int(xr[pos+3].replace(",", "") )]

def current():
    # get the resolution (viewport size)
    res = get_res()
    # read wmctrl -d
    vp_data = subprocess.check_output(
        ["wmctrl", "-d"]
        ).decode("utf-8").split()
    # get the size of the spanning workspace (all viewports)
    dt = [int(n) for n in vp_data[3].split("x")]
    # calculate the number of columns
    cols = int(dt[0]/res[0])
    # calculate the number of rows
    rows = int(dt[1]/res[1])
    # get the current position in the spanning workspace
    curr_vpdata = [int(n) for n in vp_data[5].split(",")]
    # current column (readable format)
    curr_col = int(curr_vpdata[0]/res[0])
    # current row (readable format)
    curr_row = int(curr_vpdata[1]/res[1])
    # calculate the current viewport
    return curr_col+curr_row*cols+1

print(current())

To use:

1. Install wmctrl

   sudo apt install wmctrl
   

2. Run it by the command

   python3 /path/to/get_viewport.py
   

   It will output 1, 2, 3, or whatever the current viewport is. It automatically counts rows/columns your viewport configuration may include.

Explanation

The script

• gets the size of one viewport (resolution) from xrandr, including possible extra monitors.
• gets the current position on the spanning workspace
• galculates the number of columns /rows in your viewport setup
• from that, it calculates the current viewport

At least in Gnome shell, but probably in other WM too, you can ask the Xserver directly (if in Wayland, no idea).

[romano:~/tmp] % desktop=$(xprop -root -notype  _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP | perl -pe 's/.*?= (\d+)/$1/') 
[romano:~/tmp] % echo $desktop
1

Basically, the command xprop will return

 [romano:~/tmp] % xprop -root -notype  _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP
 _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP = 1

and then you can massage a bit the info to get what you need.