Show all workspaces on i3

Question

I am starting to use and configure i3 and I have searched if it is possible to show all workspaces even though they are blank but I have not found a solution. Thank you

Answer 1

You can try it with polybar, if this doesn't work the only solution I know of is to use bspwm, because it shows empty workspaces

Answer 2

It's dirty hack - move some app after i3 startup by all needed workspaces. i3 do not delete already created workspaces in my case.

Answer 3

As kapa said, it is impossible (assuming you use i3bar). But as H4K1 points out, there are other bars with this kind of option.

I use polybar, and I can tell you there is a pin-workspaces option in the [module/i3] section that can be set to true, allowing at least 10 workspaces to be visible from startup (empty or not).

Answer 4

By the design of how i3 works, there is virtually no limit on how many workspaces could possibly exist. So showing all potential workspaces is impossible. There seems to be some talk online on a patch that allows a few empty workspaces to not get deleted but I don't think it was ever implemented. If you just want a couple of your workspaces to always be available, you could always just open applications in some of these workspaces on startup in your i3 config. Is there anything specific you're trying to do with these open empty workspaces?

Answer 5

In i3, you can create any number of workspaces. At any time, you can only see the workspaces you've applications on. When i3 starts, only one workspace per monitor is displayed.

Here's my i3 config for creating workspaces upto 20, if that helps

# workspaces from 11-20
bindsym $mod+Control+1 workspace 11
bindsym $mod+Control+2 workspace 12
bindsym $mod+Control+3 workspace 13
bindsym $mod+Control+4 workspace 14
bindsym $mod+Control+5 workspace 15
bindsym $mod+Control+6 workspace 16
bindsym $mod+Control+7 workspace 17
bindsym $mod+Control+8 workspace 18
bindsym $mod+Control+9 workspace 19
bindsym $mod+Control+0 workspace 20

set $Lmon eDP-1-1
set $Rmon HDMI-0
 
workspace $ws1 output $Lmon
 
workspace $ws3 output $Lmon
 
workspace $ws5 output $Lmon
 
workspace $ws7 output $Lmon
 
workspace $ws9 output $Lmon
 
workspace $ws2 output $Rmon
 
workspace $ws4 output $Rmon
 
workspace $ws6 output $Rmon
 
workspace $ws8 output $Rmon
 
workspace $ws10 output $Rmon

workspace 11 output $Lmon
workspace 12 output $Rmon
workspace 13 output $Lmon
workspace 14 output $Rmon
workspace 15 output $Lmon
workspace 16 output $Rmon
workspace 17 output $Lmon
workspace 18 output $Rmon
workspace 19 output $Lmon
workspace 20 output $Rmon

Even number workspaces are displayed on my right monitor and odd number workspaces are displayed on left monitor