3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
8 i3status - Generates a status line for 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:
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)
23 4. /etc/i3status.conf (or SYSCONFDIR/i3status.conf if set at compile-time)
27 i3status is a small program (less than 1000 SLOC) for generating a status bar
28 for dzen2, xmobar 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 Since version 2, the configuration file for i3status will be parsed using
37 libconfuse. This makes configuration easier in the programmer’s point of
38 view and more flexible for the user at the same time.
40 The basic idea of i3status is that you can specify which "modules" should
41 be used (the order directive). You can then configure each module with its
42 own section. For every module, you can specify the output format. See below
43 for a complete reference.
46 -------------------------------------------------------------
48 output_format = "dzen2"
55 order += "run_watch DHCP"
56 order += "run_watch VPN"
57 order += "wireless wlan0"
58 order += "ethernet eth0"
60 order += "cpu_temperature 0"
65 format_up = "W: (%quality at %essid, %bitrate) %ip"
66 format_down = "W: down"
70 # if you use %speed, i3status requires the cap_net_admin capability
71 format = "E: %ip (%speed)"
75 format = "%status %percentage %remaining"
79 pidfile = "/var/run/dhclient*.pid"
83 pidfile = "/var/run/vpnc/pid"
87 format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
95 format = "T: %degrees °C"
101 -------------------------------------------------------------
105 The +colors+ directive will disable all colors if you set it to +false+. You can
106 also specify the colors that will be used to display "good", "degraded" or "bad"
107 values using the +color_good+, +color_degraded+ or +color_bad+ directives,
108 respectively. Those directives are only used if color support is not disabled by
109 the +colors+ directive. The input format for color values is the canonical RGB
110 hexadecimal triplet (with no separators between the colors), prefixed by a hash
113 *Example color_good*: +#00FF00+
115 Likewise, you can use the +color_separator+ directive to specify the color that
116 will be used to paint the separator bar. The separator is always output in
117 color, even when colors are disabled by the +colors+ directive.
119 The +interval+ directive specifies the time in seconds for which i3status will
120 sleep before printing the next status line.
122 Using +output_format+ you can chose which format strings i3status should
123 use in its output. Currently available are:
126 Dzen is a general purpose messaging, notification and menuing program for X11.
127 It was designed to be scriptable in any language and integrate well with window
128 managers like dwm, wmii and xmonad though it will work with any windowmanger
130 xmobar is a minimalistic, text based, status bar. It was designed to work
131 with the xmonad Window Manager.
133 Does not use any color codes. Separates values by the pipe symbol.
137 This module gets the IPv6 address used for outgoing connections (that is, the
138 best available public IPv6 address on your computer).
140 *Example format_up*: +%ip+
142 *Example format_down* +no IPv6+
146 Gets used, free, available and total amount of bytes on the given mounted filesystem.
148 *Example order*: +disk /mnt/usbstick+
150 *Example format*: +%free (%avail)/ %total+
154 Expands the given path to a pidfile and checks if the process ID found inside
155 is valid (that is, if the process is running). You can use this to check if
156 a specific application, such as a VPN client or your DHCP client is running.
158 *Example order*: +run_watch DHCP+
162 Gets the link quality and ESSID of the given wireless network interface. You
163 can specify different format strings for the network being connected or not
166 *Example order*: +wireless wlan0+
168 *Example format*: +W: (%quality at %essid, %bitrate) %ip+
172 Gets the IP address and (if possible) the link speed of the given ethernet
173 interface. Getting the link speed requires the cap_net_admin capability. Set
174 it using +setcap cap_net_admin=ep $(which i3status)+.
176 *Example order*: +ethernet eth0+
178 *Example format*: +E: %ip (%speed)+
182 Gets the status (charging, discharging, running), percentage and remaining
183 time of the given battery. If you want to use the last full capacity instead
184 of the design capacity (when using the design capacity, it may happen that
185 your battery is at 23% when fully charged because it’s old. In general, I
186 want to see it this way, because it tells me how worn off my battery is.),
187 just specify +last_full_capacity = true+.
189 *Example order*: +battery 0+
191 *Example format*: +%status %remaining+
195 Gets the temperature of the given thermal zone.
197 *Example order*: +cpu_temperature 0+
199 *Example format*: +T: %degrees °C+
203 Gets the system load (number of processes waiting for CPU time in the last
204 5, 10 and 15 minutes).
206 *Example order*: +load+
208 *Example format*: +%5min %10min %15min+
212 Formats the current system time. See +strftime(3)+ for the format.
214 *Example order*: +time+
216 *Example format*: +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S+
220 Outputs the current discordian date in user-specified format. See +ddate(1)+ for
221 details on the format string.
222 *Note*: Neither *%.* nor *%X* are implemented yet.
224 *Example order*: +ddate+
226 *Example format*: +%{%a, %b %d%}, %Y%N - %H+
230 Outputs the volume of the specified mixer on the specified device. Works only
231 on Linux because it uses ALSA.
233 *Example order*: +volume master+
235 *Example format*: +♪: %volume+
237 *Example configuration*:
238 -------------------------------------------------------------
240 format = "♪: %volume"
245 -------------------------------------------------------------
247 == Using i3status with dzen2
249 After installing dzen2, you can directly use it with i3status. Just ensure that
250 +output_format+ is set to +dzen2+.
252 *Example for usage of i3status with dzen2*:
253 --------------------------------------------------------------
254 i3status | dzen2 -fg white -ta r -w 1280 \
255 -fn "-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso8859-1"
256 --------------------------------------------------------------
258 == Using i3status with xmobar
260 To get xmobar to start, you might need to copy the default configuration
261 file to +~/.xmobarrc+. Also, ensure that the +output_format+ option for i3status
264 *Example for usage of i3status with xmobar*:
265 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
266 i3status | xmobar -o -t "%StdinReader%" -c "[Run StdinReader]"
267 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
271 +strftime(3)+, +date(1)+, +glob(3)+, +dzen2(1)+, +xmobar(1)+
275 Michael Stapelberg and contributors