NAME
i3status - Generates a status line for dzen2 or xmobar
SYNOPSIS
i3status [-c configfile]
OPTIONS
-c
Specifies an alternate configuration file path (default is
/etc/i3status.conf or ~/.i3status.conf).
DESCRIPTION
i3status is a small program (less than 1000 SLOC) for generating a
status bar for dzen2, xmobar or similar programs. It is designed to be
very efficient by issuing a very small number of systemcalls, 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
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 for a complete reference.
Sample configuration.
general {
output_format = "dzen2"
colors = true
interval = 5
}
order = "ipv6"
order += "disk /"
order += "run_watch DHCP"
order += "run_watch VPN"
order += "wireless wlan0"
order += "ethernet eth0"
order += "battery 0"
order += "cpu_temperature 0"
order += "load"
order += "time"
wireless wlan0 {
format_up = "W: (%quality at %essid) %ip"
format_down = "W: down"
}
ethernet eth0 {
# if you use %speed, i3status requires the cap_net_admin capability
format = "E: %ip (%speed)"
}
battery 0 {
format = "%status %percentage %remaining"
}
run_watch DHCP {
pidfile = "/var/run/dhclient*.pid"
}
run_watch VPN {
pidfile = "/var/run/vpnc/pid"
}
time {
format = "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
}
load {
format = "%5min"
}
cpu_temperature 0 {
format = "T: %degrees °C"
}
disk "/" {
format = "%free"
}
General
The colors directive will disable all colors if you set it to false.
interval is the time in seconds which i3status will sleep until
printing the next status line.
Using output_format you can chose which format strings i3status should
use in its output. Currently available are:
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
xmobar
xmobar is a minimalistic, text based, status bar. It was designed
to work with the xmonad Window Manager.
none
Does not use any color codes. Separates values by the pipe symbol.
IPv6
This module gets the IPv6 address used for outgoing connections (that
is, the best available public IPv6 address on your computer).
Example format_up: %ip
Example format_down no IPv6
Disk
Gets used, free and total amount of bytes on the given mounted
filesystem.
Example order: disk /mnt/usbstick
Example format: %free / %total
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.
Example order: run_watch DHCP
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.
Example order: wireless wlan0
Example format: W: (%quality at %essid) %ip
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).
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.
Example order: battery 0
Example format: %status %remaining
CPU-Temperature
Gets the temperature of the given thermal zone.
Example order: cpu_temperature 0
Example format: T: %degrees °C
Load
Gets the system load (number of processes waiting for CPU time in the
last 5, 10 and 15 minutes).
Example order: load
Example format: %5min %10min %15min
Time
Formats the current system time. See strftime(3) for the format.
Example order: time
Example format: %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
USING I3STATUS WITH DZEN2
After installing dzen2, you can directly use it with i3status:
Example for usage of i3status with dzen2:
i3status | dzen2 -fg white -ta r -w 1280 \
-fn "-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso8859-1"
USING I3STATUS WITH XMOBAR
To get xmobar to start, you might need to copy the default
configuration file to ~/.xmobarrc.
Example for usage of i3status with xmobar:
i3status-xmobar | xmobar -o -t "%StdinReader%" -c "[Run StdinReader]"
SEE ALSO
strftime(3), date(1), glob(3), dzen2(1), xmobar(1)
AUTHORS
Michael Stapelberg and contributors
Thorsten Toepper
Baptiste Daroussin