4

I used Google to search for wmctrl -a and window id.

The first hit was a link to a revision at Ask Ubuntu:

Google search

And clicking it gave me this link in the address bar:

https://askubuntu.com/revisions/865e9305-bef6-4397-9097-2848d0dc1233/view-source with the following contents:

Contents of the revision page

But I can't figure out where that revision originated. How do I find the corresponding question or answer?

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  • 1
    Just a pointer, unless I'm mistaken if you have -a in your search term, it would show only the results without the string "a" (-string in search term means show results without "string"). If you meant to search for results with "wmctrl -a", then you need to search with wmctrl "-a" or "wmctrl -a".
    – pomsky
    Commented Mar 27, 2019 at 12:35
  • I will remember that!
    – DK Bose
    Commented Mar 27, 2019 at 12:49

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
8

I would normally get there by Googling stand-out phrases in quotation marks, but that's messy and relies on those phrases still being there when Google reads it. At least it's fast, but in this case, not accurate enough.

Found a "better" way. Slower but cleaner. You can look up posts by revision GUID on Data.SE using the following query:

SELECT PostId as [Post Link] FROM PostHistory WHERE RevisionGUID = '...';

That returns https://askubuntu.com/q/616767

It's gnarly-as-hell but it will work most of the time. Note that Data.SE tends to lag behind the production databases. It gets regular dumps. Not an issue here but it could be for a brand new revision.

3
  • Thanks! Your query to data.SE came up with the correct question: askubuntu.com/questions/616738/… Once I figured out what to do, the search took 1ms.
    – DK Bose
    Commented Mar 27, 2019 at 13:00
  • Sorry, I was rushing so much I didn't even notice the result from Google wasn't the same as the one from Data.SE (which is why I didn't include the result). Absolute Hodor. Sorry for making you run the query yourself.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Mar 27, 2019 at 13:34
  • Not at all! I never knew anything about Data.SE and now I do.
    – DK Bose
    Commented Mar 27, 2019 at 13:38

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