3 Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
8 i3status - Generates a status line for i3bar, dzen2 or xmobar
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:
21 2. ~/.config/i3status/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3status/config if set)
23 4. /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 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"
77 path = "/sys/class/power_supply/BAT%d/uevent"
82 pidfile = "/var/run/dhclient*.pid"
86 # file containing the PID of a vpnc process
87 pidfile = "/var/run/vpnc/pid"
91 # path exists when a VPN tunnel launched by nmcli/nm-applet is active
92 path = "/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/tun0"
96 format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
100 format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z"
101 timezone = "Europe/Berlin"
109 format = "T: %degrees °C"
110 path = "/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input"
116 -------------------------------------------------------------
120 The +colors+ directive will disable all colors if you set it to +false+. You can
121 also specify the colors that will be used to display "good", "degraded" or "bad"
122 values using the +color_good+, +color_degraded+ or +color_bad+ directives,
123 respectively. Those directives are only used if color support is not disabled by
124 the +colors+ directive. The input format for color values is the canonical RGB
125 hexadecimal triplet (with no separators between the colors), prefixed by a hash
128 *Example configuration*:
129 -------------------------------------------------------------
130 color_good = "#00FF00"
131 -------------------------------------------------------------
133 Likewise, you can use the +color_separator+ directive to specify the color that
134 will be used to paint the separator bar. The separator is always output in
135 color, even when colors are disabled by the +colors+ directive.
137 The +interval+ directive specifies the time in seconds for which i3status will
138 sleep before printing the next status line.
140 Using +output_format+ you can chose which format strings i3status should
141 use in its output. Currently available are:
144 i3bar comes with i3 and provides a workspace bar which does the right thing in
145 multi-monitor situations. It also comes with tray support and can display the
146 i3status output. This output type uses JSON to pass as much meta-information to
147 i3bar as possible (like colors, which blocks can be shortened in which way,
150 Dzen is a general purpose messaging, notification and menuing program for X11.
151 It was designed to be scriptable in any language and integrate well with window
152 managers like dwm, wmii and xmonad though it will work with any windowmanger
154 xmobar is a minimalistic, text based, status bar. It was designed to work
155 with the xmonad Window Manager.
157 Use ANSI Escape sequences to produce a terminal-output as close as possible to
158 the graphical outputs. This makes debugging your config file a little bit
159 easier because the terminal-output of i3status becomes much more readable, but
160 should only used for such quick glances, because it will only support very
161 basic output-features (for example you only get 3 bits of color depth).
163 Does not use any color codes. Separates values by the pipe symbol. This should
164 be used with i3bar and can be used for custom scripts.
166 It's also possible to use the color_good, color_degraded, color_bad directives
167 to define specific colors per module. If one of these directives is defined
168 in a module section its value will override the value defined in the general
169 section just for this module.
173 This module gets the IPv6 address used for outgoing connections (that is, the
174 best available public IPv6 address on your computer).
176 *Example format_up*: +%ip+
178 *Example format_down* +no IPv6+
182 Gets used, free, available and total amount of bytes on the given mounted filesystem.
184 These values can also be expressed in percentages with the percentage_used,
185 percentage_free, percentage_avail and percentage_used_of_avail formats.
187 Byte sizes are presented in a human readable format using a set of prefixes
188 whose type can be specified via the "prefix_type" option. Three sets of
189 prefixes are available:
192 IEC prefixes (Ki, Mi, Gi, Ti) represent multiples of powers of 1024.
195 SI prefixes (k, M, G, T) represent multiples of powers of 1000.
197 The custom prefixes (K, M, G, T) represent multiples of powers of 1024.
199 *Example order*: +disk /mnt/usbstick+
201 *Example format*: +%free (%avail)/ %total+
203 *Example format*: +%percentage_used used, %percentage_free free, %percentage_avail avail+
205 *Example prefix_type*: +custom+
209 Expands the given path to a pidfile and checks if the process ID found inside
210 is valid (that is, if the process is running). You can use this to check if
211 a specific application, such as a VPN client or your DHCP client is running.
213 *Example order*: +run_watch DHCP+
215 *Example format*: +%title: %status+
219 Checks if the given path exists in the filesystem. You can use this to check if
220 something is active, like for example a VPN tunnel managed by NetworkManager.
222 *Example order*: +path_exists VPN+
224 *Example format*: +%title: %status+
228 Gets the link quality and ESSID of the given wireless network interface. You
229 can specify different format strings for the network being connected or not
232 *Example order*: +wireless wlan0+
234 *Example format*: +W: (%quality at %essid, %bitrate) %ip+
238 Gets the IP address and (if possible) the link speed of the given ethernet
239 interface. Getting the link speed requires the cap_net_admin capability. Set
240 it using +setcap cap_net_admin=ep $(which i3status)+.
242 *Example order*: +ethernet eth0+
244 *Example format*: +E: %ip (%speed)+
248 Gets the status (charging, discharging, running), percentage, remaining
249 time and power consumption (in Watts) of the given battery and when it's
250 estimated to be empty. If you want to use the last full capacity instead of the
251 design capacity (when using the design capacity, it may happen that your
252 battery is at 23% when fully charged because it’s old. In general, I want to
253 see it this way, because it tells me how worn off my battery is.), just specify
254 +last_full_capacity = true+.
256 If you want the battery percentage to be shown without decimals, add
257 +integer_battery_capacity = true+.
259 If your battery is represented in a non-standard path in /sys, be sure to
260 modify the "path" property accordingly, i.e. pointing to the uevent file on
261 your system. The first occurence of %d gets replaced with the battery number,
262 but you can just hard-code a path as well.
264 It is possible to define a low_threshold that causes the battery text to be
265 colored red. The low_threshold type can be of threshold_type "time" or
266 "percentage". So, if you configure low_threshold to 10 and threshold_type to
267 "time", and your battery lasts another 9 minutes, it will be colored red.
269 *Example order*: +battery 0+
271 *Example format*: +%status %remaining (%emptytime %consumption)+
273 *Example low_threshold*: +30+
275 *Example threshold_type*: +time+
277 *Example path*: +/sys/class/power_supply/CMB1/uevent+
281 Gets the temperature of the given thermal zone. It is possible to
282 define a max_threshold that will color the temperature red in case the
283 specified thermal zone is getting too hot. Defaults to 75 degrees C.
285 *Example order*: +cpu_temperature 0+
287 *Example format*: +T: %degrees °C+
289 *Example max_threshold*: +42+
291 *Example path*: +/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input+
295 Gets the percentual CPU usage from +/proc/stat+ (Linux) or +sysctl(3)+ (FreeBSD/OpenBSD).
297 *Example order*: +cpu_usage+
299 *Example format*: +%usage+
303 Gets the system load (number of processes waiting for CPU time in the last
304 1, 5 and 15 minutes). It is possible to define a max_threshold that will
305 color the load value red in case the load average of the last minute is
306 getting higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 5.
308 *Example order*: +load+
310 *Example format*: +%1min %5min %15min+
312 *Example max_threshold*: +"0,1"+
316 Outputs the current time in the local timezone.
317 To use a different timezone, you can set the TZ environment variable,
318 or use the +tztime+ module.
319 See +strftime(3)+ for details on the format string.
321 *Example order*: +time+
323 *Example format*: +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S+
327 Outputs the current time in the given timezone.
328 If no timezone is given, local time will be used.
329 See +strftime(3)+ for details on the format string.
330 The system's timezone database is usually installed in +/usr/share/zoneinfo+.
331 Files below that path make for valid timezone strings, e.g. for
332 +/usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin+ you can set timezone to +Europe/Berlin+
333 in the +tztime+ module.
335 *Example order*: +tztime berlin+
337 *Example format*: +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z+
339 *Example timezone*: +Europe/Berlin+
343 Outputs the current discordian date in user-specified format. See +ddate(1)+ for
344 details on the format string.
345 *Note*: Neither *%.* nor *%X* are implemented yet.
347 *Example order*: +ddate+
349 *Example format*: +%{%a, %b %d%}, %Y%N - %H+
353 Outputs the volume of the specified mixer on the specified device. Works only
354 on Linux because it uses ALSA.
355 A simplified configuration can be used on FreeBSD and OpenBSD due to
356 the lack of ALSA, the +device+ and +mixer+ options can be
357 ignored on these systems. On these systems the OSS API is used instead to
358 query +/dev/mixer+ directly if +mixer_dix+ is -1, otherwise
359 +/dev/mixer++mixer_idx+.
361 *Example order*: +volume master+
363 *Example format*: +♪: %volume+
364 *Example format_muted*: +♪: 0%%+
366 *Example configuration*:
367 -------------------------------------------------------------
369 format = "♪: %volume"
370 format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
375 -------------------------------------------------------------
377 == Using i3status with dzen2
379 After installing dzen2, you can directly use it with i3status. Just ensure that
380 +output_format+ is set to +dzen2+.
382 *Example for usage of i3status with dzen2*:
383 --------------------------------------------------------------
384 i3status | dzen2 -fg white -ta r -w 1280 \
385 -fn "-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso8859-1"
386 --------------------------------------------------------------
388 == Using i3status with xmobar
390 To get xmobar to start, you might need to copy the default configuration
391 file to +~/.xmobarrc+. Also, ensure that the +output_format+ option for i3status
394 *Example for usage of i3status with xmobar*:
395 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
396 i3status | xmobar -o -t "%StdinReader%" -c "[Run StdinReader]"
397 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
399 == What about memory usage or CPU frequency?
401 While talking about two specific things, please understand this section as a
402 general explanation why your favorite information is not included in i3status.
404 Let’s talk about memory usage specifically. It is hard to measure memory in a
405 way which is accurate or meaningful. An in-depth understanding of how paging
406 and virtual memory work in your operating system is required. Furthermore, even
407 if we had a well-defined way of displaying memory usage and you would
408 understand it, I think that it’s not helpful to repeatedly monitor your memory
409 usage. One reason for that is that I have not run out of memory in the last few
410 years. Memory has become so cheap that even in my 4 year old notebook, I have
411 8 GiB of RAM. Another reason is that your operating system will do the right
412 thing anyway: Either you have not enough RAM for your workload, but you need to
413 do it anyway, then your operating system will swap. Or you don’t have enough
414 RAM and you want to restrict your workload so that it fits, then the operating
415 system will kill the process using too much RAM and you can act accordingly.
417 For CPU frequency, the situation is similar. Many people don’t understand how
418 frequency scaling works precisely. The generally recommended CPU frequency
419 governor ("ondemand") changes the CPU frequency far more often than i3status
420 could display it. The display number is therefore often incorrect and doesn’t
421 tell you anything useful either.
423 In general, i3status wants to display things which you would look at
424 occasionally anyways, like the current date/time, whether you are connected to
425 a WiFi network or not, and if you have enough disk space to fit that 4.3 GiB
428 However, if you need to look at some kind of information more than once in a
429 while (like checking repeatedly how full your RAM is), you are probably better
430 off with a script doing that, which pops up an alert when your RAM usage reaches
431 a certain threshold. After all, the point of computers is not to burden you
432 with additional boring tasks like repeatedly checking a number.
434 == External scripts/programs with i3status
436 In i3status, we don’t want to implement process management again. Therefore,
437 there is no module to run arbitrary scripts or commands. Instead, you should
438 use your shell, for example like this:
440 *Example for prepending the i3status output*:
441 --------------------------------------------------------------
443 # shell script to prepend i3status with more stuff
448 echo "mystuff | $line" || exit 1
450 --------------------------------------------------------------
452 Put that in some script, say +.bin/my_i3status.sh+ and execute that instead of i3status.
454 Note that if you want to use the JSON output format (with colors in i3bar), you
455 need to use a slightly more complex wrapper script. There are examples in the
456 contrib/ folder, see http://code.i3wm.org/i3status/tree/contrib
460 When receiving +SIGUSR1+, i3status’s nanosleep() will be interrupted and thus
461 you will force an update. You can use killall -USR1 i3status to force an update
462 after changing the system volume, for example.
466 +strftime(3)+, +date(1)+, +glob(3)+, +dzen2(1)+, +xmobar(1)+
470 Michael Stapelberg and contributors
478 Fernando Tarlá Cardoso Lemos