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.
251 You can define a different format with the option "format_not_mounted"
252 which is used if the path does not exist or is not a mount point. Defaults to "".
254 *Example order*: +disk /mnt/usbstick+
256 *Example format*: +%free (%avail)/ %total+
258 *Example format*: +%percentage_used used, %percentage_free free, %percentage_avail avail+
260 *Example prefix_type*: +custom+
262 *Example low_threshold*: +5+
264 *Example threshold_type*: +percentage_free+
268 Expands the given path to a pidfile and checks if the process ID found inside
269 is valid (that is, if the process is running). You can use this to check if
270 a specific application, such as a VPN client or your DHCP client is running.
271 There also is an option "format_down". You can hide the output with
274 *Example order*: +run_watch DHCP+
276 *Example format*: +%title: %status+
280 Checks if the given path exists in the filesystem. You can use this to check if
281 something is active, like for example a VPN tunnel managed by NetworkManager.
282 There also is an option "format_down". You can hide the output with
285 *Example order*: +path_exists VPN+
287 *Example format*: +%title: %status+
291 Gets the link quality, frequency and ESSID of the given wireless network
292 interface. You can specify different format strings for the network being
293 connected or not connected.
295 The special interface name `_first_` will be replaced by the first wireless
296 network interface found on the system (excluding devices starting with "lo").
298 *Example order*: +wireless wlan0+
300 *Example format*: +W: (%quality at %essid, %bitrate / %frequency) %ip+
304 Gets the IP address and (if possible) the link speed of the given ethernet
305 interface. Getting the link speed requires the cap_net_admin capability. Set
306 it using +setcap cap_net_admin=ep $(which i3status)+.
308 The special interface name `_first_` will be replaced by the first non-wireless
309 network interface found on the system (excluding devices starting with "lo").
311 *Example order*: +ethernet eth0+
313 *Example format*: +E: %ip (%speed)+
317 Gets the status (charging, discharging, unknown, full), percentage, remaining
318 time and power consumption (in Watts) of the given battery and when it's
319 estimated to be empty. If you want to use the last full capacity instead of the
320 design capacity (when using the design capacity, it may happen that your
321 battery is at 23% when fully charged because it’s old. In general, I want to
322 see it this way, because it tells me how worn off my battery is.), just specify
323 +last_full_capacity = true+. You can hide seconds in the remaining time and
324 empty time estimations by setting +hide_seconds = true+.
326 If you want the battery percentage to be shown without decimals, add
327 +integer_battery_capacity = true+.
329 If your battery is represented in a non-standard path in /sys, be sure to
330 modify the "path" property accordingly, i.e. pointing to the uevent file on
331 your system. The first occurence of %d gets replaced with the battery number,
332 but you can just hard-code a path as well.
334 It is possible to define a low_threshold that causes the battery text to be
335 colored red. The low_threshold type can be of threshold_type "time" or
336 "percentage". So, if you configure low_threshold to 10 and threshold_type to
337 "time", and your battery lasts another 9 minutes, it will be colored red.
339 Optionally custom strings including any UTF-8 symbols can be used for different
340 battery states. This makes it possible to display individual symbols
341 for each state (charging, discharging, unknown, full)
342 Of course it will also work with special iconic fonts, such as FontAwesome.
343 If any of these special status strings are omitted, the default (CHR, BAT, UNK,
346 *Example order*: +battery 0+
348 *Example format*: +%status %remaining (%emptytime %consumption)+
350 *Example format_down*: +No battery+
352 *Example status_chr*: +⚡ CHR+
354 *Example status_bat*: +🔋 BAT+
356 *Example status_unk*: +? UNK+
358 *Example status_full*: +☻ FULL+
360 *Example low_threshold*: +30+
362 *Example threshold_type*: +time+
364 *Example path*: +/sys/class/power_supply/CMB1/uevent+
368 Gets the temperature of the given thermal zone. It is possible to
369 define a max_threshold that will color the temperature red in case the
370 specified thermal zone is getting too hot. Defaults to 75 degrees C.
372 *Example order*: +cpu_temperature 0+
374 *Example format*: +T: %degrees °C+
376 *Example max_threshold*: +42+
378 *Example path*: +/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input+
382 Gets the percentual CPU usage from +/proc/stat+ (Linux) or +sysctl(3)+
385 It is possible to define a max_threshold that will color the load
386 value red in case the CPU average over the last interval is getting
387 higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 95.
389 It is possible to define a degraded_threshold that will color the load
390 value yellow in case the CPU average over the last interval is getting
391 higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 90.
393 *Example order*: +cpu_usage+
395 *Example format*: +%usage+
397 *Example max_threshold*: +75+
399 *Example degraded_threshold*: +25+
403 Gets the system load (number of processes waiting for CPU time in the last
404 1, 5 and 15 minutes). It is possible to define a max_threshold that will
405 color the load value red in case the load average of the last minute is
406 getting higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 5.
408 *Example order*: +load+
410 *Example format*: +%1min %5min %15min+
412 *Example max_threshold*: +"0,1"+
416 Outputs the current time in the local timezone.
417 To use a different timezone, you can set the TZ environment variable,
418 or use the +tztime+ module.
419 See +strftime(3)+ for details on the format string.
421 *Example order*: +time+
423 *Example format*: +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S+
427 Outputs the current time in the given timezone.
428 If no timezone is given, local time will be used.
429 See +strftime(3)+ for details on the format string.
430 The system's timezone database is usually installed in +/usr/share/zoneinfo+.
431 Files below that path make for valid timezone strings, e.g. for
432 +/usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin+ you can set timezone to +Europe/Berlin+
433 in the +tztime+ module.
435 *Example order*: +tztime berlin+
437 *Example format*: +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z+
439 *Example timezone*: +Europe/Berlin+
441 If you would like to use markup in this section, there is a separate
442 +format_time+ option that is automatically escaped. Its output then replaces
443 %time in the format string.
445 *Example configuration (markup)*:
446 -------------------------------------------------------------
448 format = "<span foreground='#ffffff'>time:</span> %time"
449 format_time = "%H:%M %Z"
450 timezone = "Europe/Berlin"
452 -------------------------------------------------------------
456 Outputs the current discordian date in user-specified format. See +ddate(1)+ for
457 details on the format string.
458 *Note*: Neither *%.* nor *%X* are implemented yet.
460 *Example order*: +ddate+
462 *Example format*: +%{%a, %b %d%}, %Y%N - %H+
466 Outputs the volume of the specified mixer on the specified device. PulseAudio
467 and ALSA (Linux only) are supported. If PulseAudio is absent, a simplified
468 configuration can be used on FreeBSD and OpenBSD due to the lack of ALSA, the
469 +device+ and +mixer+ options can be ignored on these systems. On these systems
470 the OSS API is used instead to query +/dev/mixer+ directly if +mixer_idx+ is
471 -1, otherwise +/dev/mixer++mixer_idx+.
473 To get PulseAudio volume information, one must use the following format in the
482 where N is the index of the PulseAudio sink. If no sink is specified the
483 default is used. If the device string is missing or is set to "default",
484 PulseAudio will be tried if detected and will fallback to ALSA (Linux)
485 or OSS (FreeBSD/OpenBSD).
487 *Example order*: +volume master+
489 *Example format*: +♪: %volume+
491 *Example format_muted*: +♪: 0%%+
493 *Example configuration*:
494 -------------------------------------------------------------
496 format = "♪: %volume"
497 format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
502 -------------------------------------------------------------
503 *Example configuration (PulseAudio)*:
504 -------------------------------------------------------------
506 format = "♪: %volume"
507 format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
510 -------------------------------------------------------------
512 == Universal module options
514 When using the i3bar output format, there are a few additional options that
515 can be used with all modules to customize their appearance:
518 The alignment policy to use when the minimum width (see below) is not
519 reached. Either +center+ (default), +right+ or +left+.
521 The minimum width (in pixels) the module should occupy. If the module takes
522 less space than the specified size, the block will be padded to the left
523 and/or the right side, according to the defined alignment policy. This is
524 useful when you want to prevent the whole status line from shifting when
525 values take more or less space between each iteration.
526 The option can also be a string. In this case, the width of the given text
527 determines the minimum width of the block. This is useful when you want to
528 set a sensible minimum width regardless of which font you are using, and at
529 what particular size. Please note that a number enclosed with quotes will
530 still be treated as a number.
532 A boolean value which specifies whether a separator line should be drawn
533 after this block. The default is true, meaning the separator line will be
534 drawn. Note that if you disable the separator line, there will still be a
535 gap after the block, unless you also use separator_block_width.
536 separator_block_width::
537 The amount of pixels to leave blank after the block. In the middle of this
538 gap, a separator symbol will be drawn unless separator is disabled. This is
539 why the specified width should leave enough space for the separator symbol.
541 *Example configuration*:
542 -------------------------------------------------------------
548 separator_block_width = 1
550 -------------------------------------------------------------
552 == Using i3status with dzen2
554 After installing dzen2, you can directly use it with i3status. Just ensure that
555 +output_format+ is set to +dzen2+.
557 *Example for usage of i3status with dzen2*:
558 --------------------------------------------------------------
559 i3status | dzen2 -fg white -ta r -w 1280 \
560 -fn "-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso8859-1"
561 --------------------------------------------------------------
563 == Using i3status with xmobar
565 To get xmobar to start, you might need to copy the default configuration
566 file to +~/.xmobarrc+. Also, ensure that the +output_format+ option for i3status
569 *Example for usage of i3status with xmobar*:
570 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
571 i3status | xmobar -o -t "%StdinReader%" -c "[Run StdinReader]"
572 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
574 == What about memory usage or CPU frequency?
576 While talking about two specific things, please understand this section as a
577 general explanation why your favorite information is not included in i3status.
579 Let’s talk about memory usage specifically. It is hard to measure memory in a
580 way which is accurate or meaningful. An in-depth understanding of how paging
581 and virtual memory work in your operating system is required. Furthermore, even
582 if we had a well-defined way of displaying memory usage and you would
583 understand it, I think that it’s not helpful to repeatedly monitor your memory
584 usage. One reason for that is that I have not run out of memory in the last few
585 years. Memory has become so cheap that even in my 4 year old notebook, I have
586 8 GiB of RAM. Another reason is that your operating system will do the right
587 thing anyway: Either you have not enough RAM for your workload, but you need to
588 do it anyway, then your operating system will swap. Or you don’t have enough
589 RAM and you want to restrict your workload so that it fits, then the operating
590 system will kill the process using too much RAM and you can act accordingly.
592 For CPU frequency, the situation is similar. Many people don’t understand how
593 frequency scaling works precisely. The generally recommended CPU frequency
594 governor ("ondemand") changes the CPU frequency far more often than i3status
595 could display it. The display number is therefore often incorrect and doesn’t
596 tell you anything useful either.
598 In general, i3status wants to display things which you would look at
599 occasionally anyways, like the current date/time, whether you are connected to
600 a WiFi network or not, and if you have enough disk space to fit that 4.3 GiB
603 However, if you need to look at some kind of information more than once in a
604 while (like checking repeatedly how full your RAM is), you are probably better
605 off with a script doing that, which pops up an alert when your RAM usage reaches
606 a certain threshold. After all, the point of computers is not to burden you
607 with additional boring tasks like repeatedly checking a number.
609 == External scripts/programs with i3status
611 In i3status, we don’t want to implement process management again. Therefore,
612 there is no module to run arbitrary scripts or commands. Instead, you should
613 use your shell, for example like this:
615 *Example for prepending the i3status output*:
616 --------------------------------------------------------------
618 # shell script to prepend i3status with more stuff
623 echo "mystuff | $line" || exit 1
625 --------------------------------------------------------------
627 Put that in some script, say +.bin/my_i3status.sh+ and execute that instead of i3status.
629 Note that if you want to use the JSON output format (with colors in i3bar), you
630 need to use a slightly more complex wrapper script. There are examples in the
631 contrib/ folder, see http://code.i3wm.org/i3status/tree/master/contrib
635 When receiving +SIGUSR1+, i3status’s nanosleep() will be interrupted and thus
636 you will force an update. You can use killall -USR1 i3status to force an update
637 after changing the system volume, for example.
641 +strftime(3)+, +date(1)+, +glob(3)+, +dzen2(1)+, +xmobar(1)+
645 Michael Stapelberg and contributors
653 Fernando Tarlá Cardoso Lemos