% xmobar - A Minimalistic Text Based Status Bar % Andrea Rossato About ===== [xmobar] is a minimalistic, text based, status bar. It was designed to work with the [xmonad] Window Manager. It was inspired by the [Ion3] status bar, and supports similar features, like dynamic color management, output templates, and extensibility through plugins. [This is a screen shot] of my desktop with [xmonad] and [xmobar]. [xmobar] supports XFT and UTF-8 locales. See `xmobar.config-sample`, distributed with the source code, for a sample configuration. Download ======== You can get the [xmobar] source code from [Hackage]. To get the darcs source run: darcs get http://code.haskell.org/xmobar/ The latest binary can be found here: A recent screen shot can be found here: Version 0.9 requires Cabal-1.2.x, but should work both with ghc-6.6.1 and ghc-6.8.1. Bug Reports =========== To submit bug reports you can use the Google code bug tracking system available at the following address: Installation ============ To install simply run: tar xvfz xmobar-0.9 cd xmobar-0.9 Then run the configure script: runhaskell Setup.lhs configure # To enable UTF-8 support run: runhaskell Setup.lhs configure --flags="with_utf8" # To enable both XFT and UTF-8 support run: runhaskell Setup.lhs configure --flags="with_xft" Now you can build the source: runhaskell Setup.lhs build runhaskell Setup.lhs install # possibly to be run as root You can now run [xmobar] with: xmobar /path/to/config & or xmobar & if you have the default configuration file saved as `~/.xmobarrc` Utf-8 and Xft Support ===================== [xmobar] can be compiled with UTF-8 and XFT support. If you want UTF-8 support only, you just need to run the configuration script with the `"with_utf"` flag: runhaskell Setup.lhs configure --flags="with_utf8" This requires the presence of [utf8-string] package. XFT support, which will also enable UTF-8 support, requires the [X11-xft] package too and is enabled by running the configuration script with the `"with_xft"` flag: runhaskell Setup.lhs configure --flags="with_xft" Then build [xmobar] as usual. To use XFT fonts you need to use the `xft:` prefix in the `font` configuration option. For instance: font = "xft:Times New Roman-10:italic" Configuration ============= ## Quick Start See `xmobar.config-sample` for an example. For the output template: - `%command%` will execute command and print the output. The output may contain markups to change the characters' color. - `string` will print `string` with `#FF0000` color (red). Other configuration options: `font` : Name of the font to be used. Use the `xft:` prefix for XFT fonts. `bgColor` : Background color. `fgColor` : Default font color. `position` : Top, TopW, TopSize, Bottom, BottomW, BottomSize or Static (with x, y, width and height). : TopW and BottomW take 2 arguments: an alignment parameter (L for left, C for centered, R for Right) and an integer for the percentage width xmobar window will have in respect to the screen width. : TopSize and BottomSize take 3 arguments: an alignment parameter, an integer for the percentage width, and an integer for the minimum pixel height that the xmobar window will have. : For example: : position = BottomW C 75 : to place xmobar at the bottom, centered with the 75% of the screen width. : Or : position = Static { xpos = 0 , ypos = 0, width = 1024, height = 15 } : or : position = Top `commands` : For setting the options of the programs to run (optional). `sepChar` : The character to be used for indicating commands in the output template (default '%'). `alignSep` : a 2 character string for aligning text in the output template. The text before the first character will be align to left, the text in between the 2 characters will be centered, and the text after the second character will be align to the right. `template` : The output template. ## Running xmobar with i3status [xmobar] can be used to display information gathered by [i3status], a small program that gathers information and formats it suitable for being displayed by the dzen2 status bar, wmii's status bar or xmobar's StdinReader. Since xmobar support has been added only recently you need to get the git repository, and build it with the appropriate flags: git clone git://code.stapelberg.de/i3status and then build it: cd i3status make EXTRA_CFLAGS="-DXMOBAR Then you can run it with: ./i3status -c i3status.conf | xmobar -o -t "%StdinReader%" -c "[Run StdinReader]" ## Command Line Options [xmobar] can be either configured with a configuration file or with command line options. In the second case, the command line options will overwrite the corresponding options set in the configuration file. Example: xmobar -B white -a right -F blue -t '%LIPB%' -c '[Run Weather "LIPB" [] 36000]' This is the list of command line options (the output of xmobar --help): Usage: xmobar [OPTION...] [FILE] Options: -h, -? --help This help -V --version Show version information -f font name --font=font name The font name -B bg color --bgcolor=bg color The background color. Default black -F fg color --fgcolor=fg color The foreground color. Default grey -o --top Place xmobar at the top of the screen -b --bottom Place xmobar at the bottom of the screen -a alignsep --alignsep=alignsep Separators for left, center and right text alignment. Default: '}{' -s char --sepchar=char The character used to separate commands in the output template. Default '%' -t template --template=template The output template -c commands --commands=commands The list of commands to be executed -x screen --screen=screen On which X screen number to start Mail bug reports and suggestions to ## The Output Template The output template must contain at least one command. [xmobar] will parse the template and will search for the command to be executed in the `commands` configuration option. First an `alias` will be searched (plugins such as Weather or Network have default aliases, see below). After that, the command name will be tried. If a command is found, the arguments specified in the `commands` list will be used. If no command is found in the `commands` list, [xmobar] will ask the operating system to execute a program with the name found in the template. If the execution is not successful an error will be reported. ## The `commands` Configuration Option The `commands` configuration option is a list of commands information and arguments to be used by [xmobar] when parsing the output template. Each member of the list consists in a command prefixed by the `Run` keyword. Each command has arguments to control the way [xmobar] is going to execute it. The option consists in a list of commands separated by a comma and enclosed by square parenthesis. Example: [Run Memory ["-t","Mem: %"] 10, Run Swap [] 10] to run the Memory monitor plugin with the specified template, and the swap monitor plugin, with default options, every second. The only internal available command is `Com` (see below Executing External Commands). All other commands are provided by plugins. [xmobar] comes with some plugins, providing a set of system monitors, a standard input reader, an Unix named pipe reader, and a configurable date plugin. These plugins install the following internal commands: `Weather`, `Network`, `Memory`, `Swap`, `Cpu`, `MultiCpu`, `Battery`, `Thermal`, `CpuFreq`, `CoreTemp`, `Date`, `StdinReader`, `CommandReader`, and `PipeReader`. To remove them see below Installing/Removing a Plugin Other commands can be created as plugins with the Plugin infrastructure. See below Writing a Plugin ## System Monitor Plugins This is the description of the system monitor plugins that are installed by default. Each monitor has an `alias` to be used in the output template. Monitors have default aliases. `Weather StationID Args RefreshRate` - aliases to the Station ID: so `Weather "LIPB" []` can be used in template as `%LIPB%` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `station`, `stationState`, `year`, `month`, `day`, `hour`, `wind`, `visibility`, `skyCondition`, `tempC`, `tempF`, `dewPoint`, `rh`, `pressure` - Default template: `: C, rh % ()` - Requires `curl` in the `$PATH` to retrieve weather information from `http://weather.noaa.gov` `Network Interface Args RefreshRate` - aliases to the interface name: so `Network "eth0" []` can be used as `%eth0%` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `dev`, `rx`, `tx`, `rxbar`, `txbar` - Default template: `: |` `Wireless Interface Args RefreshRate` - aliases to the interface name with the suffix "wi": thus, `Wirelss "wlan0" []` can be used as `%wlan0wi%` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `essid`, `quality`, `qualitybar` - Default template: ` ` - Requires the C library libiw (part of the wireless tools suite) installed in your system. In addition, to activate this plugin you must pass --flags="with_iwlib" to "runhaskell Setup configure" or to "cabal install". `Memory Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `memory` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `total`, `free`, `buffer`, `cache`, `rest`, `used`, `usedratio`, `usedbar`, `freebar` - Default template: `Mem: % (M)` `Swap Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `swap` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `total`, `used`, `free`, `usedratio` - Default template: `Swap: %` `Cpu Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `cpu` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `total`, `bar`, `user`, `nice`, `system`, `idle` - Default template: `Cpu: ` `MultiCpu Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `multicpu` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `total`, `bar`, `user`, `nice`, `system`, `idle`, `total0`, `bar0`, `user0`, `nice0`, `system0`, `idle0`, ... - Default template: `Cpu: ` `Battery Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `battery` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `left`, `leftbar`, `status` - Default template: `Batt: ` `BatteryP Dirs Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `battery` - Dirs: list of directories in /proc/acpi/battery/ directory where to look for the `state` and `info` files. Example: `["BAT0","BAT1","BAT2"]`. Only the first 3 directories will be searched. - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `left`, `leftbar`, `status` - Default template: `Batt: ` `TopProc Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `top` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `no`, `name1`, `cpu1`, `both1`, `mname1`, `mem1`, `mboth1`, `name2`, `cpu2`, `both2`, `mname2`, `mem2`, `mboth2`, ... - Default template: `` - Displays the name and cpu/mem usage of running processes (`bothn` and `mboth` display both, and is useful to specify an overall maximum and/or minimum width, using the `-m`/`-M` arguments. `no` gives the total number of processes. `TopMem Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `topmem` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `name1`, `mem1`, `both1`, `name2`, `mem2`, `both2`, ... - Default template: `` - Displays the name and RSS (resident memory size) of running processes (`bothn` displays both, and is useful to specify an overall maximum and/or minimum width, using the `-m`/`-M` arguments. `DiskU Disks Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `disku` - Disks: list of pairs of the form (device or mount point, template), where the template can contain , , , or , or for total, free, used, free percentage and used percentage of the given file system capacity. Example: `[("/", "/"), ("sdb1", "")]` - Args: the argument list (see above). `-t`/`--template` is ignored. - Default template: none (you must specify a template for each file system). `DiskIO Disks Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `diskio` - Disks: list of pairs of the form (device or mount point, template), where the template can contain , , for total, read and write speed, respectively. Example: `[("/", " "), ("sdb1", "")]` - Args: the argument list (see above). `-t`/`--template` is ignored. - Default template: none (you must specify a template for each file system). `Thermal Zone Args RefreshRate` - aliases to the Zone: so `Zone "THRM" []` can be used in template as `%THRM%` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `temp` - Default template: `Thm: C` - This plugin works only on sytems with devices having thermal zone. Check directories in /proc/acpi/thermal_zone for possible values. - Example: `Run Thermal "THRM" ["-t","iwl4965-temp: \C"]` `CpuFreq Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `cpufreq` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `cpu0`, `cpu1`, .., `cpuN` - Default template: `Freq: GHz` - This monitor requires acpi_cpufreq module to be loaded in kernel - Example: `Run CpuFreq ["-t","Freq:\|\GHz","-L","0","-H","2","-l","lightblue","-n","white","-h","red"] 50` `CoreTemp Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `coretemp` - Args: the argument list (see below) - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `core0`, `core1`, .., `coreN` - Default template: `Temp: C` - This monitor requires coretemp module to be loaded in kernel - Example: `Run CoreTemp ["-t","Temp:\|\C","-L","40","-H","60","-l","lightblue","-n","gray90","-h","red"] 50` `MPD Args RefreshRate` - aliases to `mpd` - Args: the argument list (see below). In addition you can provide `-P`, `-S` and `-Z`, with an string argument, to represent the playing, stopped and paused states in the `statei` template field. - Variables that can be used with the `-t`/`--template` argument: `bar`, `state`, `statei`, `volume`, `length` `lapsed`, `plength` `name`, `artist`, `composer`, `performer` `album`, `title`, `track`, `file`, `genre` - Default template: `MPD: ` - Example: Run MPD ["-t", " (<album>) <track>/<plength> <statei> ", "--", "-P", ">>", "-Z", "|", "-S", "><"] 10 Note that you need "--" to separate regular monitor options from MPD's specific ones. - This monitor will only be compiled if you ask for it using the `with_mpd` flag. It needs libmpd 4.1 or later (available on Hackage). `Mail Args` - aliases to `Mail` - Args: list of maildirs in form [("name1","path1"),("name2","path2")] - This plugin requires INOTIFY support in Linux kernel and hinotify library. To activate, pass --flags="with_inotify" to "runhaskell Setup configure" or to "cabal install". `MBox Mboxes Opts Alias` - Mboxes a list of mbox files of the form [("name", "path", "color")], where name is the displayed name, path the absolute or relative (to BaseDir) path of the mbox file, and color the color to use to display the mail count (use an empty string for the default). - Opts is a possibly empty list of options, as flags. Possible values: -a --all (no arg) Show all mailboxes, even if empty. -d dir --dir dir a string giving the base directory where mbox files with a relative path live. -p prefix --prefix prefix a string giving a prefix for the list of displayed mail coints -s suffix --suffix suffix a string giving a suffix for the list of displayed mail coints - This plugin requires INOTIFY support in Linux kernel and hinotify library. To activate, pass --flags="with_inotify" to "runhaskell Setup configure" or to "cabal install". - Example: `Run MBox [("I ", "inbox", "red"), ("O ", "/foo/mbox", "")] ["-d", "/var/mail/", "-p", " "] "mbox"` will look for mails in `/var/mail/inbox` and `/foo/mbox`, and will put a space in front of the printed string (when it's not empty); it can be used in the template with the alias `mbox`. ## Monitor Plugins Commands Arguments These are the arguments that can be used for internal commands in the `commands` configuration option: -H number --High=number The high threshold -L number --Low=number The low threshold -h color number --high=color number Color for the high threshold: es "#FF0000" -n color number --normal=color number Color for the normal threshold: es "#00FF00" -l color number --low=color number Color for the low threshold: es "#0000FF" -p number --ppad=number Pad percentages to given width -m number --minwidth=number Minimum field width -M number --maxwidth=number Maximum field width -w number --width=number Fixed field width -c chars --padchars=chars Chars used (cyclically) for padding -a ["r" or "l"] --align=["r" or "l"] Pad alignment (right/left) -b chars --bback=chars Chars used to draw bar backgrounds (default ":") -f chars --bfore=chars Chars used to draw bar foregrounds (default "#") -W number --bwidth=number Bar width (default 10) -t output template --template=output template Output template of the command. Commands' arguments must be set as a list. Es: Run Weather "EGPF" ["-t","<station>: <tempC>C"] 36000 In this case [xmobar] will run the weather monitor, getting information for the weather station ID EGPF (Glasgow Airport, as a homage to GHC) every hour (36000 tenth of seconds), with a template that will output something like: Glasgow Airport: 16.0C ## Executing External Commands In order to execute an external command you can either write the command name in the template, in this case it will be executed without arguments, or you can configure it in the "commands" configuration option list with the Com template command: `Com ProgramName Args Alias RefreshRate` - ProgramName: the name of the program - Args: the arguments to be passed to the program at execution time - Alias: a name to be used in the template. If the alias is en empty string the program name can be used in the template. Es: Run Com "uname" ["-s","-r"] "" 36000 can be used in the output template as `%uname%` Run Com "date" ["+\"%a %b %_d %H:%M\""] "mydate" 600 can be used in the output template as `%mydate%` ## Other Plugins `Date Args Alias RefreshRate` `StdinReader` `CommandReader "/path/to/program" Alias` `PipeReader "/path/to/pipe" Alias` Plugins ======= ## Writing a Plugin Writing a plugin for [xmobar] should be very simple. You need to create a data type with at least one constructor. Next you must declare this data type an instance of the `Exec` class, by defining the 1 needed method (alternatively `start` or `run`) and 2 optional ones (alias and rate): start :: e -> (String -> IO ()) -> IO () run :: e -> IO String rate :: e -> Int alias :: e -> String `start` must receive a callback to be used to display the `String` produced by the plugin. This method can be used for plugins that need to perform asynchronous actions. See `Plugins/PipeReader.hs` for an example. `run` can be used for simpler plugins. If you define only `run` the plugin will be run every second. To overwrite this default you just need to implement `rate`, which must return the number of tenth of seconds between every successive runs. See `Plugins/HelloWorld.hs` for an example of a plugin that runs just once, and `Plugins/Date.hs` for one that implements `rate`. Notice that Date could be implemented as: instance Exec Date where alias (Date _ a _) = a start (Date f _ r) = date f r date :: String -> Int -> (String -> IO ()) -> IO () date format r callback = do go where go = do t <- toCalendarTime =<< getClockTime callback $ formatCalendarTime defaultTimeLocale format t tenthSeconds r >> go This implementation is equivalent to the one you can read in `Plugins/Date.hs`. `alias` is the name to be used in the output template. Default alias will be the data type constructor. Implementing a plugin requires importing the plugin API (the `Exec` class definition), that is exported by `Plugins.hs`. So you just need to import it in your module with: import Plugins After that your type constructor can be used as an argument for the Runnable type constructor `Run` in the `commands` list of the configuration options. This requires importing your plugin into `Config.hs` and adding your type to the type list in the type signature of `Config.runnableTypes`. For a very basic example see `Plugins/HelloWorld.hs` or the other plugins that are distributed with [xmobar]. ## Installing/Removing a Plugin Installing a plugin should require 3 steps. Here we are going to install the HelloWorld plugin that comes with [xmobar]: 1. import the plugin module in `Config.hs`, by adding: import Plugins.HelloWorld 2. add the plugin data type to the list of data types in the type signature of `runnableTypes` in `Config.hs`. For instance, for the HelloWorld plugin, change `runnableTypes` into: runnableTypes :: Command :*: Monitors :*: HelloWorld :*: () runnableTypes = undefined 3. Rebuild and reinstall [xmobar]. Now test it with: xmobar Plugins/helloworld.config As you may see in the example configuration file, the plugin can be used by adding, in the `commands` list: Run HelloWorld and, in the output template, the alias of the plugin: %helloWorld% That's it. To remove a plugin, just remove its type from the type signature of runnableTypes and remove the imported modules. To remove the system monitor plugin: 1. remove, from `Config.hs`, the line import Plugins.Monitors 2. in `Config.hs` change runnableTypes :: Command :*: Monitors :*: () runnableTypes = undefined to runnableTypes :: Command :*: () runnableTypes = undefined 3. rebuild [xmobar]. Credits ======= Thanks to Robert Manea and Spencer Janssen for their help in understanding how X works. They gave me suggestions on how to solve many problems with [xmobar]. Thanks to Claus Reinke for make me understand existential types (or at least for letting me think I grasp existential types...;-). [xmobar] incorporates patches from: Krzysztof Kosciuszkiewicz, Spencer Janssen, Jens Petersen, Dmitry Kurochkin, Lennart Kolmodin, and Norbert Zeh. Useful links ============ The [xmobar] home page The [xmonad] home page [xmobar darcs repository] To understand the internal mysteries of xmobar you may try reading this tutorial [on X Window Programming in Haskell]. Author ====== Andrea Rossato `andrea.rossato at ing.unitn.it` Legal ===== This software is released under a BSD-style license. See LICENSE for more details. Copyright © 2007 Andrea Rossato [This is a screen shot]: http://haskell.org/sitewiki/images/a/ae/Arossato-config.png [Hackage]: http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/xmobar [xmobar]: http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/xmobar [xmobar darcs repository]: http://code.haskell.org/xmobar [on X Window Programming in Haskell]: http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/X_window_programming_in_Haskell [Ion3]: http://modeemi.fi/~tuomov/ion/ [xmonad]: http://xmonad.org [utf8-string]: http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/utf8-string [X11-xft]: http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/X11-xft [i3status]: http://i3.zekjur.net/i3status/