3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
8 i3status - Generates a status line for dzen2 or xmobar
12 i3status [-c configfile]
17 Specifies an alternate configuration file path (default is /etc/i3status.conf
22 i3status is a small program (less than 1000 SLOC) for generating a status bar
23 for dzen2, xmobar or similar programs. It is designed to be very efficient by
24 issuing a very small number of system calls, as one generally wants to update
25 such a status line every second. This ensures that even under high load, your
26 status bar is updated correctly. Also, it saves a bit of energy by not hogging
27 your CPU as much as spawning the corresponding amount of shell commands would.
31 Since version 2, the configuration file for i3status will be parsed using
32 libconfuse. This makes configuration easier in the programmer’s point of
33 view and more flexible for the user at the same time.
35 The basic idea of i3status is that you can specify which "modules" should
36 be used (the order directive). You can then configure each module with its
37 own section. For every module, you can specify the output format. See below
38 for a complete reference.
41 -------------------------------------------------------------
43 output_format = "dzen2"
50 order += "run_watch DHCP"
51 order += "run_watch VPN"
52 order += "wireless wlan0"
53 order += "ethernet eth0"
55 order += "cpu_temperature 0"
60 format_up = "W: (%quality at %essid) %ip"
61 format_down = "W: down"
65 # if you use %speed, i3status requires the cap_net_admin capability
66 format = "E: %ip (%speed)"
70 format = "%status %percentage %remaining"
74 pidfile = "/var/run/dhclient*.pid"
78 pidfile = "/var/run/vpnc/pid"
82 format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
90 format = "T: %degrees °C"
96 -------------------------------------------------------------
100 The +colors+ directive will disable all colors if you set it to +false+. You can
101 also specify the colors that will be used to display "good", "degraded" or "bad"
102 values using the +color_good+, +color_degraded+ or +color_bad+ directives,
103 respectively. Those directives are only used if color support is not disabled by
104 the +colors+ directive. The input format for color values is the canonical RGB
105 hexadecimal triplet (with no separators between the colors), prefixed by a hash
108 *Example color_good*: +#00FF00+
110 Likewise, you can use the +color_separator+ directive to specify the color that
111 will be used to paint the separator bar. The separator is always output in
112 color, even when colors are disabled by the +colors+ directive.
114 The +interval+ directive specifies the time in seconds for which i3status will
115 sleep before printing the next status line.
117 Using +output_format+ you can chose which format strings i3status should
118 use in its output. Currently available are:
121 Dzen is a general purpose messaging, notification and menuing program for X11.
122 It was designed to be scriptable in any language and integrate well with window
123 managers like dwm, wmii and xmonad though it will work with any windowmanger
125 xmobar is a minimalistic, text based, status bar. It was designed to work
126 with the xmonad Window Manager.
128 Does not use any color codes. Separates values by the pipe symbol.
132 This module gets the IPv6 address used for outgoing connections (that is, the
133 best available public IPv6 address on your computer).
135 *Example format_up*: +%ip+
137 *Example format_down* +no IPv6+
141 Gets used, free, available and total amount of bytes on the given mounted filesystem.
143 *Example order*: +disk /mnt/usbstick+
145 *Example format*: +%free (%avail)/ %total+
149 Expands the given path to a pidfile and checks if the process ID found inside
150 is valid (that is, if the process is running). You can use this to check if
151 a specific application, such as a VPN client or your DHCP client is running.
153 *Example order*: +run_watch DHCP+
157 Gets the link quality and ESSID of the given wireless network interface. You
158 can specify different format strings for the network being connected or not
161 *Example order*: +wireless wlan0+
163 *Example format*: +W: (%quality at %essid) %ip+
167 Gets the IP address and (if possible) the link speed of the given ethernet
168 interface. Getting the link speed requires the cap_net_admin capability. Set
169 it using +setcap cap_net_admin=ep $(which i3status)+.
171 *Example order*: +ethernet eth0+
173 *Example format*: +E: %ip (%speed)+
177 Gets the status (charging, discharging, running), percentage and remaining
178 time of the given battery. If you want to use the last full capacity instead
179 of the design capacity (when using the design capacity, it may happen that
180 your battery is at 23% when fully charged because it’s old. In general, I
181 want to see it this way, because it tells me how worn off my battery is.),
182 just specify +last_full_capacity = true+.
184 *Example order*: +battery 0+
186 *Example format*: +%status %remaining+
190 Gets the temperature of the given thermal zone.
192 *Example order*: +cpu_temperature 0+
194 *Example format*: +T: %degrees °C+
198 Gets the system load (number of processes waiting for CPU time in the last
199 5, 10 and 15 minutes).
201 *Example order*: +load+
203 *Example format*: +%5min %10min %15min+
207 Formats the current system time. See +strftime(3)+ for the format.
209 *Example order*: +time+
211 *Example format*: +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S+
215 Outputs the current discordian date in user-specified format. See +ddate(1)+ for
216 details on the format string.
217 *Note*: Neither *%.* nor *%X* are implemented yet.
219 *Example order*: +ddate+
221 *Example format*: +%{%a, %b %d%}, %Y%N - %H+
225 Outputs the volume of the specified mixer on the specified device. Works only
226 on Linux because it uses ALSA.
228 *Example order*: +volume master+
230 *Example format*: +♪: %volume+
232 *Example configuration*:
233 -------------------------------------------------------------
235 format = "♪: %volume"
240 -------------------------------------------------------------
242 == Using i3status with dzen2
244 After installing dzen2, you can directly use it with i3status:
246 *Example for usage of i3status with dzen2*:
247 --------------------------------------------------------------
248 i3status | dzen2 -fg white -ta r -w 1280 \
249 -fn "-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso8859-1"
250 --------------------------------------------------------------
252 == Using i3status with xmobar
254 To get xmobar to start, you might need to copy the default configuration
255 file to +~/.xmobarrc+.
257 *Example for usage of i3status with xmobar*:
258 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
259 i3status-xmobar | xmobar -o -t "%StdinReader%" -c "[Run StdinReader]"
260 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
264 +strftime(3)+, +date(1)+, +glob(3)+, +dzen2(1)+, +xmobar(1)+
268 Michael Stapelberg and contributors