How to check if Node.js window is active? about active-win

[sindresorhus]

Besides, what good is it to know that any one of the multiple Terminal windows is focused?

For your use-case it's not, but this module was not made for your use-case either. The system has no knowledge of what processes you run inside Terminal.app. You could maybe combine this module with some AppleScript to solve your problem.

[sindresorhus]

From the docs:

pid - Process ID of the app owning the window

[tiangolo]

@stevenvachon Check https://github.com/sindresorhus/active-win#result

It seems you are looking for:

• id - Window ID

not for:

• pid - Process ID of the app owning the window

[stevenvachon]

Yes, I read the docs. I guess that I should have said that getting the app owning the window is useless (to me).

The id property doesn't seem to align with anything that I can use either, such as process.pid or require('posix').getppid().

Basically, I'm trying to figure out if the current Node.js process' terminal window is focused.

[tiangolo]

Well, the Node.js process is running in your Terminal app, isn't it?

[stevenvachon]

const {sync:activeWindow} = require('active-win');
const {getppid:parentPID} = require('posix');

console.log(process.pid, parentPID(), activeWindow().id, activeWindow().pid);
//-> 77532 76549 95175 1581

Besides, what good is it to know that any one of the multiple Terminal windows is focused?

[tiangolo]

I'm not a macOS expert (I'm more on the Linux side) but I imagine that if you have different Terminal windows they will be created by different processes. And if they are created by the same process (same PID), still, they will have a specific window ID.

Here's what I think that could be happening. These are the IDs I think you are getting:

• 77532: the current Node.js process. Not because it is what you are running it means that it is the owner / creator of the current window.
• 95175: the ID of the current window. If you have several Terminal windows open, this ID is the one that identifies the current window from the others.
• 1581: the process that created / owns the window, probably Terminal.app
• 76549: the parent process of the Node.js process, not necessarily Terminal.app, maybe a children of Terminal.app, it's probably the PID of bash.