smart-auto-move is a Gnome Shell extension which keeps track of all application windows and restores them to the previous position, size, and workspace on restart. Supports Wayland.
NOTE: this extension follows the GNOME version in Debian "testing". if you are using a bleeding edge GNOME release, you can "Disable version validation" at https://extensions.gnome.org/local/ to install this extension on any GNOME version before it is officially supported.
most settings can be modified via the extension preferences dialog.
the first step is to choose your Default Synchronization Mode: IGNORE or RESTORE. IGNORE will keep track of windows but will not restore any unless an Override with RESTORE behavior is created. RESTORE will keep track and restore all windows unless an Override with IGNORE behavior is created.
next is to choose your global Match Threshold, the default works well for most use cases. a number closer to 0.0 will match windows with less similar attributes, whereas 1.0 requires an exact match.
advanced users can tune window matching behavior with parameters like New Window Max Wait Time, Title Stability, and other timing settings in the preferences.
after you've dialed in your overrides, the learning apparatus can be paused. enable Freeze Saves to prevent changes to Saved Windows. N.B. this will lose track of windows if their titles change.
to create an override, visit the Saved Windows tab.
to create an override for a specific window, click OVERRIDE.
to create an override for an entire application, click OVERRIDE (ANY).
after you've created an override, visit the Overrides tab.
you can change the IGNORE/RESTORE behavior here for apps and windows.
for applications, a custom Match Threshold can be set.
when upgrading from version 35 or earlier to version 36+, the extension will automatically migrate your settings:
- saved window positions are cleared - the internal data format has changed significantly and cannot be converted automatically. your windows will be re-learned as you use them.
- overrides are preserved - all your IGNORE/RESTORE rules and custom thresholds will be migrated automatically.
- settings are preserved - global preferences remain unchanged.
no manual intervention is required. the migration happens automatically on first load.
LIMITATION: terminals which include the current directory in the title may not reach the match threshold if they do not preserve the working directory across restarts. WORKAROUND: create a per-app override (see above) and set the threshold to a lower value, eg. 0.2
LIMITATION: multi-monitor is not well supported and may result in windows becoming "stuck". WORKAROUND: visit the "Saved Windows" tab in preferences and delete any stuck windows.
if everything is horribly broken, clear your Saved Windows:
$ gnome-extensions disable smart-auto-move@khimaros.com
$ dconf write /org/gnome/shell/extensions/smart-auto-move/saved-windows '{}'
$ gnome-extensions enable smart-auto-move@khimaros.com
because there is no way to uniquely distinguish individual windows from an application across restarts, smart-auto-move uses a heuristic to uniquely identify them. this is primarily based on startup order and title. in cases where there are multiple windows with the same title, they are restored based on relative startup sequence.
titles are matched using Levenstein distance. the match bonus for title is calculated based on (title length - distance) / title length.
most settings can be modified from the preferences GUI. this section documents all of the dconf values and is only recommended for advanced users.
enable debug logging:
$ dconf write /org/gnome/shell/extensions/smart-auto-move/debug-logging true
set the minimum window/title match threshold to 50%:
$ dconf write /org/gnome/shell/extensions/smart-auto-move/match-threshold 0.5
set the maximum wait time for new window title stabilization to 15 seconds:
$ dconf write /org/gnome/shell/extensions/smart-auto-move/new-window-max-wait-ms 15000
default to ignoring windows unless explicitly defined. restore all windows of the gnome-calculator app, all firefox windows except for the profile chooser, and Nautilus only if the window title is "Downloads": /
$ dconf write /org/gnome/shell/extensions/smart-auto-move/sync-mode "'IGNORE'"
$ dconf write /org/gnome/shell/extensions/smart-auto-move/overrides '{"gnome-calculator": [{"action":1}], "firefox": [{"query": {"title": "Firefox - Choose User Profile"}, "action": 0}, {"action": 1}],"org.gnome.Nautilus":[{"query":{"title":"Downloads"},"action":1}]}'
default to restoring all windows, but ignore the firefox profile chooser and any nautilus windows:
$ dconf write /org/gnome/shell/extensions/smart-auto-move/sync-mode "'RESTORE'"
$ dconf write /org/gnome/shell/extensions/smart-auto-move/overrides '{"firefox": [{"query": {"title": "Firefox - Choose User Profile"}, "action": 0}], "org.gnome.Nautilus": [{"action":0}]}'
show all saved firefox windows (N.B. jq will fail if window title contains \):
$ dconf read /org/gnome/shell/extensions/smart-auto-move/saved-windows | sed "s/^'//; s/'$//" | jq -C .Firefox | less -SR
there are example configs in the examples/ dir which can be loaded (N.B. while extension is disabled) with:
$ dconf load /org/gnome/shell/extensions/smart-auto-move/ < ./examples/default-restore.dconf
you can backup your config (restore is the same as above):
$ dconf dump /org/gnome/shell/extensions/smart-auto-move/ > smart-auto-move.dconf
the gsettings tool can also be used to manipulate these values:
$ gsettings --schemadir ./smart-auto-move@khimaros.com/schemas/ set org.gnome.shell.extensions.smart-auto-move sync-mode 'RESTORE'