Using modules¶

py3status comes with a large range of Modules. Modules in py3status are configured using your usual i3status.conf.

py3status tries to find the config in the following locations:

~/.i3/i3status.conf
~/.i3status.conf
/etc/i3status.conf
XDG_CONFIG_HOME/.config/i3status/config
~/.config/i3status/config
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/i3status/config
/etc/xdg/i3status/config

You can also specify the config location using py3status -c <path to config file> in your i3 configuration file.

Loading a py3status module and ordering modules output¶

To load a py3status module you just have to list it like any other i3status module using the order += parameter.

Ordering your py3status modules in your i3bar is just the same as i3status modules, just list the order parameter where you want your module to be displayed.

For example you could insert and load the imap module like this:

Example¶

order += "disk /home"
order += "disk /"
order += "imap"
order += "time"

Configuring a py3status module¶

Your py3status modules are configured the exact same way as i3status modules, directly from your i3status.conf, like this :

Example¶

# configure the py3status imap module
# and run thunderbird when I left click on it
imap {
    cache_timeout = 60
    imap_server = 'imap.myprovider.com'
    mailbox = 'INBOX'
    password = 'coconut'
    port = '993'
    user = 'mylogin'
    on_click 1 = "exec thunderbird"
}

py3status configuration section¶

This special section holds py3status specific configuration. Settings here will affect all py3status modules. Many settings e.g. colors can still be overridden by also defining in the individual module.

Global options:

nagbar_font. It will be used as an argument to

i3-nagbar -f, thus setting its font.

Example¶

py3status {
    nagbar_font = 'pango:Ubuntu Mono 12'
}

Configuration obfuscation¶

Note

New in version 3.1

Py3status allows you to hide individual configuration parameters so that they do not leak into log files, user notifications or to the i3bar. Additionally they allow you to obfuscate configuration parameters using base64 encoding.

To do this you need to add an obfuscation option to the configuration parameter. Obfuscation options are added by adding :hide or :base64 to the name of the parameters.

Note

Obfuscation is only available for string parameters.

Example¶

# normal_parameter will be shown in log files etc as 'some value'
# obfuscated_parameter will be shown in log files etc as '***'
module {
    normal_parameter = 'some value'
    obfuscated_parameter:hide = 'some value'
}

In the previous example configuration the users password is in plain text. Users may want to make it less easy to read. Py3status allows strings to be base64 encoded.

To use an encoded string add :base64 to the name of the parameter.

Example¶

# Example of obfuscated configuration
imap {
    imap_server = 'imap.myprovider.com'
    password:base64 = 'Y29jb251dA=='
    user = 'mylogin'
}

Note

Base64 encoding is very simple and should not be considered secure in any way.

Configuring colors¶

Since version 3.1 py3status allows greater color configuration. Colors can be set in the general section of your i3status.conf or in an individual modules configuration. If a color is not in a modules configuration then the values from the general section will be used.

If a module does not specify colors but it is in a container, then the colors of the container will be used if they are set, before using ones defined in the general section.

Generally colors can specified using hex values eg #FF00FF or #F0F. It is also possible to use css3 color names eg red hotpink. For a list of available color names see https://drafts.csswg.org/css-color/#named-colors.

Example¶

general {
    # These will be used if not supplied by a module
    color = '#FFFFFF'
    color_good = '#00FF00'
    color_bad = '#FF0000'
    color_degraded = '#FFFF00'
}

time {
    color = 'FF00FF'
    format = "%H:%M"
}

battery_level {
    color_good = '#00AA00'
    color_bad = '#AA0000'
    color_degraded = '#AAAA00'
    color_charging = '#FFFF00'
}

Configuring thresholds¶

Some modules allow you to define thresholds in a module. These are used to determine which color to use when displaying the module. Thresholds are defined in the config as a list of tuples. With each tuple containing a value and a color. The color can either be a named color eg good referring to color_good or a hex value.

Example¶

volume_status {
    thresholds = [
        (0, "#FF0000"),
        (20, "degraded"),
        (50, "bad"),
    ]
}

If the value checked against the threshold is equal to or more than a threshold then that color supplied will be used.

In the above example the logic would be

if 0 >= value < 20 use #FF0000
else if 20 >= value < 50 use color_degraded
else if 50 >= value use color_good

Some modules may allow more than one threshold to be defined. If all the thresholds are the same they can be defined as above but if you wish to specify them separately you can by giving a dict of lists.

Example¶

my_module {
    thresholds = {
        'threshold_1': [
            (0, "#FF0000"),
            (20, "degraded"),
            (50, "bad"),
        ],
        'threshold_2': [
            (0, "good"),
            (30, "bad"),
        ],
    }
}

Urgent¶

Some modules use i3bar’s urgent feature to indicate that something important has occurred. The allow_urgent configuration parameter can be used to allow/prevent a module from setting itself as urgent.

Example¶

# prevent modules showing as urgent, except github
py3status {
    allow_urgent = false
}

github {
    allow_urgent = true
}

Grouping Modules¶

The group module allows you to group several modules together. Only one of the modules are displayed at a time. The displayed module can either be cycled through automatically or by user action (the default, on mouse scroll).

This module is very powerful and allows you to save a lot of space on your bar.

Example¶

order += "group tz"

# cycle through different timezone hours every 10s
group tz {
    cycle = 10
    format = "{output}"

    tztime la {
        format = "LA %H:%M"
        timezone = "America/Los_Angeles"
    }

    tztime ny {
        format = "NY %H:%M"
        timezone = "America/New_York"
    }

    tztime du {
        format = "DU %H:%M"
        timezone = "Asia/Dubai"
    }
}

The frame module also allows you to group several modules together, however in a frame all the modules are shown. This allows you to have more than one module shown in a group.

Example¶

order += "group frames"

# group showing disk space or times using button to change what is shown.
group frames {
    click_mode = "button"

    frame time {
        tztime la {
            format = "LA %H:%M"
            timezone = "America/Los_Angeles"
        }

        tztime ny {
            format = "NY %H:%M"
            timezone = "America/New_York"
        }

        tztime du {
            format = "DU %H:%M"
            timezone = "Asia/Dubai"
        }
    }

    frame disks {
        disk "/" {
            format = "/ %avail"
        }

        disk "/home" {
            format = "/home %avail"
        }
    }
}

Frames can also have a toggle button to hide/show the content

Example¶

# A frame showing times in different cities.
# We also have a button to hide/show the content

frame time {
    format = '{output}{button}'
    format_separator = ' '  # have space instead of usual i3bar separator

    tztime la {
        format = "LA %H:%M"
        timezone = "America/Los_Angeles"
    }

    tztime ny {
        format = "NY %H:%M"
        timezone = "America/New_York"
    }

    tztime du {
        format = "DU %H:%M"
        timezone = "Asia/Dubai"
    }
}

Custom click events¶

py3status allows you to easily add click events to modules in your i3bar. These modules can be both i3status or py3status modules. This is done in your i3status.config using the on_click parameter.

Just add a new configuration parameter named on_click [button number] to your module config and py3status will then execute the given i3 command (using i3-msg).

This means you can run simple tasks like executing a program or execute any other i3 specific command.

As an added feature and in order to get your i3bar more responsive, every on_click command will also trigger a module refresh. This works for both py3status modules and i3status modules as described in the refresh command below.

Example¶

# reload the i3 config when I left click on the i3status time module
# and restart i3 when I middle click on it
time {
    on_click 1 = "reload"
    on_click 2 = "restart"
}

# control the volume with your mouse (need >i3-4.8)
# launch alsamixer when I left click
# kill it when I right click
# toggle mute/unmute when I middle click
# increase the volume when I scroll the mouse wheel up
# decrease the volume when I scroll the mouse wheel down
volume master {
    format = "♪: %volume"
    device = "default"
    mixer = "Master"
    mixer_idx = 0
    on_click 1 = "exec i3-sensible-terminal -e alsamixer"
    on_click 2 = "exec amixer set Master toggle"
    on_click 3 = "exec killall alsamixer"
    on_click 4 = "exec amixer set Master 1+"
    on_click 5 = "exec amixer set Master 1-"
}

# run wicd-gtk GUI when I left click on the i3status ethernet module
# and kill it when I right click on it
ethernet eth0 {
    # if you use %speed, i3status requires root privileges
    format_up = "E: %ip"
    format_down = ""
    on_click 1 = "exec wicd-gtk"
    on_click 3 = "exec killall wicd-gtk"
}

# run thunar when I left click on the / disk info module
disk "/" {
    format = "/ %free"
    on_click 1 = "exec thunar /"
}

# this is a py3status module configuration
# open an URL on opera when I left click on the weather_yahoo module
weather_yahoo paris {
    cache_timeout = 1800
    woeid = 615702
    forecast_days = 2
    on_click 1 = "exec opera http://www.meteo.fr"
    request_timeout = 10
}

Special on_click commands¶

There are two commands you can pass to the on_click parameter that have a special meaning to py3status :

refresh : This will refresh (expire the cache) of the clicked module. This also works for i3status modules (it will send a SIGUSR1 to i3status for you).
refresh_all : This will refresh all the modules from your i3bar (i3status included). This has the same effect has sending a SIGUSR1 to py3status.

Module data and on_click commands¶

Since version 3.3 it is possible to use the output text of a module in the on_click command. To do this $OUTPUT can be used in command and it will be substituted by the modules text output when the command is run.

Example¶

# copy module output to the clipboard using xclip
my_module {
    on_click 1 = 'exec echo $OUTPUT | xclip -i'
}

If the output of a module is a composite then the output of the part clicked on can be accessed using $OUTPUT_PART.

Environment Variables¶

Note

New in version 3.8

You may use the value of an environment variable in your configuration with the env(...) directive. These values are captured at startup and may be converted to the needed datatype (only str, int, float, bool and auto are currently supported).

Note, the auto conversion will try to guess the type of the contents and automatically convert to that type. Without an explicit conversion function, it defaults to auto.

This is primarily designed to obfuscate sensitive information when sharing your configuration file, such as usernames, passwords, API keys, etc.

The env(...) expression can be used anywhere a normal constant would be used. Note, you cannot use the directive in place of a dictionary key, i.e {..., env(KEY): 'val', ...}.

See the examples below!

Example¶

order += "my_module"
order += env(ORDER_MODULE)

module {
    normal_parameter = 'some value'
    env_parameter = env(SOME_ENVIRONMENT_PARAM)
    sensitive_api_key = env(API_KEY)

    complex_parameter = {
      'key': env(VAL)
    }

    equivalent1 = env(MY_VAL)
    equivalent2 = env(MY_VAL, auto)

    list_of_tuples = [
      (env(APPLE_NUM, int), 'apple'),
      (2, env(ORANGE))
    ]

    float_param = env(MY_NUM, float)
}

Inline Shell Code¶

Note

New in version 3.9

You can use the standard output of a shell script in your configuration with the shell(...) directive. These values are captured at startup and may be converted to the needed datatype (only str, int, float, bool and auto (the default) are currently supported).

The shell script executed must return a single line of text on stdout and then terminate. If the type is explicitly declared bool, the exit status of the script is respected (a non-zero exit status being interpreted falsey). In any other case if the script exits with a non-zero exit status an error will be thrown.

Please be aware that due to the way the parser works, you may not include any closing parenthesis ( ) ) in the expression. Wrap your commands in a script file and call it instead.

The shell(...) expression can be used anywhere a constant or an env(...) directive can be used (see the section “Environment Variables”).

Usage example:

Example¶

my_module {
    password = shell(pass show myPasswd | head -n1)
    some_string = shell(/opt/mydaemon/get_api_key.sh, str)
    pid = shell(cat /var/run/mydaemon/pidfile, int)
    my_bool = shell(pgrep thttpd, bool)
}

Using modules¶

Loading a py3status module and ordering modules output¶

Configuring a py3status module¶

py3status configuration section¶

Configuration obfuscation¶

Configuring colors¶

Configuring thresholds¶

Urgent¶

Grouping Modules¶

Custom click events¶

Special on_click commands¶

Module data and on_click commands¶

Environment Variables¶

Inline Shell Code¶

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