March 22, 2025

awesomeWM: bind Print Screen key to take screenshots

First, create a directory called ~/bin where you will put the script that the Print Screen key will call:

$ cd
$ mkdir ~/bin

Move to that directory:

$ cd bin

Create a file where you’ll paste the script:

$ touch capscr

Also, you might need to install imagemagick:

$ sudo apt install imagemagick

Paste the script in the file capscr:

#!/bin/bash
# author: nixkid
timestamp="$(date +%d.%m.%Y"_shot_"%H:%M:%S)"
targetbase="$HOME/Pictures/screenshots"
mkdir -p $targetbase
[ -d $targetbase ] || exit 1
import -window root -quality 98 $targetbase/$timestamp.png

Make the script executable:

~/bin$ chmod +x capscr

Create a folder where screenshots will be saved, mine is in ~/Pictures:

$ mkdir ~/Pictures/screenshots

The script will create ~/Picture/screenshots.

Now you need to tell awesome to bind the key PrtSc to the script capscr.

$ cd ~/.config/awesome

where rc.lua is, that is awesome’s configuration file.

---

You can skip these steps if you want.

These are steps you can take so you can restore rc.lua if you mess things up.

Initiate a repository and commit.

$ git init
$ git add .
$ git commit -m "First commit"

Now, if you mess up your rc.lua file you can run $ git checkout . to restore the file to where it was when you ran $ git commit -m “First commit”.

---

You’ll need to modify rc.lua to tell awesome to connect the key PrtSc and the script capscr.

I wrote a patch you can use to modify rc.lua.

To download the patch in ~/.config/awesome you need wget:

$ sudo apt install wget # to install wget first

Then, download the patch in awesome configuration directory:

$ wget https://yctct.com/_bind_PrtSc_capture_screen.patch 

Apply the patch to your rc.lua config file:

$ patch -i _bind_PrtSc_capture_screen.patch

The patch should be applied; if you use git you can run $ git diff to see.

Once you’ve applied the patch you can restart awesome:

$ echo 'awesome.restart()' | awesome-client

Press the key PrtSc.

A screenshot should be saved in ~/Pictures/screenshots.

Now that rc.lua is patched, you can remove the file containing the patch:

~/.config/awesome$ rm -i _bind_PrtSc_capture_screen.patch

If you use git:

$ git add rc.lua
$ git commit -m "Apply prtsc patch"

You can remove the patch by deleting the commit.

Ref: https://imagemagick.org/script/import.php

personal computing command-line interface (cli) gnu linux trisquel shell literacy wiki awesomewm