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 for generating a status bar for i3bar, dzen2,
28 xmobar, lemonbar or similar programs. It is designed to be very efficient by
29 issuing a very small number of system calls, as one generally wants to update
30 such a status line every second. This ensures that even under high load, your
31 status bar is updated correctly. Also, it saves a bit of energy by not hogging
32 your CPU as much as spawning the corresponding amount of shell commands would.
36 The basic idea of i3status is that you can specify which "modules" should
37 be used (the order directive). You can then configure each module with its
38 own section. For every module, you can specify the output format. See below
39 for a complete reference.
42 -------------------------------------------------------------
44 output_format = "dzen2"
51 order += "run_watch DHCP"
52 order += "run_watch VPNC"
53 order += "path_exists VPN"
54 order += "wireless wlan0"
55 order += "ethernet eth0"
57 order += "cpu_temperature 0"
59 order += "tztime local"
60 order += "tztime berlin"
63 format_up = "W: (%quality at %essid, %bitrate) %ip"
64 format_down = "W: down"
68 # if you use %speed, i3status requires the cap_net_admin capability
69 format_up = "E: %ip (%speed)"
70 format_down = "E: down"
74 format = "%status %percentage %remaining %emptytime"
75 format_down = "No battery"
79 status_full = "☻ FULL"
80 path = "/sys/class/power_supply/BAT%d/uevent"
85 pidfile = "/var/run/dhclient*.pid"
89 # file containing the PID of a vpnc process
90 pidfile = "/var/run/vpnc/pid"
94 # path exists when a VPN tunnel launched by nmcli/nm-applet is active
95 path = "/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/tun0"
99 format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
103 format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z"
104 timezone = "Europe/Berlin"
112 format = "T: %degrees °C"
113 path = "/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input"
119 -------------------------------------------------------------
123 The +colors+ directive will disable all colors if you set it to +false+. You can
124 also specify the colors that will be used to display "good", "degraded" or "bad"
125 values using the +color_good+, +color_degraded+ or +color_bad+ directives,
126 respectively. Those directives are only used if color support is not disabled by
127 the +colors+ directive. The input format for color values is the canonical RGB
128 hexadecimal triplet (with no separators between the colors), prefixed by a hash
131 *Example configuration*:
132 -------------------------------------------------------------
133 color_good = "#00FF00"
134 -------------------------------------------------------------
136 Likewise, you can use the +color_separator+ directive to specify the color that
137 will be used to paint the separator bar. The separator is always output in
138 color, even when colors are disabled by the +colors+ directive. This option has
139 no effect when +output_format+ is set to +i3bar+ or +none+.
141 The +interval+ directive specifies the time in seconds for which i3status will
142 sleep before printing the next status line.
144 Using +output_format+ you can choose which format strings i3status should
145 use in its output. Currently available are:
148 i3bar comes with i3 and provides a workspace bar which does the right thing in
149 multi-monitor situations. It also comes with tray support and can display the
150 i3status output. This output type uses JSON to pass as much meta-information to
151 i3bar as possible (like colors, which blocks can be shortened in which way,
154 Dzen is a general purpose messaging, notification and menuing program for X11.
155 It was designed to be scriptable in any language and integrate well with window
156 managers like dwm, wmii and xmonad though it will work with any windowmanger
158 xmobar is a minimalistic, text based, status bar. It was designed to work
159 with the xmonad Window Manager.
161 lemonbar is a lightweight bar based entirely on XCB. It has full UTF-8 support
162 and is EWMH compliant.
164 Use ANSI Escape sequences to produce a terminal-output as close as possible to
165 the graphical outputs. This makes debugging your config file a little bit
166 easier because the terminal-output of i3status becomes much more readable, but
167 should only used for such quick glances, because it will only support very
168 basic output-features (for example you only get 3 bits of color depth).
170 Does not use any color codes. Separates values by the pipe symbol by default.
171 This should be used with i3bar and can be used for custom scripts.
173 It's also possible to use the color_good, color_degraded, color_bad directives
174 to define specific colors per module. If one of these directives is defined
175 in a module section its value will override the value defined in the general
176 section just for this module.
178 If you don't fancy the vertical separators between modules i3status/i3bar
179 uses by default, you can employ the +separator+ directive to configure how
180 modules are separated. You can also disable the default separator altogether by
181 setting it to the empty string. You might then define separation as part of a
182 module's format string. This is your only option when using the i3bar output
183 format as the separator is drawn by i3bar directly otherwise. For the other
184 output formats, the provided non-empty string will be automatically enclosed
185 with the necessary coloring bits if color support is enabled.
187 i3bar supports Pango markup, allowing your format strings to specify font,
188 color, size, etc. by setting the +markup+ directive to "pango". Note that the
189 ampersand ("&"), less-than ("<"), greater-than (">"), single-quote ("'"), and
190 double-quote (""") characters need to be replaced with "`&`", "`<`",
191 "`>`", "`'`", and "`"`" respectively. This is done automatically
192 for generated content (e.g. wireless ESSID, time).
194 *Example configuration*:
195 -------------------------------------------------------------
197 output_format = "xmobar"
205 format = "[ load: %1min, %5min, %15min ]"
210 -------------------------------------------------------------
214 This module gets the IPv6 address used for outgoing connections (that is, the
215 best available public IPv6 address on your computer).
217 *Example format_up*: +%ip+
219 *Example format_down*: +no IPv6+
223 Gets used, free, available and total amount of bytes on the given mounted filesystem.
225 These values can also be expressed in percentages with the percentage_used,
226 percentage_free, percentage_avail and percentage_used_of_avail formats.
228 Byte sizes are presented in a human readable format using a set of prefixes
229 whose type can be specified via the "prefix_type" option. Three sets of
230 prefixes are available:
233 IEC prefixes (Ki, Mi, Gi, Ti) represent multiples of powers of 1024.
236 SI prefixes (k, M, G, T) represent multiples of powers of 1000.
238 The custom prefixes (K, M, G, T) represent multiples of powers of 1024.
240 It is possible to define a low_threshold that causes the disk text to be
241 displayed using color_bad. The low_threshold type can be of threshold_type
242 "bytes_free", "bytes_avail", "percentage_free", or "percentage_avail", where
243 the former two can be prepended by a generic prefix (k, m, g, t) having
244 prefix_type. So, if you configure low_threshold to 2, threshold_type to
245 "gbytes_avail", and prefix_type to "binary", and the remaining available disk
246 space is below 2 GiB, it will be colored bad. If not specified, threshold_type
247 is assumed to be "percentage_avail" and low_threshold to be set to 0, which
248 implies no coloring at all. You can customize the output format when below
249 low_threshold with format_below_threshold.
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 format_below_threshold*: +Warning: %percentage_avail+
266 *Example threshold_type*: +percentage_free+
270 Expands the given path to a pidfile and checks if the process ID found inside
271 is valid (that is, if the process is running). You can use this to check if
272 a specific application, such as a VPN client or your DHCP client is running.
273 There also is an option "format_down". You can hide the output with
276 *Example order*: +run_watch DHCP+
278 *Example format*: +%title: %status+
282 Checks if the given path exists in the filesystem. You can use this to check if
283 something is active, like for example a VPN tunnel managed by NetworkManager.
284 There also is an option "format_down". You can hide the output with
287 *Example order*: +path_exists VPN+
289 *Example format*: +%title: %status+
293 Gets the link quality, frequency and ESSID of the given wireless network
294 interface. You can specify different format strings for the network being
295 connected or not connected.
297 The special interface name `_first_` will be replaced by the first wireless
298 network interface found on the system (excluding devices starting with "lo").
300 *Example order*: +wireless wlan0+
302 *Example format_up*: +W: (%quality at %essid, %bitrate / %frequency) %ip+
304 *Example format_down*: +W: down+
308 Gets the IP address and (if possible) the link speed of the given ethernet
309 interface. If no IPv4 address is available and an IPv6 address is, it will be
310 displayed. Getting the link speed requires the cap_net_admin capability.
311 Set it using +setcap cap_net_admin=ep $(which i3status)+.
313 The special interface name `_first_` will be replaced by the first non-wireless
314 network interface found on the system (excluding devices starting with "lo").
316 *Example order*: +ethernet eth0+
318 *Example format_up*: +E: %ip (%speed)+
320 *Example format_down*: +E: down+
324 Gets the status (charging, discharging, unknown, full), percentage, remaining
325 time and power consumption (in Watts) of the given battery and when it's
326 estimated to be empty. If you want to use the last full capacity instead of the
327 design capacity (when using the design capacity, it may happen that your
328 battery is at 23% when fully charged because it’s old. In general, I want to
329 see it this way, because it tells me how worn off my battery is.), just specify
330 +last_full_capacity = true+. You can hide seconds in the remaining time and
331 empty time estimations by setting +hide_seconds = true+.
333 If you want the battery percentage to be shown without decimals, add
334 +integer_battery_capacity = true+.
336 If your battery is represented in a non-standard path in /sys, be sure to
337 modify the "path" property accordingly, i.e. pointing to the uevent file on
338 your system. The first occurrence of %d gets replaced with the battery number,
339 but you can just hard-code a path as well.
341 It is possible to define a low_threshold that causes the battery text to be
342 colored red. The low_threshold type can be of threshold_type "time" or
343 "percentage". So, if you configure low_threshold to 10 and threshold_type to
344 "time", and your battery lasts another 9 minutes, it will be colored red.
346 To show an aggregate of all batteries in the system, use "all" as the number. In
347 this case (for Linux), the /sys path must contain the "%d" sequence. Otherwise,
348 the number indicates the battery index as reported in /sys.
350 Optionally custom strings including any UTF-8 symbols can be used for different
351 battery states. This makes it possible to display individual symbols
352 for each state (charging, discharging, unknown, full)
353 Of course it will also work with special iconic fonts, such as FontAwesome.
354 If any of these special status strings are omitted, the default (CHR, BAT, UNK,
357 *Example order (for the first battery)*: +battery 0+
359 *Example order (aggregate of all batteries)*: +battery all+
361 *Example format*: +%status %remaining (%emptytime %consumption)+
363 *Example format_down*: +No battery+
365 *Example status_chr*: +⚡ CHR+
367 *Example status_bat*: +🔋 BAT+
369 *Example status_unk*: +? UNK+
371 *Example status_full*: +☻ FULL+
373 *Example low_threshold*: +30+
375 *Example threshold_type*: +time+
377 *Example path (%d replaced by title number)*: +/sys/class/power_supply/CMB%d/uevent+
379 *Example path (ignoring the number)*: +/sys/class/power_supply/CMB1/uevent+
383 Gets the temperature of the given thermal zone. It is possible to
384 define a max_threshold that will color the temperature red in case the
385 specified thermal zone is getting too hot. Defaults to 75 degrees C. The
386 output format when above max_threshold can be customized with
387 format_above_threshold.
389 *Example order*: +cpu_temperature 0+
391 *Example format*: +T: %degrees °C+
393 *Example max_threshold*: +42+
395 *Example format_above_threshold*: +Warning T above threshold: %degrees °C+
397 *Example path*: +/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input+
401 Gets the percentual CPU usage from +/proc/stat+ (Linux) or +sysctl(3)+
404 It is possible to define a max_threshold that will color the load
405 value red in case the CPU average over the last interval is getting
406 higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 95. The output
407 format when above max_threshold can be customized with
408 format_above_threshold.
410 It is possible to define a degraded_threshold that will color the load
411 value yellow in case the CPU average over the last interval is getting
412 higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 90. The output format
413 when above degraded threshold can be customized with
414 format_above_degraded_threshold.
416 For displaying the Nth CPU usage, you can use the %cpu<N> format string,
417 starting from %cpu0. This feature is currently not supported in FreeBSD.
419 *Example order*: +cpu_usage+
421 *Example format*: +all: %usage CPU_0: %cpu0 CPU_1: %cpu1+
423 *Example max_threshold*: +75+
425 *Example format_above_threshold*: +Warning above threshold: %usage+
427 *Example degraded_threshold*: +25+
429 *Example format_above_degraded_threshold*: +Warning above degraded threshold: %usage+
433 Gets the system load (number of processes waiting for CPU time in the last
434 1, 5 and 15 minutes). It is possible to define a max_threshold that will
435 color the load value red in case the load average of the last minute is
436 getting higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 5. The output
437 format when above max_threshold can be customized with
438 format_above_threshold.
440 *Example order*: +load+
442 *Example format*: +%1min %5min %15min+
444 *Example max_threshold*: +"0,1"+
446 *Example format_above_threshold*: +Warning: %1min %5min %15min+
450 Outputs the current time in the local timezone.
451 To use a different timezone, you can set the TZ environment variable,
452 or use the +tztime+ module.
453 See +strftime(3)+ for details on the format string.
455 *Example order*: +time+
457 *Example format*: +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S+
461 Outputs the current time in the given timezone.
462 If no timezone is given, local time will be used.
463 See +strftime(3)+ for details on the format string.
464 The system's timezone database is usually installed in +/usr/share/zoneinfo+.
465 Files below that path make for valid timezone strings, e.g. for
466 +/usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin+ you can set timezone to +Europe/Berlin+
467 in the +tztime+ module.
468 To override the locale settings of your environment, set the +locale+ option.
470 *Example order*: +tztime berlin+
472 *Example format*: +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z+
474 *Example timezone*: +Europe/Berlin+
476 *Example locale*: +de_DE.UTF-8+
478 If you would like to use markup in this section, there is a separate
479 +format_time+ option that is automatically escaped. Its output then replaces
480 %time in the format string.
482 *Example configuration (markup)*:
483 -------------------------------------------------------------
485 format = "<span foreground='#ffffff'>time:</span> %time"
486 format_time = "%H:%M %Z"
487 timezone = "Europe/Berlin"
489 -------------------------------------------------------------
493 Outputs the current discordian date in user-specified format. See +ddate(1)+ for
494 details on the format string.
495 *Note*: Neither *%.* nor *%X* are implemented yet.
497 *Example order*: +ddate+
499 *Example format*: +%{%a, %b %d%}, %Y%N - %H+
503 Outputs the volume of the specified mixer on the specified device. PulseAudio
504 and ALSA (Linux only) are supported. If PulseAudio is absent, a simplified
505 configuration can be used on FreeBSD and OpenBSD due to the lack of ALSA, the
506 +device+ and +mixer+ options can be ignored on these systems. On these systems
507 the OSS API is used instead to query +/dev/mixer+ directly if +mixer_idx+ is
508 -1, otherwise +/dev/mixer++mixer_idx+.
510 To get PulseAudio volume information, one must use the following format in the
519 where N is the index or name of the PulseAudio sink. You can obtain the name of
520 the sink with the following command:
522 $ pacmd list-sinks | grep name:
523 name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo>
525 The name is what's inside the angle brackets, not including them. If no sink is
526 specified the default sink is used. If the device string is missing or is set
527 to "default", PulseAudio will be tried if detected and will fallback to ALSA
528 (Linux) or OSS (FreeBSD/OpenBSD).
530 *Example order*: +volume master+
532 *Example format*: +♪: %volume+
534 *Example format_muted*: +♪: 0%%+
536 *Example configuration*:
537 -------------------------------------------------------------
539 format = "♪: %volume"
540 format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
545 -------------------------------------------------------------
546 *Example configuration (PulseAudio)*:
547 -------------------------------------------------------------
549 format = "♪: %volume"
550 format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
553 -------------------------------------------------------------
554 -------------------------------------------------------------
556 format = "♪: %volume"
557 format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
558 device = "pulse:alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo"
560 -------------------------------------------------------------
562 == Universal module options
564 When using the i3bar output format, there are a few additional options that
565 can be used with all modules to customize their appearance:
568 The alignment policy to use when the minimum width (see below) is not
569 reached. Either +center+ (default), +right+ or +left+.
571 The minimum width (in pixels) the module should occupy. If the module takes
572 less space than the specified size, the block will be padded to the left
573 and/or the right side, according to the defined alignment policy. This is
574 useful when you want to prevent the whole status line from shifting when
575 values take more or less space between each iteration.
576 The option can also be a string. In this case, the width of the given text
577 determines the minimum width of the block. This is useful when you want to
578 set a sensible minimum width regardless of which font you are using, and at
579 what particular size. Please note that a number enclosed with quotes will
580 still be treated as a number.
582 A boolean value which specifies whether a separator line should be drawn
583 after this block. The default is true, meaning the separator line will be
584 drawn. Note that if you disable the separator line, there will still be a
585 gap after the block, unless you also use separator_block_width.
586 separator_block_width::
587 The amount of pixels to leave blank after the block. In the middle of this
588 gap, a separator symbol will be drawn unless separator is disabled. This is
589 why the specified width should leave enough space for the separator symbol.
591 *Example configuration*:
592 -------------------------------------------------------------
598 separator_block_width = 1
600 -------------------------------------------------------------
602 == Using i3status with dzen2
604 After installing dzen2, you can directly use it with i3status. Just ensure that
605 +output_format+ is set to +dzen2+.
607 *Example for usage of i3status with dzen2*:
608 --------------------------------------------------------------
609 i3status | dzen2 -fg white -ta r -w 1280 \
610 -fn "-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso8859-1"
611 --------------------------------------------------------------
613 == Using i3status with xmobar
615 To get xmobar to start, you might need to copy the default configuration
616 file to +~/.xmobarrc+. Also, ensure that the +output_format+ option for i3status
619 *Example for usage of i3status with xmobar*:
620 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
621 i3status | xmobar -o -t "%StdinReader%" -c "[Run StdinReader]"
622 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
624 == What about memory usage or CPU frequency?
626 While talking about two specific things, please understand this section as a
627 general explanation why your favorite information is not included in i3status.
629 Let’s talk about memory usage specifically. It is hard to measure memory in a
630 way which is accurate or meaningful. An in-depth understanding of how paging
631 and virtual memory work in your operating system is required. Furthermore, even
632 if we had a well-defined way of displaying memory usage and you would
633 understand it, I think that it’s not helpful to repeatedly monitor your memory
634 usage. One reason for that is that I have not run out of memory in the last few
635 years. Memory has become so cheap that even in my 4 year old notebook, I have
636 8 GiB of RAM. Another reason is that your operating system will do the right
637 thing anyway: Either you have not enough RAM for your workload, but you need to
638 do it anyway, then your operating system will swap. Or you don’t have enough
639 RAM and you want to restrict your workload so that it fits, then the operating
640 system will kill the process using too much RAM and you can act accordingly.
642 For CPU frequency, the situation is similar. Many people don’t understand how
643 frequency scaling works precisely. The generally recommended CPU frequency
644 governor ("ondemand") changes the CPU frequency far more often than i3status
645 could display it. The display number is therefore often incorrect and doesn’t
646 tell you anything useful either.
648 In general, i3status wants to display things which you would look at
649 occasionally anyways, like the current date/time, whether you are connected to
650 a WiFi network or not, and if you have enough disk space to fit that 4.3 GiB
653 However, if you need to look at some kind of information more than once in a
654 while (like checking repeatedly how full your RAM is), you are probably better
655 off with a script doing that, which pops up an alert when your RAM usage reaches
656 a certain threshold. After all, the point of computers is not to burden you
657 with additional boring tasks like repeatedly checking a number.
659 == External scripts/programs with i3status
661 In i3status, we don’t want to implement process management again. Therefore,
662 there is no module to run arbitrary scripts or commands. Instead, you should
663 use your shell, for example like this:
665 *Example for prepending the i3status output*:
666 --------------------------------------------------------------
668 # shell script to prepend i3status with more stuff
673 echo "mystuff | $line" || exit 1
675 --------------------------------------------------------------
677 Put that in some script, say +.bin/my_i3status.sh+ and execute that instead of i3status.
679 Note that if you want to use the JSON output format (with colors in i3bar), you
680 need to use a slightly more complex wrapper script. There are examples in the
681 contrib/ folder, see https://github.com/i3/i3status/tree/master/contrib
685 When receiving +SIGUSR1+, i3status’s nanosleep() will be interrupted and thus
686 you will force an update. You can use killall -USR1 i3status to force an update
687 after changing the system volume, for example.
691 +strftime(3)+, +date(1)+, +glob(3)+, +dzen2(1)+, +xmobar(1)+
695 Michael Stapelberg and contributors
703 Fernando Tarlá Cardoso Lemos