i3status(1)
===========
Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
-v2.9, March 2015
+v2.12, May 2018
== NAME
-i3status - Generates a status line for i3bar, 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
-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
-by not hogging your CPU as much as spawning the corresponding amount of shell
-commands would.
+i3status is a small program for generating a status bar for 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 by not hogging
+your CPU as much as spawning the corresponding amount of shell commands would.
== CONFIGURATION
order += "ethernet eth0"
order += "battery 0"
order += "cpu_temperature 0"
+order += "memory"
order += "load"
order += "tztime local"
order += "tztime berlin"
}
ethernet eth0 {
- # if you use %speed, i3status requires the cap_net_admin capability
format_up = "E: %ip (%speed)"
format_down = "E: down"
}
battery 0 {
format = "%status %percentage %remaining %emptytime"
format_down = "No battery"
- status_chr = "⚇ CHR"
- status_bat = "⚡ BAT"
+ status_chr = "⚡ CHR"
+ status_bat = "🔋 BAT"
+ status_unk = "? UNK"
status_full = "☻ FULL"
path = "/sys/class/power_supply/BAT%d/uevent"
low_threshold = 10
tztime local {
format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
+ hide_if_equals_localtime = true
}
tztime berlin {
path = "/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input"
}
+memory {
+ format = "%used"
+ threshold_degraded = "10%"
+ format_degraded = "MEMORY: %free"
+}
+
disk "/" {
format = "%free"
}
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
+Using +output_format+ you can choose which format strings i3status should
use in its output. Currently available are:
i3bar::
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
-managers like dwm, wmii and xmonad though it will work with any windowmanger
+managers like dwm, wmii and xmonad though it will work with any window manager
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
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
+modules are separated. You can also disable the default separator altogether by
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"
"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.
+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 is not a mount point. So you can just empty
-the output for the given path with adding »format_not_mounted=""«
-to the config section.
+which is used if the path does not exist or is not a mount point. Defaults to "".
*Example order*: +disk /mnt/usbstick+
*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+
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+
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.
+connected or not connected. The quality is padded with leading zeroes by
+default; to pad with something else use +format_quality+.
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 / %frequency) %ip+
+*Example format_up*: +W: (%quality at %essid, %bitrate / %frequency) %ip+
+
+*Example format_down*: +W: down+
+
+*Example format_quality*: +"%03d%s"+
=== Ethernet
Gets the IP address and (if possible) the link speed of the given ethernet
-interface. Getting the link speed requires the cap_net_admin capability. Set
-it using +setcap cap_net_admin=ep $(which i3status)+.
+interface. If no IPv4 address is available and an IPv6 address is, it will be
+displayed.
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)+
+*Example format_up*: +E: %ip (%speed)+
+
+*Example format_down*: +E: down+
=== Battery
-Gets the status (charging, discharging, running), percentage, remaining
+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+.
++last_full_capacity = true+. You can show seconds in the remaining time and
+empty time estimations by setting +hide_seconds = false+.
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 occurence of %d gets replaced with the battery number,
+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
"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, full)
+for each state (charging, discharging, unknown, full)
Of course it will also work with special iconic fonts, such as FontAwesome.
-If any of this special status strings is omitted, the default (CHR, BAT, FULL)
-is used.
+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 %consumption)+
*Example format_down*: +No battery+
-*Example status_chr*: +â\9a\87 CHR+
+*Example status_chr*: +â\9a¡ CHR+
-*Example status_bat*: +⚡ BAT+
+*Example status_bat*: +🔋 BAT+
+
+*Example status_unk*: +? UNK+
*Example status_full*: +☻ FULL+
*Example threshold_type*: +time+
-*Example path*: +/sys/class/power_supply/CMB1/uevent+
+*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. 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.
+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 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+ (Linux) or +sysctl(3)+ (FreeBSD/OpenBSD).
+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.
+
+For displaying the Nth CPU usage, you can use the %cpu<N> format string,
+starting from %cpu0. This feature is currently not supported in FreeBSD.
*Example order*: +cpu_usage+
-*Example format*: +%usage+
+*Example format*: +all: %usage CPU_0: %cpu0 CPU_1: %cpu1+
+
+*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+
+
+=== Memory
+
+Gets the memory usage from system on a Linux system from +/proc/meminfo+. Other
+systems are currently not supported.
+
+As format placeholders, +total+, +used+, +free+, +available+ and +shared+ are
+available. These will print human readable values. It's also possible to prefix
+the placeholders with +percentage_+ to get a value in percent.
+
+It's possible to define a +threshold_degraded+ and a +threshold_critical+ to
+color the status bar output in yellow or red, if the available memory falls
+below the given threshold. Possible values of the threshold can be any integer,
+suffixed with an iec symbol (+T+, +G+, +M+, +K+). Alternatively, the integer
+can be suffixed by a percent sign, which then rets evaluated relatively to
+total memory.
+
+If the +format_degraded+ parameter is given and either the critical or the
+degraded threshold applies, +format_degraded+ will get used as format string.
+It acts equivalently to +format+.
+
+As Linux' meminfo doesn't expose the overall memory in use, there are multiple
+methods to distinguish the actually used memory.
+
+*Example memory_used_method*: +memavailable+ ("total memory" - "MemAvailable", matches +free+ command)
+
+*Example memory_used_method*: +classical+ ("total memory" - "free" - "buffers" - "cache", matches gnome system monitor)
+
+*Example order*: +memory+
+
+*Example format*: +%free %available (%used) / %total+
+
+*Example format*: +%percentage_used used, %percentage_free free, %percentage_shared shared+
+
+*Example threshold_degraded*: +10%+
+
+*Example threshold_critical*: +5%+
+
+*Example format_degraded*: +Memory LOW: %free+
=== Load
Gets the system load (number of processes waiting for CPU time in the last
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.
+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 max_threshold*: +"0.1"+
+
+*Example format_above_threshold*: +Warning: %1min %5min %15min+
=== Time
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.
+To display time only when the set timezone has different time from localtime, set
++hide_if_equals_localtime+ to true.
*Example order*: +tztime berlin+
*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"
+ hide_if_equals_localtime = true
+}
+-------------------------------------------------------------
+
=== DDate
Outputs the current discordian date in user-specified format. See +ddate(1)+ for
device = "pulse:N"
-where N is the index of the PulseAudio sink. If no sink is specified the
-default 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).
+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 format*: +♪ (%devicename): %volume+
+
+*Example format_muted*: +♪ (%devicename): 0%%+
*Example configuration*:
-------------------------------------------------------------
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
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*:
-------------------------------------------------------------
format = "%avail"
align = "left"
min_width = 100
+ separator = false
+ separator_block_width = 1
}
-------------------------------------------------------------
== Using i3status with dzen2
After installing dzen2, you can directly use it with i3status. Just ensure that
-+output_format+ is set to +dzen2+.
++output_format+ is set to +dzen2+. *Note*: +min_width+ is not supported.
*Example for usage of i3status with dzen2*:
--------------------------------------------------------------
To get xmobar to start, you might need to copy the default configuration
file to +~/.xmobarrc+. Also, ensure that the +output_format+ option for i3status
-is set to +xmobar+.
+is set to +xmobar+. *Note*: +min_width+ is not supported.
*Example for usage of i3status with xmobar*:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
i3status | xmobar -o -t "%StdinReader%" -c "[Run StdinReader]"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-== What about memory usage or CPU frequency?
+== What about CPU frequency?
-While talking about two specific things, please understand this section as a
+While talking about 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
+Let’s talk about CPU frequency specifically. 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
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.
+while, you are probably better off with a script doing that, which pops up.
+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
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 http://code.i3wm.org/i3status/tree/contrib
+contrib/ folder, see https://github.com/i3/i3status/tree/master/contrib
== SIGNALS
projects / i3 / i3status / blobdiff