i3status(1)
===========
-Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
-v2.3, July 2011
+Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
+v2.11, January 2017
== NAME
-i3status - Generates a status line for dzen2 or xmobar
+i3status - Generates a status line for i3bar, dzen2, xmobar or lemonbar
== SYNOPSIS
Specifies an alternate configuration file path. By default, i3status looks for
configuration files in the following order:
-1. ~/.i3status.conf
-2. ~/.config/i3status/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3status/config if set)
-3. /etc/i3status.conf
-4. /etc/xdg/i3status/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/i3status/config if set)
+1. ~/.config/i3status/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3status/config if set)
+2. /etc/xdg/i3status/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/i3status/config if set)
+3. ~/.i3status.conf
+4. /etc/i3status.conf
== DESCRIPTION
i3status is a small program (about 1500 SLOC) for generating a status bar for
-i3bar, dzen2, xmobar or similar programs. It is designed to be very
+i3bar, dzen2, xmobar, lemonbar or similar programs. It is designed to be very
efficient by issuing a very small number of system calls, as one generally
wants to update such a status line every second. This ensures that even under
high load, your status bar is updated correctly. Also, it saves a bit of energy
== CONFIGURATION
-Since version 2, the configuration file for i3status will be parsed using
-libconfuse. This makes configuration easier in the programmer’s point of
-view and more flexible for the user at the same time.
-
The basic idea of i3status is that you can specify which "modules" should
be used (the order directive). You can then configure each module with its
own section. For every module, you can specify the output format. See below
interval = 5
}
-order = "ipv6"
+order += "ipv6"
order += "disk /"
order += "run_watch DHCP"
-order += "run_watch VPN"
+order += "run_watch VPNC"
+order += "path_exists VPN"
order += "wireless wlan0"
order += "ethernet eth0"
order += "battery 0"
order += "cpu_temperature 0"
order += "load"
-order += "time"
+order += "tztime local"
+order += "tztime berlin"
wireless wlan0 {
format_up = "W: (%quality at %essid, %bitrate) %ip"
}
battery 0 {
- format = "%status %percentage %remaining"
+ format = "%status %percentage %remaining %emptytime"
+ format_down = "No battery"
+ status_chr = "⚡ CHR"
+ status_bat = "🔋 BAT"
+ status_unk = "? UNK"
+ status_full = "☻ FULL"
+ path = "/sys/class/power_supply/BAT%d/uevent"
+ low_threshold = 10
}
run_watch DHCP {
pidfile = "/var/run/dhclient*.pid"
}
-run_watch VPN {
+run_watch VPNC {
+ # file containing the PID of a vpnc process
pidfile = "/var/run/vpnc/pid"
}
-time {
- format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
+path_exists VPN {
+ # path exists when a VPN tunnel launched by nmcli/nm-applet is active
+ path = "/proc/sys/net/ipv4/conf/tun0"
+}
+
+tztime local {
+ format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
+}
+
+tztime berlin {
+ format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z"
+ timezone = "Europe/Berlin"
}
load {
Likewise, you can use the +color_separator+ directive to specify the color that
will be used to paint the separator bar. The separator is always output in
-color, even when colors are disabled by the +colors+ directive.
+color, even when colors are disabled by the +colors+ directive. This option has
+no effect when +output_format+ is set to +i3bar+ or +none+.
The +interval+ directive specifies the time in seconds for which i3status will
sleep before printing the next status line.
Using +output_format+ you can chose which format strings i3status should
use in its output. Currently available are:
+i3bar::
+i3bar comes with i3 and provides a workspace bar which does the right thing in
+multi-monitor situations. It also comes with tray support and can display the
+i3status output. This output type uses JSON to pass as much meta-information to
+i3bar as possible (like colors, which blocks can be shortened in which way,
+etc.).
dzen2::
Dzen is a general purpose messaging, notification and menuing program for X11.
It was designed to be scriptable in any language and integrate well with window
xmobar::
xmobar is a minimalistic, text based, status bar. It was designed to work
with the xmonad Window Manager.
+lemonbar::
+lemonbar is a lightweight bar based entirely on XCB. It has full UTF-8 support
+and is EWMH compliant.
+term::
+Use ANSI Escape sequences to produce a terminal-output as close as possible to
+the graphical outputs. This makes debugging your config file a little bit
+easier because the terminal-output of i3status becomes much more readable, but
+should only used for such quick glances, because it will only support very
+basic output-features (for example you only get 3 bits of color depth).
none::
-Does not use any color codes. Separates values by the pipe symbol. This should
-be used with i3bar and can be used for custom scripts.
+Does not use any color codes. Separates values by the pipe symbol by default.
+This should be used with i3bar and can be used for custom scripts.
+
+It's also possible to use the color_good, color_degraded, color_bad directives
+to define specific colors per module. If one of these directives is defined
+in a module section its value will override the value defined in the general
+section just for this module.
+
+If you don't fancy the vertical separators between modules i3status/i3bar
+uses by default, you can employ the +separator+ directive to configure how
+modules are separated. You can either disable the default separator altogether
+setting it to the empty string. You might then define separation as part of a
+module's format string. This is your only option when using the i3bar output
+format as the separator is drawn by i3bar directly otherwise. For the other
+output formats, the provided non-empty string will be automatically enclosed
+with the necessary coloring bits if color support is enabled.
+
+i3bar supports Pango markup, allowing your format strings to specify font
+color, size, etc. by setting the +markup+ directive to "pango". Note that the
+ampersand ("&"), less-than ("<"), greater-than (">"), single-quote ("'"), and
+double-quote (""") characters need to be replaced with "`&`", "`<`",
+"`>`", "`'`", and "`"`" respectively. This is done automatically
+for generated content (e.g. wireless ESSID, time).
+
+*Example configuration*:
+-------------------------------------------------------------
+general {
+ output_format = "xmobar"
+ separator = " "
+}
+
+order += "load"
+order += "disk /"
+
+load {
+ format = "[ load: %1min, %5min, %15min ]"
+}
+disk "/" {
+ format = "%avail"
+}
+-------------------------------------------------------------
=== IPv6
*Example format_up*: +%ip+
-*Example format_down* +no IPv6+
+*Example format_down*: +no IPv6+
=== Disk
Gets used, free, available and total amount of bytes on the given mounted filesystem.
+These values can also be expressed in percentages with the percentage_used,
+percentage_free, percentage_avail and percentage_used_of_avail formats.
+
+Byte sizes are presented in a human readable format using a set of prefixes
+whose type can be specified via the "prefix_type" option. Three sets of
+prefixes are available:
+
+binary::
+IEC prefixes (Ki, Mi, Gi, Ti) represent multiples of powers of 1024.
+This is the default.
+decimal::
+SI prefixes (k, M, G, T) represent multiples of powers of 1000.
+custom::
+The custom prefixes (K, M, G, T) represent multiples of powers of 1024.
+
+It is possible to define a low_threshold that causes the disk text to be
+displayed using color_bad. The low_threshold type can be of threshold_type
+"bytes_free", "bytes_avail", "percentage_free", or "percentage_avail", where
+the former two can be prepended by a generic prefix (k, m, g, t) having
+prefix_type. So, if you configure low_threshold to 2, threshold_type to
+"gbytes_avail", and prefix_type to "binary", and the remaining available disk
+space is below 2 GiB, it will be colored bad. If not specified, threshold_type
+is assumed to be "percentage_avail" and low_threshold to be set to 0, which
+implies no coloring at all. You can customize the output format when below
+low_threshold with format_below_threshold.
+
+You can define a different format with the option "format_not_mounted"
+which is used if the path does not exist or is not a mount point. Defaults to "".
+
*Example order*: +disk /mnt/usbstick+
*Example format*: +%free (%avail)/ %total+
+*Example format*: +%percentage_used used, %percentage_free free, %percentage_avail avail+
+
+*Example prefix_type*: +custom+
+
+*Example low_threshold*: +5+
+
+*Example format_below_threshold*: +Warning: %percentage_avail+
+
+*Example threshold_type*: +percentage_free+
+
=== Run-watch
Expands the given path to a pidfile and checks if the process ID found inside
is valid (that is, if the process is running). You can use this to check if
a specific application, such as a VPN client or your DHCP client is running.
+There also is an option "format_down". You can hide the output with
++format_down=""+.
*Example order*: +run_watch DHCP+
+*Example format*: +%title: %status+
+
+=== Path-exists
+
+Checks if the given path exists in the filesystem. You can use this to check if
+something is active, like for example a VPN tunnel managed by NetworkManager.
+There also is an option "format_down". You can hide the output with
++format_down=""+.
+
+*Example order*: +path_exists VPN+
+
+*Example format*: +%title: %status+
+
=== Wireless
-Gets the link quality and ESSID of the given wireless network interface. You
-can specify different format strings for the network being connected or not
-connected.
+Gets the link quality, frequency and ESSID of the given wireless network
+interface. You can specify different format strings for the network being
+connected or not connected.
+
+The special interface name `_first_` will be replaced by the first wireless
+network interface found on the system (excluding devices starting with "lo").
*Example order*: +wireless wlan0+
-*Example format*: +W: (%quality at %essid, %bitrate) %ip+
+*Example format*: +W: (%quality at %essid, %bitrate / %frequency) %ip+
=== Ethernet
interface. Getting the link speed requires the cap_net_admin capability. Set
it using +setcap cap_net_admin=ep $(which i3status)+.
+The special interface name `_first_` will be replaced by the first non-wireless
+network interface found on the system (excluding devices starting with "lo").
+
*Example order*: +ethernet eth0+
*Example format*: +E: %ip (%speed)+
=== Battery
-Gets the status (charging, discharging, running), percentage and remaining
-time of the given battery. If you want to use the last full capacity instead
-of the design capacity (when using the design capacity, it may happen that
-your battery is at 23% when fully charged because it’s old. In general, I
-want to see it this way, because it tells me how worn off my battery is.),
-just specify +last_full_capacity = true+.
+Gets the status (charging, discharging, unknown, full), percentage, remaining
+time and power consumption (in Watts) of the given battery and when it's
+estimated to be empty. If you want to use the last full capacity instead of the
+design capacity (when using the design capacity, it may happen that your
+battery is at 23% when fully charged because it’s old. In general, I want to
+see it this way, because it tells me how worn off my battery is.), just specify
++last_full_capacity = true+. You can hide seconds in the remaining time and
+empty time estimations by setting +hide_seconds = true+.
+
+If you want the battery percentage to be shown without decimals, add
++integer_battery_capacity = true+.
+
+If your battery is represented in a non-standard path in /sys, be sure to
+modify the "path" property accordingly, i.e. pointing to the uevent file on
+your system. The first occurrence of %d gets replaced with the battery number,
+but you can just hard-code a path as well.
+
+It is possible to define a low_threshold that causes the battery text to be
+colored red. The low_threshold type can be of threshold_type "time" or
+"percentage". So, if you configure low_threshold to 10 and threshold_type to
+"time", and your battery lasts another 9 minutes, it will be colored red.
+
+To show an aggregate of all batteries in the system, use "all" as the number. In
+this case (for Linux), the /sys path must contain the "%d" sequence. Otherwise,
+the number indicates the battery index as reported in /sys.
+
+Optionally custom strings including any UTF-8 symbols can be used for different
+battery states. This makes it possible to display individual symbols
+for each state (charging, discharging, unknown, full)
+Of course it will also work with special iconic fonts, such as FontAwesome.
+If any of these special status strings are omitted, the default (CHR, BAT, UNK,
+FULL) is used.
+
+*Example order (for the first battery)*: +battery 0+
-*Example order*: +battery 0+
+*Example order (aggregate of all batteries)*: +battery all+
-*Example format*: +%status %remaining+
+*Example format*: +%status %remaining (%emptytime %consumption)+
+
+*Example format_down*: +No battery+
+
+*Example status_chr*: +⚡ CHR+
+
+*Example status_bat*: +🔋 BAT+
+
+*Example status_unk*: +? UNK+
+
+*Example status_full*: +☻ FULL+
+
+*Example low_threshold*: +30+
+
+*Example threshold_type*: +time+
+
+*Example path (%d replaced by title number)*: +/sys/class/power_supply/CMB%d/uevent+
+
+*Example path (ignoring the number)*: +/sys/class/power_supply/CMB1/uevent+
=== CPU-Temperature
-Gets the temperature of the given thermal zone.
+Gets the temperature of the given thermal zone. It is possible to
+define a max_threshold that will color the temperature red in case the
+specified thermal zone is getting too hot. Defaults to 75 degrees C. The
+output format when above max_threshold can be customized with
+format_above_threshold.
*Example order*: +cpu_temperature 0+
*Example format*: +T: %degrees °C+
+*Example max_threshold*: +42+
+
+*Example format_above_threshold*: +Warning T above threshold: %degrees °C+
+
+*Example path*: +/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input+
+
=== CPU Usage
-Gets the percentual CPU usage from +/proc/stat+.
+Gets the percentual CPU usage from +/proc/stat+ (Linux) or +sysctl(3)+
+(FreeBSD/OpenBSD).
+
+It is possible to define a max_threshold that will color the load
+value red in case the CPU average over the last interval is getting
+higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 95. The output
+format when above max_threshold can be customized with
+format_above_threshold.
+
+It is possible to define a degraded_threshold that will color the load
+value yellow in case the CPU average over the last interval is getting
+higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 90. The output format
+when above degraded threshold can be customized with
+format_above_degraded_threshold.
*Example order*: +cpu_usage+
*Example format*: +%usage+
+*Example max_threshold*: +75+
+
+*Example format_above_threshold*: +Warning above threshold: %usage+
+
+*Example degraded_threshold*: +25+
+
+*Example format_above_degraded_threshold*: +Warning above degraded threshold: %usage+
+
=== Load
Gets the system load (number of processes waiting for CPU time in the last
-5, 10 and 15 minutes).
+1, 5 and 15 minutes). It is possible to define a max_threshold that will
+color the load value red in case the load average of the last minute is
+getting higher than the configured threshold. Defaults to 5. The output
+format when above max_threshold can be customized with
+format_above_threshold.
*Example order*: +load+
-*Example format*: +%5min %10min %15min+
+*Example format*: +%1min %5min %15min+
+
+*Example max_threshold*: +"0,1"+
+
+*Example format_above_threshold*: +Warning: %1min %5min %15min+
=== Time
-Formats the current system time. See +strftime(3)+ for the format.
+Outputs the current time in the local timezone.
+To use a different timezone, you can set the TZ environment variable,
+or use the +tztime+ module.
+See +strftime(3)+ for details on the format string.
*Example order*: +time+
*Example format*: +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S+
+=== TzTime
+
+Outputs the current time in the given timezone.
+If no timezone is given, local time will be used.
+See +strftime(3)+ for details on the format string.
+The system's timezone database is usually installed in +/usr/share/zoneinfo+.
+Files below that path make for valid timezone strings, e.g. for
++/usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin+ you can set timezone to +Europe/Berlin+
+in the +tztime+ module.
+To override the locale settings of your environment, set the +locale+ option.
+
+*Example order*: +tztime berlin+
+
+*Example format*: +%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z+
+
+*Example timezone*: +Europe/Berlin+
+
+*Example locale*: +de_DE.UTF-8+
+
+If you would like to use markup in this section, there is a separate
++format_time+ option that is automatically escaped. Its output then replaces
+%time in the format string.
+
+*Example configuration (markup)*:
+-------------------------------------------------------------
+tztime berlin {
+ format = "<span foreground='#ffffff'>time:</span> %time"
+ format_time = "%H:%M %Z"
+ timezone = "Europe/Berlin"
+}
+-------------------------------------------------------------
+
=== DDate
Outputs the current discordian date in user-specified format. See +ddate(1)+ for
=== Volume
-Outputs the volume of the specified mixer on the specified device. Works only
-on Linux because it uses ALSA.
+Outputs the volume of the specified mixer on the specified device. PulseAudio
+and ALSA (Linux only) are supported. If PulseAudio is absent, a simplified
+configuration can be used on FreeBSD and OpenBSD due to the lack of ALSA, the
++device+ and +mixer+ options can be ignored on these systems. On these systems
+the OSS API is used instead to query +/dev/mixer+ directly if +mixer_idx+ is
+-1, otherwise +/dev/mixer++mixer_idx+.
+
+To get PulseAudio volume information, one must use the following format in the
+device line:
+
+ device = "pulse"
+
+or
+
+ device = "pulse:N"
+
+where N is the index or name of the PulseAudio sink. You can obtain the name of
+the sink with the following command:
+
+ $ pacmd list-sinks | grep name:
+ name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo>
+
+The name is what's inside the angle brackets, not including them. If no sink is
+specified the default sink is used. If the device string is missing or is set
+to "default", PulseAudio will be tried if detected and will fallback to ALSA
+(Linux) or OSS (FreeBSD/OpenBSD).
*Example order*: +volume master+
*Example format*: +♪: %volume+
+*Example format_muted*: +♪: 0%%+
+
*Example configuration*:
-------------------------------------------------------------
volume master {
format = "♪: %volume"
+ format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
device = "default"
mixer = "Master"
mixer_idx = 0
}
-------------------------------------------------------------
+*Example configuration (PulseAudio)*:
+-------------------------------------------------------------
+volume master {
+ format = "♪: %volume"
+ format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
+ device = "pulse:1"
+}
+-------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------
+volume master {
+ format = "♪: %volume"
+ format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
+ device = "pulse:alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo"
+}
+-------------------------------------------------------------
+
+== Universal module options
+
+When using the i3bar output format, there are a few additional options that
+can be used with all modules to customize their appearance:
+
+align::
+ The alignment policy to use when the minimum width (see below) is not
+ reached. Either +center+ (default), +right+ or +left+.
+min_width::
+ The minimum width (in pixels) the module should occupy. If the module takes
+ less space than the specified size, the block will be padded to the left
+ and/or the right side, according to the defined alignment policy. This is
+ useful when you want to prevent the whole status line from shifting when
+ values take more or less space between each iteration.
+ The option can also be a string. In this case, the width of the given text
+ determines the minimum width of the block. This is useful when you want to
+ set a sensible minimum width regardless of which font you are using, and at
+ what particular size. Please note that a number enclosed with quotes will
+ still be treated as a number.
+separator::
+ A boolean value which specifies whether a separator line should be drawn
+ after this block. The default is true, meaning the separator line will be
+ drawn. Note that if you disable the separator line, there will still be a
+ gap after the block, unless you also use separator_block_width.
+separator_block_width::
+ The amount of pixels to leave blank after the block. In the middle of this
+ gap, a separator symbol will be drawn unless separator is disabled. This is
+ why the specified width should leave enough space for the separator symbol.
+
+*Example configuration*:
+-------------------------------------------------------------
+disk "/" {
+ format = "%avail"
+ align = "left"
+ min_width = 100
+ separator = false
+ separator_block_width = 1
+}
+-------------------------------------------------------------
== Using i3status with dzen2
i3status | xmobar -o -t "%StdinReader%" -c "[Run StdinReader]"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
+== What about memory usage or CPU frequency?
+
+While talking about two specific things, please understand this section as a
+general explanation why your favorite information is not included in i3status.
+
+Let’s talk about memory usage specifically. It is hard to measure memory in a
+way which is accurate or meaningful. An in-depth understanding of how paging
+and virtual memory work in your operating system is required. Furthermore, even
+if we had a well-defined way of displaying memory usage and you would
+understand it, I think that it’s not helpful to repeatedly monitor your memory
+usage. One reason for that is that I have not run out of memory in the last few
+years. Memory has become so cheap that even in my 4 year old notebook, I have
+8 GiB of RAM. Another reason is that your operating system will do the right
+thing anyway: Either you have not enough RAM for your workload, but you need to
+do it anyway, then your operating system will swap. Or you don’t have enough
+RAM and you want to restrict your workload so that it fits, then the operating
+system will kill the process using too much RAM and you can act accordingly.
+
+For CPU frequency, the situation is similar. Many people don’t understand how
+frequency scaling works precisely. The generally recommended CPU frequency
+governor ("ondemand") changes the CPU frequency far more often than i3status
+could display it. The display number is therefore often incorrect and doesn’t
+tell you anything useful either.
+
+In general, i3status wants to display things which you would look at
+occasionally anyways, like the current date/time, whether you are connected to
+a WiFi network or not, and if you have enough disk space to fit that 4.3 GiB
+download.
+
+However, if you need to look at some kind of information more than once in a
+while (like checking repeatedly how full your RAM is), you are probably better
+off with a script doing that, which pops up an alert when your RAM usage reaches
+a certain threshold. After all, the point of computers is not to burden you
+with additional boring tasks like repeatedly checking a number.
+
== External scripts/programs with i3status
In i3status, we don’t want to implement process management again. Therefore,
*Example for prepending the i3status output*:
--------------------------------------------------------------
-i3status | while [ 1 ]
+#!/bin/sh
+# shell script to prepend i3status with more stuff
+
+i3status | while :
do
read line
- echo "mystuff | $line"
-done | i3bar -d
+ echo "mystuff | $line" || exit 1
+done
--------------------------------------------------------------
+Put that in some script, say +.bin/my_i3status.sh+ and execute that instead of i3status.
+
+Note that if you want to use the JSON output format (with colors in i3bar), you
+need to use a slightly more complex wrapper script. There are examples in the
+contrib/ folder, see https://github.com/i3/i3status/tree/master/contrib
+
+== SIGNALS
+
+When receiving +SIGUSR1+, i3status’s nanosleep() will be interrupted and thus
+you will force an update. You can use killall -USR1 i3status to force an update
+after changing the system volume, for example.
+
== SEE ALSO
+strftime(3)+, +date(1)+, +glob(3)+, +dzen2(1)+, +xmobar(1)+
projects / i3 / i3status / blobdiff