get WM_CLASS of active window with non-ANSI letters in its title

Question

trying to get WM_CLASS of active window to make AutoKey script for hotkey that works differently for different applications

here is one way to do it:

winname=`xdotool getactivewindow getwindowname`
winclass=`xprop -name "$winname" | grep WM_CLASS`

it works as desired when active window's title contains only ANSI characters. if there are other characters (like letters of non-latin alphabets) then xprop exits with error.

is there a way around this shortcoming of xprop?

or what are other ways to get WM_CLASS or otherwise identify active window's program name?

Answer 1

You are close. Try this:

winid=$(xdotool getactivewindow)
winclass=$(xprop -id "$winid" | grep WM_CLASS)

I tested it with Russian alphabet and it worked, but the class name will be displayed in octal numbers (e.g., for "алфавит" I got "\320\260\320\273\321\204\320\260\320\262\320\270\321\202").

Notice I replaced the backticks, which are not recommended, by $(...).