3 Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
8 i3status - Generates a status line for i3bar, dzen2, xmobar or lemonbar
12 i3status [-c configfile] [-h] [-v]
17 Specifies an alternate configuration file path. By default, i3status looks for
18 configuration files in the following order:
20 1. ~/.config/i3status/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3status/config if set)
21 2. /etc/xdg/i3status/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/i3status/config if set)
27 i3status is a small program (about 1500 SLOC) for generating a status bar for
28 i3bar, dzen2, xmobar, lemonbar or similar programs. It is designed to be very
29 efficient by issuing a very small number of system calls, as one generally
30 wants to update such a status line every second. This ensures that even under
31 high load, your status bar is updated correctly. Also, it saves a bit of energy
32 by not hogging your CPU as much as spawning the corresponding amount of shell
37 The basic idea of i3status is that you can specify which "modules" should
38 be used (the order directive). You can then configure each module with its
39 own section. For every module, you can specify the output format. See below
40 for a complete reference.
43 -------------------------------------------------------------
45 output_format = "dzen2"
52 order += "run_watch DHCP"
53 order += "run_watch VPNC"
54 order += "path_exists VPN"
55 order += "wireless wlan0"
56 order += "ethernet eth0"
58 order += "cpu_temperature 0"
60 order += "tztime local"
61 order += "tztime berlin"
64 format_up = "W: (%quality at %essid, %bitrate) %ip"
65 format_down = "W: down"
69 # if you use %speed, i3status requires the cap_net_admin capability
70 format_up = "E: %ip (%speed)"
71 format_down = "E: down"
75 format = "%status %percentage %remaining %emptytime"
76 format_down = "No battery"
80 status_full = "☻ FULL"
81 path = "/sys/class/power_supply/BAT%d/uevent"
86 pidfile = "/var/run/dhclient*.pid"
90 # file containing the PID of a vpnc process
91 pidfile = "/var/run/vpnc/pid"
95 # path exists when a VPN tunnel launched by nmcli/nm-applet is active
96 path = "/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/tun0"
100 format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
104 format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z"
105 timezone = "Europe/Berlin"
113 format = "T: %degrees °C"
114 path = "/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input"
120 -------------------------------------------------------------
124 The +colors+ directive will disable all colors if you set it to +false+. You can
125 also specify the colors that will be used to display "good", "degraded" or "bad"
126 values using the +color_good+, +color_degraded+ or +color_bad+ directives,
127 respectively. Those directives are only used if color support is not disabled by
128 the +colors+ directive. The input format for color values is the canonical RGB
129 hexadecimal triplet (with no separators between the colors), prefixed by a hash
132 *Example configuration*:
133 -------------------------------------------------------------
134 color_good = "#00FF00"
135 -------------------------------------------------------------
137 Likewise, you can use the +color_separator+ directive to specify the color that
138 will be used to paint the separator bar. The separator is always output in
139 color, even when colors are disabled by the +colors+ directive. This option has
140 no effect when +output_format+ is set to +i3bar+ or +none+.
142 The +interval+ directive specifies the time in seconds for which i3status will
143 sleep before printing the next status line.
145 Using +output_format+ you can chose which format strings i3status should
146 use in its output. Currently available are:
149 i3bar comes with i3 and provides a workspace bar which does the right thing in
150 multi-monitor situations. It also comes with tray support and can display the
151 i3status output. This output type uses JSON to pass as much meta-information to
152 i3bar as possible (like colors, which blocks can be shortened in which way,
155 Dzen is a general purpose messaging, notification and menuing program for X11.
156 It was designed to be scriptable in any language and integrate well with window
157 managers like dwm, wmii and xmonad though it will work with any windowmanger
159 xmobar is a minimalistic, text based, status bar. It was designed to work
160 with the xmonad Window Manager.
162 lemonbar is a lightweight bar based entirely on XCB. It has full UTF-8 support
163 and is EWMH compliant.
165 Use ANSI Escape sequences to produce a terminal-output as close as possible to
166 the graphical outputs. This makes debugging your config file a little bit
167 easier because the terminal-output of i3status becomes much more readable, but
168 should only used for such quick glances, because it will only support very
169 basic output-features (for example you only get 3 bits of color depth).
171 Does not use any color codes. Separates values by the pipe symbol by default.
172 This should be used with i3bar and can be used for custom scripts.
174 It's also possible to use the color_good, color_degraded, color_bad directives
175 to define specific colors per module. If one of these directives is defined
176 in a module section its value will override the value defined in the general
177 section just for this module.
179 If you don't fancy the vertical separators between modules i3status/i3bar
180 uses by default, you can employ the +separator+ directive to configure how
181 modules are separated. You can either disable the default separator altogether
182 setting it to the empty string. You might then define separation as part of a
183 module's format string. This is your only option when using the i3bar output
184 format as the separator is drawn by i3bar directly otherwise. For the other
185 output formats, the provided non-empty string will be automatically enclosed
186 with the necessary coloring bits if color support is enabled.
188 i3bar supports Pango markup, allowing your format strings to specify font
189 color, size, etc. by setting the +markup+ directive to "pango". Note that the
190 ampersand ("&"), less-than ("<"), greater-than (">"), single-quote ("'"), and
191 double-quote (""") characters need to be replaced with "`&`", "`<`",
192 "`>`", "`'`", and "`"`" respectively. This is done automatically
193 for generated content (e.g. wireless ESSID, time).
195 *Example configuration*:
196 -------------------------------------------------------------
198 output_format = "xmobar"
206 format = "[ load: %1min, %5min, %15min ]"
211 -------------------------------------------------------------
215 This module gets the IPv6 address used for outgoing connections (that is, the
216 best available public IPv6 address on your computer).
218 *Example format_up*: +%ip+
220 *Example format_down*: +no IPv6+
224 Gets used, free, available and total amount of bytes on the given mounted filesystem.
226 These values can also be expressed in percentages with the percentage_used,
227 percentage_free, percentage_avail and percentage_used_of_avail formats.
229 Byte sizes are presented in a human readable format using a set of prefixes
230 whose type can be specified via the "prefix_type" option. Three sets of
231 prefixes are available:
234 IEC prefixes (Ki, Mi, Gi, Ti) represent multiples of powers of 1024.
237 SI prefixes (k, M, G, T) represent multiples of powers of 1000.
239 The custom prefixes (K, M, G, T) represent multiples of powers of 1024.
241 It is possible to define a low_threshold that causes the disk text to be
242 displayed using color_bad. The low_threshold type can be of threshold_type
243 "bytes_free", "bytes_avail", "percentage_free", or "percentage_avail", where
244 the former two can be prepended by a generic prefix (k, m, g, t) having
245 prefix_type. So, if you configure low_threshold to 2, threshold_type to
246 "gbytes_avail", and prefix_type to "binary", and the remaining available disk
247 space is below 2 GiB, it will be colored bad. If not specified, threshold_type
248 is assumed to be "percentage_avail" and low_threshold to be set to 0, which
249 implies no coloring at all. You can customize the output format when below
250 low_threshold with format_below_threshold.
252 You can define a different format with the option "format_not_mounted"
253 which is used if the path does not exist or is not a mount point. Defaults to "".
255 *Example order*: +disk /mnt/usbstick+
257 *Example format*: +%free (%avail)/ %total+
259 *Example format*: +%percentage_used used, %percentage_free free, %percentage_avail avail+
261 *Example prefix_type*: +custom+
263 *Example low_threshold*: +5+
265 *Example format_below_threshold*: +Warning: %percentage_avail+
267 *Example threshold_type*: +percentage_free+
271 Expands the given path to a pidfile and checks if the process ID found inside
272 is valid (that is, if the process is running). You can use this to check if
273 a specific application, such as a VPN client or your DHCP client is running.
274 There also is an option "format_down". You can hide the output with
277 *Example order*: +run_watch DHCP+
279 *Example format*: +%title: %status+
283 Checks if the given path exists in the filesystem. You can use this to check if
284 something is active, like for example a VPN tunnel managed by NetworkManager.
285 There also is an option "format_down". You can hide the output with
288 *Example order*: +path_exists VPN+
290 *Example format*: +%title: %status+
294 Gets the link quality, frequency and ESSID of the given wireless network
295 interface. You can specify different format strings for the network being
296 connected or not connected.
298 The special interface name `_first_` will be replaced by the first wireless
299 network interface found on the system (excluding devices starting with "lo").
301 *Example order*: +wireless wlan0+
303 *Example format*: +W: (%quality at %essid, %bitrate / %frequency) %ip+
307 Gets the IP address and (if possible) the link speed of the given ethernet
308 interface. Getting the link speed requires the cap_net_admin capability. Set
309 it using +setcap cap_net_admin=ep $(which i3status)+.
311 The special interface name `_first_` will be replaced by the first non-wireless
312 network interface found on the system (excluding devices starting with "lo").
314 *Example order*: +ethernet eth0+
316 *Example format*: +E: %ip (%speed)+
320 Gets the status (charging, discharging, unknown, full), percentage, remaining
321 time and power consumption (in Watts) of the given battery and when it's
322 estimated to be empty. If you want to use the last full capacity instead of the
323 design capacity (when using the design capacity, it may happen that your
324 battery is at 23% when fully charged because it’s old. In general, I want to
325 see it this way, because it tells me how worn off my battery is.), just specify
326 +last_full_capacity = true+. You can hide seconds in the remaining time and
327 empty time estimations by setting +hide_seconds = true+.
329 If you want the battery percentage to be shown without decimals, add
330 +integer_battery_capacity = true+.
332 If your battery is represented in a non-standard path in /sys, be sure to
333 modify the "path" property accordingly, i.e. pointing to the uevent file on
334 your system. The first occurence of %d gets replaced with the battery number,
335 but you can just hard-code a path as well.
337 It is possible to define a low_threshold that causes the battery text to be
338 colored red. The low_threshold type can be of threshold_type "time" or
339 "percentage". So, if you configure low_threshold to 10 and threshold_type to
340 "time", and your battery lasts another 9 minutes, it will be colored red.
342 To show an aggregate of all batteries in the system, use "all" as the number. In
343 this case (for Linux), the /sys path must contain the "%d" sequence. Otherwise,
344 the number indicates the battery index as reported in /sys.
346 Optionally custom strings including any UTF-8 symbols can be used for different
347 battery states. This makes it possible to display individual symbols
348 for each state (charging, discharging, unknown, full)
349 Of course it will also work with special iconic fonts, such as FontAwesome.
350 If any of these special status strings are omitted, the default (CHR, BAT, UNK,
353 *Example order (for the first battery)*: +battery 0+
355 *Example order (aggregate of all batteries)*: +battery all+
357 *Example format*: +%status %remaining (%emptytime %consumption)+
359 *Example format_down*: +No battery+
361 *Example status_chr*: +⚡ CHR+
363 *Example status_bat*: +🔋 BAT+
365 *Example status_unk*: +? UNK+
367 *Example status_full*: +☻ FULL+
369 *Example low_threshold*: +30+
371 *Example threshold_type*: +time+
373 *Example path (%d replaced by title number)*: +/sys/class/power_supply/CMB%d/uevent+
375 *Example path (ignoring the number)*: +/sys/class/power_supply/CMB1/uevent+
379 Gets the temperature of the given thermal zone. It is possible to
380 define a max_threshold that will color the temperature red in case the
381 specified thermal zone is getting too hot. Defaults to 75 degrees C. The
382 output format when above max_threshold can be customized with
383 format_above_threshold.
385 *Example order*: +cpu_temperature 0+
387 *Example format*: +T: %degrees °C+
389 *Example max_threshold*: +42+
391 *Example format_above_threshold*: +Warning T above threshold: %degrees °C+
393 *Example path*: +/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input+
397 Gets the percentual CPU usage from +/proc/stat+ (Linux) or +sysctl(3)+
400 It is possible to define a max_threshold that will color the load
401 value red in case the CPU average over the last interval is getting
402 higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 95. The output
403 format when above max_threshold can be customized with
404 format_above_threshold.
406 It is possible to define a degraded_threshold that will color the load
407 value yellow in case the CPU average over the last interval is getting
408 higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 90. The ouput format
409 when above degraded threshold can be customized with
410 format_above_degraded_threshold.
412 *Example order*: +cpu_usage+
414 *Example format*: +%usage+
416 *Example max_threshold*: +75+
418 *Example format_above_threshold*: +Warning above threshold: %usage+
420 *Example degraded_threshold*: +25+
422 *Example format_above_degraded_threshold*: +Warning above degraded threshold: %usage+
426 Gets the system load (number of processes waiting for CPU time in the last
427 1, 5 and 15 minutes). It is possible to define a max_threshold that will
428 color the load value red in case the load average of the last minute is
429 getting higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 5. The output
430 format when above max_threshold can be customized with
431 format_above_threshold.
433 *Example order*: +load+
435 *Example format*: +%1min %5min %15min+
437 *Example max_threshold*: +"0,1"+
439 *Example format_above_threshold*: +Warning: %1min %5min %15min+
443 Outputs the current time in the local timezone.
444 To use a different timezone, you can set the TZ environment variable,
445 or use the +tztime+ module.
446 See +strftime(3)+ for details on the format string.
448 *Example order*: +time+
450 *Example format*: +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S+
454 Outputs the current time in the given timezone.
455 If no timezone is given, local time will be used.
456 See +strftime(3)+ for details on the format string.
457 The system's timezone database is usually installed in +/usr/share/zoneinfo+.
458 Files below that path make for valid timezone strings, e.g. for
459 +/usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin+ you can set timezone to +Europe/Berlin+
460 in the +tztime+ module.
461 To override the locale settings of your environment, set the +locale+ option.
463 *Example order*: +tztime berlin+
465 *Example format*: +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z+
467 *Example timezone*: +Europe/Berlin+
469 *Example locale*: +de_DE.UTF-8+
471 If you would like to use markup in this section, there is a separate
472 +format_time+ option that is automatically escaped. Its output then replaces
473 %time in the format string.
475 *Example configuration (markup)*:
476 -------------------------------------------------------------
478 format = "<span foreground='#ffffff'>time:</span> %time"
479 format_time = "%H:%M %Z"
480 timezone = "Europe/Berlin"
482 -------------------------------------------------------------
486 Outputs the current discordian date in user-specified format. See +ddate(1)+ for
487 details on the format string.
488 *Note*: Neither *%.* nor *%X* are implemented yet.
490 *Example order*: +ddate+
492 *Example format*: +%{%a, %b %d%}, %Y%N - %H+
496 Outputs the volume of the specified mixer on the specified device. PulseAudio
497 and ALSA (Linux only) are supported. If PulseAudio is absent, a simplified
498 configuration can be used on FreeBSD and OpenBSD due to the lack of ALSA, the
499 +device+ and +mixer+ options can be ignored on these systems. On these systems
500 the OSS API is used instead to query +/dev/mixer+ directly if +mixer_idx+ is
501 -1, otherwise +/dev/mixer++mixer_idx+.
503 To get PulseAudio volume information, one must use the following format in the
512 where N is the index or name of the PulseAudio sink. You can obtain the name of
513 the sink with the following command:
515 $ pacmd list-sinks | grep name:
516 name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo>
518 The name is what's inside the angle brackets, not including them. If no sink is
519 specified the default sink is used. If the device string is missing or is set
520 to "default", PulseAudio will be tried if detected and will fallback to ALSA
521 (Linux) or OSS (FreeBSD/OpenBSD).
523 *Example order*: +volume master+
525 *Example format*: +♪: %volume+
527 *Example format_muted*: +♪: 0%%+
529 *Example configuration*:
530 -------------------------------------------------------------
532 format = "♪: %volume"
533 format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
538 -------------------------------------------------------------
539 *Example configuration (PulseAudio)*:
540 -------------------------------------------------------------
542 format = "♪: %volume"
543 format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
546 -------------------------------------------------------------
547 -------------------------------------------------------------
549 format = "♪: %volume"
550 format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
551 device = "pulse:alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo"
553 -------------------------------------------------------------
555 == Universal module options
557 When using the i3bar output format, there are a few additional options that
558 can be used with all modules to customize their appearance:
561 The alignment policy to use when the minimum width (see below) is not
562 reached. Either +center+ (default), +right+ or +left+.
564 The minimum width (in pixels) the module should occupy. If the module takes
565 less space than the specified size, the block will be padded to the left
566 and/or the right side, according to the defined alignment policy. This is
567 useful when you want to prevent the whole status line from shifting when
568 values take more or less space between each iteration.
569 The option can also be a string. In this case, the width of the given text
570 determines the minimum width of the block. This is useful when you want to
571 set a sensible minimum width regardless of which font you are using, and at
572 what particular size. Please note that a number enclosed with quotes will
573 still be treated as a number.
575 A boolean value which specifies whether a separator line should be drawn
576 after this block. The default is true, meaning the separator line will be
577 drawn. Note that if you disable the separator line, there will still be a
578 gap after the block, unless you also use separator_block_width.
579 separator_block_width::
580 The amount of pixels to leave blank after the block. In the middle of this
581 gap, a separator symbol will be drawn unless separator is disabled. This is
582 why the specified width should leave enough space for the separator symbol.
584 *Example configuration*:
585 -------------------------------------------------------------
591 separator_block_width = 1
593 -------------------------------------------------------------
595 == Using i3status with dzen2
597 After installing dzen2, you can directly use it with i3status. Just ensure that
598 +output_format+ is set to +dzen2+.
600 *Example for usage of i3status with dzen2*:
601 --------------------------------------------------------------
602 i3status | dzen2 -fg white -ta r -w 1280 \
603 -fn "-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso8859-1"
604 --------------------------------------------------------------
606 == Using i3status with xmobar
608 To get xmobar to start, you might need to copy the default configuration
609 file to +~/.xmobarrc+. Also, ensure that the +output_format+ option for i3status
612 *Example for usage of i3status with xmobar*:
613 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
614 i3status | xmobar -o -t "%StdinReader%" -c "[Run StdinReader]"
615 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
617 == What about memory usage or CPU frequency?
619 While talking about two specific things, please understand this section as a
620 general explanation why your favorite information is not included in i3status.
622 Let’s talk about memory usage specifically. It is hard to measure memory in a
623 way which is accurate or meaningful. An in-depth understanding of how paging
624 and virtual memory work in your operating system is required. Furthermore, even
625 if we had a well-defined way of displaying memory usage and you would
626 understand it, I think that it’s not helpful to repeatedly monitor your memory
627 usage. One reason for that is that I have not run out of memory in the last few
628 years. Memory has become so cheap that even in my 4 year old notebook, I have
629 8 GiB of RAM. Another reason is that your operating system will do the right
630 thing anyway: Either you have not enough RAM for your workload, but you need to
631 do it anyway, then your operating system will swap. Or you don’t have enough
632 RAM and you want to restrict your workload so that it fits, then the operating
633 system will kill the process using too much RAM and you can act accordingly.
635 For CPU frequency, the situation is similar. Many people don’t understand how
636 frequency scaling works precisely. The generally recommended CPU frequency
637 governor ("ondemand") changes the CPU frequency far more often than i3status
638 could display it. The display number is therefore often incorrect and doesn’t
639 tell you anything useful either.
641 In general, i3status wants to display things which you would look at
642 occasionally anyways, like the current date/time, whether you are connected to
643 a WiFi network or not, and if you have enough disk space to fit that 4.3 GiB
646 However, if you need to look at some kind of information more than once in a
647 while (like checking repeatedly how full your RAM is), you are probably better
648 off with a script doing that, which pops up an alert when your RAM usage reaches
649 a certain threshold. After all, the point of computers is not to burden you
650 with additional boring tasks like repeatedly checking a number.
652 == External scripts/programs with i3status
654 In i3status, we don’t want to implement process management again. Therefore,
655 there is no module to run arbitrary scripts or commands. Instead, you should
656 use your shell, for example like this:
658 *Example for prepending the i3status output*:
659 --------------------------------------------------------------
661 # shell script to prepend i3status with more stuff
666 echo "mystuff | $line" || exit 1
668 --------------------------------------------------------------
670 Put that in some script, say +.bin/my_i3status.sh+ and execute that instead of i3status.
672 Note that if you want to use the JSON output format (with colors in i3bar), you
673 need to use a slightly more complex wrapper script. There are examples in the
674 contrib/ folder, see https://github.com/i3/i3status/tree/master/contrib
678 When receiving +SIGUSR1+, i3status’s nanosleep() will be interrupted and thus
679 you will force an update. You can use killall -USR1 i3status to force an update
680 after changing the system volume, for example.
684 +strftime(3)+, +date(1)+, +glob(3)+, +dzen2(1)+, +xmobar(1)+
688 Michael Stapelberg and contributors
696 Fernando Tarlá Cardoso Lemos