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31 <h1>i3bar input protocol</h1>
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32 <span id="author">Michael Stapelberg</span><br />
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33 <span id="email"><tt><<a href="mailto:michael@i3wm.org">michael@i3wm.org</a>></tt></span><br />
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34 <span id="revdate">August 2012</span>
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37 <div class="sectionbody">
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38 <div class="paragraph"><p>This document explains the protocol in which i3bar expects its input. It
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39 provides support for colors, urgency, shortening and easy manipulation.</p></div>
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43 <h2 id="_rationale_for_chosing_json">1. Rationale for chosing JSON</h2>
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44 <div class="sectionbody">
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45 <div class="paragraph"><p>Before describing the protocol, let’s cover why JSON is a building block of
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46 this protocol.</p></div>
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47 <div class="olist arabic"><ol class="arabic">
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50 Other bar display programs such as dzen2 or xmobar are using in-band
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51 signaling: they recognize certain sequences (like ^fg(#330000) in your input
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52 text). We would like to avoid that and separate information from
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53 meta-information. By information, we mean the actual output, like the IP
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54 address of your ethernet adapter and by meta-information, we mean in which
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55 color it should be displayed right now.
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60 It is easy to write a simple script which manipulates part(s) of the input.
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61 Each block of information (like a block for the disk space indicator, a block
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62 for the current IP address, etc.) can be identified specifically and modified
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63 in whichever way you like.
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68 It remains easy to write a simple script which just suffixes (or prefixes) a
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69 status line input, because tools like i3status will output their JSON in
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70 such a way that each line array will be terminated by a newline. Therefore,
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71 you are not required to use a streaming JSON parser, but you can use any
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72 JSON parser and write your script in any programming language. In fact, you
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73 can decide to not bother with the JSON parsing at all and just inject your
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74 output at a specific position (beginning or end).
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79 Relying on JSON does not introduce any new dependencies. In fact, the IPC
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80 interface of i3 also uses JSON, therefore i3bar already depends on JSON.
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84 <div class="paragraph"><p>The only point against using JSON is computational complexity. If that really
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85 bothers you, just use the plain text input format (which i3bar will continue to
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90 <h2 id="_the_protocol">2. The protocol</h2>
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91 <div class="sectionbody">
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92 <div class="paragraph"><p>The first message of the protocol is a header block, which contains (at least)
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93 the version of the protocol to be used. In case there are significant changes
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94 (not only additions), the version will be incremented. i3bar will still
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95 understand the old protocol version, but in order to use the new one, you need
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96 to provide the correct version. The header block is terminated by a newline and
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97 consists of a single JSON hash:</p></div>
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98 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Minimal example</strong>:</p></div>
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99 <div class="listingblock">
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100 <div class="content">
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101 <pre><tt>{ "version": 1 }</tt></pre>
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103 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>All features example</strong>:</p></div>
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104 <div class="listingblock">
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105 <div class="content">
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106 <pre><tt>{ "version": 1, "stop_signal": 10, "cont_signal": 12, "click_events": true }</tt></pre>
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108 <div class="paragraph"><p>(Note that before i3 v4.3 the precise format had to be <tt>{"version":1}</tt>,
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109 byte-for-byte.)</p></div>
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110 <div class="paragraph"><p>What follows is an infinite array (so it should be parsed by a streaming JSON
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111 parser, but as described above you can go for a simpler solution), whose
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112 elements are one array per status line. A status line is one unit of
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113 information which should be displayed at a time. i3bar will not display any
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114 input until the status line is complete. In each status line, every block will
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115 be represented by a JSON hash:</p></div>
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116 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
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117 <div class="listingblock">
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118 <div class="content">
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123 "full_text": "E: 10.0.0.1 (1000 Mbit/s)",
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127 "full_text": "2012-01-05 20:00:01"
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133 "full_text": "E: 10.0.0.1 (1000 Mbit/s)",
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137 "full_text": "2012-01-05 20:00:02"
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142 <div class="paragraph"><p>Please note that this example was pretty printed for human consumption.
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143 i3status and others will output single statuslines in one line, separated by
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145 <div class="paragraph"><p>You can find an example of a shell script which can be used as your
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146 <tt>status_command</tt> in the bar configuration at
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147 <a href="http://code.stapelberg.de/git/i3/tree/contrib/trivial-bar-script.sh?h=next">http://code.stapelberg.de/git/i3/tree/contrib/trivial-bar-script.sh?h=next</a></p></div>
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148 <div class="sect2">
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149 <h3 id="_header_in_detail">2.1. Header in detail</h3>
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150 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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151 <dt class="hdlist1">
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156 The version number (as an integer) of the i3bar protocol you will use.
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159 <dt class="hdlist1">
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164 Specify to i3bar the signal (as an integer) to send to stop your
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166 The default value (if none is specified) is SIGSTOP.
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169 <dt class="hdlist1">
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174 Specify to i3bar the signal (as an integer)to send to continue your
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176 The default value (if none is specified) is SIGCONT.
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179 <dt class="hdlist1">
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184 If specified and true i3bar will write a infinite array (same as above)
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190 <div class="sect2">
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191 <h3 id="_blocks_in_detail">2.2. Blocks in detail</h3>
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192 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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193 <dt class="hdlist1">
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198 The most simple block you can think of is one which just includes the
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199 only required key, the <tt>full_text</tt> key. i3bar will display the string
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201 <a href="https://developer.gnome.org/pango/stable/PangoMarkupFormat.html">Pango markup</a>.
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204 <dt class="hdlist1">
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209 Where appropriate, the <tt>short_text</tt> (string) entry should also be
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210 provided. It will be used in case the status line needs to be shortened
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211 because it uses more space than your screen provides. For example, when
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212 displaying an IPv6 address, the prefix is usually (!) more relevant
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213 than the suffix, because the latter stays constant when using autoconf,
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214 while the prefix changes. When displaying the date, the time is more
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215 important than the date (it is more likely that you know which day it
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216 is than what time it is).
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219 <dt class="hdlist1">
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224 To make the current state of the information easy to spot, colors can
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225 be used. For example, the wireless block could be displayed in red
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226 (using the <tt>color</tt> (string) entry) if the card is not associated with
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227 any network and in green or yellow (depending on the signal strength)
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228 when it is associated.
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229 Colors are specified in hex (like in HTML), starting with a leading
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230 hash sign. For example, <tt>#ff0000</tt> means red.
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233 <dt class="hdlist1">
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238 The minimum width (in pixels) of the block. If the content of the
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239 <tt>full_text</tt> key take less space than the specified min_width, the block
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240 will be padded to the left and/or the right side, according to the <tt>align</tt>
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241 key. This is useful when you want to prevent the whole status line to shift
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242 when value take more or less space between each iteration.
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243 The value can also be a string. In this case, the width of the text given
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244 by <tt>min_width</tt> determines the minimum width of the block. This is useful
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245 when you want to set a sensible minimum width regardless of which font you
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246 are using, and at what particular size.
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249 <dt class="hdlist1">
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254 Align text on the <tt>center</tt>, <tt>right</tt> or <tt>left</tt> (default) of the block, when
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255 the minimum width of the latter, specified by the <tt>min_width</tt> key, is not
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259 <dt class="hdlist1">
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264 Every block should have a unique <tt>name</tt> (string) entry so that it can
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265 be easily identified in scripts which process the output. i3bar
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266 completely ignores the name and instance fields. Make sure to also
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267 specify an <tt>instance</tt> (string) entry where appropriate. For example,
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268 the user can have multiple disk space blocks for multiple mount points.
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271 <dt class="hdlist1">
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276 A boolean which specifies whether the current value is urgent. Examples
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277 are battery charge values below 1 percent or no more available disk
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278 space (for non-root users). The presentation of urgency is up to i3bar.
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281 <dt class="hdlist1">
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286 A boolean which specifies whether a separator line should be drawn
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287 after this block. The default is true, meaning the separator line will
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288 be drawn. Note that if you disable the separator line, there will still
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289 be a gap after the block, unless you also use <tt>separator_block_width</tt>.
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292 <dt class="hdlist1">
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293 separator_block_width
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297 The amount of pixels to leave blank after the block. In the middle of
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298 this gap, a separator line will be drawn unless <tt>separator</tt> is
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299 disabled. Normally, you want to set this to an odd value (the default
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300 is 9 pixels), since the separator line is drawn in the middle.
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304 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you want to put in your own entries into a block, prefix the key with an
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305 underscore (_). i3bar will ignore all keys it doesn’t understand, and prefixing
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306 them with an underscore makes it clear in every script that they are not part
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307 of the i3bar protocol.</p></div>
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308 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
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309 <div class="listingblock">
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310 <div class="content">
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312 "full_text": "E: 10.0.0.1 (1000 Mbit/s)",
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313 "_ethernet_vendor": "Intel"
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316 <div class="paragraph"><p>In the following example, the longest (widest) possible value of the block is
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317 used to set the minimum width:</p></div>
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318 <div class="listingblock">
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319 <div class="content">
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321 "full_text": "CPU 4%",
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322 "min_width": "CPU 100%",
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326 <div class="paragraph"><p>An example of a block which uses all possible entries follows:</p></div>
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327 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
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328 <div class="listingblock">
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329 <div class="content">
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331 "full_text": "E: 10.0.0.1 (1000 Mbit/s)",
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332 "short_text": "10.0.0.1",
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333 "color": "#00ff00",
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337 "name": "ethernet",
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338 "instance": "eth0",
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340 "separator_block_width": 9
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344 <div class="sect2">
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345 <h3 id="_click_events">2.3. Click events</h3>
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346 <div class="paragraph"><p>If enabled i3bar will send you notifications if the user clicks on a block and
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347 looks like this:</p></div>
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348 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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349 <dt class="hdlist1">
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354 Name of the block, if set
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357 <dt class="hdlist1">
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362 Instance of the block, if set
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365 <dt class="hdlist1">
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370 X11 root window coordinates where the click occured
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373 <dt class="hdlist1">
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378 X11 button ID (for example 1 to 3 for left/middle/right mouse button)
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382 <div class="paragraph"><p><strong>Example</strong>:</p></div>
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383 <div class="listingblock">
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384 <div class="content">
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386 "name": "ethernet",
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387 "instance": "eth0",
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397 <div id="footnotes"><hr /></div>
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398 <div id="footer" lang="de">
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399 © 2009-2011 Michael Stapelberg, <a href="/impress.html">Impressum</a>
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projects / i3 / i3.github.io / blob