i3status(1)
===========
-Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
-v2.4, December 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
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 %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.
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 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+.
+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. The first occurence of %d gets replaced
-with the battery number, but you can just hard-code a path as well.
+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 (%emptytime)+
+*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
-1, 5 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*: +%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
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 often look at
-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.
+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
-of with a script doing that, which pops up an alert when your RAM usage reaches
-a certain threshold.
+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
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