Very resourcefriendly and feature-rich replacement for i3status, written in pure Rust

This is a WiP replacement for i3status, aiming to provide the most feature-complete and resource friendly implementation of the i3bar protocol available. We are currently looking for help in implementing more Blocks. It supports:

• flexibility through theming
• icons (optional)
• individual update intervals per block to reduce system calls
• click actions
• blocks can trigger updates asynchronously, which allows for things like dbus signaling, to avoid periodic refreshing of data that rarely changes (example: music block)

i3, rustc and cargo. Only tested on Arch Linux. If you want to use the font icons on Arch, install ttf-font-awesome from the AUR.

1. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/XYunknown/i3status-rust.git
2. run cd i3status-rust && cargo build --release
3. Edit example_config.json to your liking and put it to a sensible place (e.g. ~/.config/i3/status.json)
4. Edit your i3 config

   1. In your i3 config, put the path to the output binary as argument for 'status_command'

   2. Add the path to your config file as first argument, you can also configure theme and icon theme as arguments to i3status-rs. See i3status-rs --help for more.

      Example of the 'bar' section in the i3 config from my personal i3 config (Requires awesome-ttf-fonts). The colors block is optional, just my taste:

      bar {
            font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono, Icons 12
            position top
            status_command <PATH_TO_i3STATUS>/i3status-rs <PATH_TO_CONFIG>/config.json --icons awesome --theme solarized-dark
            colors {
                  separator #666666
                  background #222222
                  statusline #dddddd
                  focused_workspace #0088CC #0088CC #ffffff
                  active_workspace #333333 #333333 #ffffff
                  inactive_workspace #333333 #333333 #888888
                  urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
            }
      }
      

5. Reload i3: i3 reload

Creates a block which display the current time.

Example

{"block": "time", "interval": 60, "format": "%a %d/%m %R"},

Options

Creates a block displaying memory and swap usage.

By default, the format of this module is ": {MFm}MB/{MTm}MB({Mp}%)" (Swap values accordingly). That behaviour can be changed within config.json.

This module keeps track of both Swap and Memory. By default, a click switches between them.

Example

{"block": "memory",
    "format_mem": "{Mum}MB/{MTm}MB({Mup}%)", "format_swap": "{SUm}MB/{STm}MB({SUp}%)",
    "type": "memory", "icons": "true", "clickable": "true", "interval": "5",
    "warning_mem": 80, "warning_swap": 80, "critical_mem": 95, "critical_swap": 95
},

Options

Creates a block which can display the current song title and artist, in a fixed width marquee fashion. It uses dbus signaling to fetch new tracks, so no periodic updates are needed. It supports all Players that implement the MediaPlayer2 Interface. This includes spotify, vlc and many more. Also provides buttons for play/pause, previous and next title.

Example

{"block": "music", "player": "spotify", "buttons": ["play", "next"]},

Options

Creates a block which displays the system load average.

Example

{"block": "load", "format": "{1m} {5m}", "interval": 1},

Options

Creates a block which displays the overall CPU utilization, calculated from /proc/stat.

Example

{"block": "cpu", "interval": 1},

Options

Creates a block which displays the current battery state (Full, Charging or Discharging) and percentage charged.

Example

{"block": "battery", "interval": 10},

Options

Creates a block that display the output of custom commands

Example

{"block": "custom", "interval": 100, "command": "uname"}

{"block": "custom", "interval": 1, "cycle": ["echo ON", "echo OFF"], "on_click": "<command>"}

Note that content and cycle are mutually exclusive.

Creates a toggle block. You can add commands to be executed to disable the toggle (command_off), and to enable it (command_on). You also need to specify a command to determine the (initial) state of the toggle (command_state). When the command outputs nothing, the toggle is disabled, otherwise enabled. By specifying the interval property you can let the command_state be executed continuously.

Example This is what I use to toggle my external monitor configuration:

{"block": "toggle",
"text": "4k",
"command_state": "xrandr | grep DP1\\ connected\\ 38 | grep -v eDP1",
"command_on": "~/.screenlayout/4kmon_default.sh",
"command_off": "~/.screenlayout/builtin.sh",
"interval": 5}

Creates a block which displays the pending updates available on pacman.

Example

{"block": "pacman", "interval": 10},

Options

Creates a block which displays disk space information.

Example

{"block": "disk_space", "path": "/", "alias": "/", "type": "available", "unit": "GB", "interval": 20},

Options

Creates a block which displays the current Master volume (currently based on amixer output). Click to toggle mute.

Example

{"block": "sound", "interval": 10},

Options

Creates a block which displays the system temperature, based on lm_sensors' sensors output. The block is collapsed by default, and can be expanded by clicking, showing max and avg temperature. When collapsed, the color of the temperature block gives a quick indication as to the temperature (Critical when maxtemp > 80°, Warning when > 60°). Currently, you can only adjust these thresholds in source code. Depends on lm_sensors being installed and configured!

Example

{"block": "temperature", "interval": 10, "collapsed": false},

Options

Create a block by copying the template: cp src/blocks/template.rs src/blocks/<block_name>.rs Obviously, you have to be in the main repo directory and replace <block_name> with the name of your block.

Your block needs a struct to store it's state. First, replace all the occurences of 'Template' in the file with the name of your block. Then edit the struct and add all Fields which you may need to store either options from the block config or state values (e.g. free disk space or current load). Use Widgets to display something in the i3Bar, you can have multiple Text or Button widgets on a Block. These have to be returned in the view() function and they need to be updated from the update() function. They also handle icons and theming for you.

You now need to write a constructor (new()) to create your Block from a piece of JSON (from the config file section of your block). Access values from the config here with config["name"], then use .as_str() or as_u64() to convert the argument to the right type, and unwrap it with expect() or unwrap_or() to give it a default value. Alternatively, you can use the helper macros get_str/u64/bool to extract a string/ u64 and add appropriate error handeling. You can set a default value in the macro as you can see below. The template shows you how to instantiate a simple Text widget. For more info on how to use widgets, just look into other Blocks. More documentation to come. The sender object can be used to send asynchronous update request for any block from a separate thread, provide you know the Block's ID.This advanced feature can be used to reduce the number of system calls by asynchrounosly waiting for events. A usage example can be found in the Music block, which updates only when dbus signals a new song.

Example:

pub fn new(config: Value, tx: Sender<Task>, theme: Value) -> Template {
      let text = TextWidget::new(theme.clone()).with_text("I'm a Template!");
      Template {
            id: Uuid::new_v4().simple().to_string(),
            update_interval: Duration::new(get_u64_default!(config, "interval", 5), 0),
            text: text,
            tx_update_request: tx,
            theme: theme,
      }
}

All blocks are basically structs which implement the trait (interface) Block. This interface defines the following features:

Use this function to update the internal state of your block, for example during periodic updates. Return the duration until your block wants to be updated next. For example, a clock could request only to be updated every 60 seconds by returning Some(Duration::new(60, 0)) every time. If you return None, this function will not be called again automatically.

Example:

fn update(&mut self) -> Option<Duration> {
      self.time.set_text(format!("{}", Local::now().format(&self.format)));
      Some(self.update_interval.clone())
}

Use this function to return the widgets that comprise the UI of your component. The music block may, for example, be comprised of a text widget and multiple buttons. Use a vec to wrap the references to your view.

Example:

fn view(&self) -> Vec<&I3BarWidget> {
      vec![&self.time]
}

You need to return a unique identifier for your block here. In the template you will already find a UUID implementation being used here. This is needed, for example, to send update requests (callbacks) from a different thread.

Example:

fn id(&self) -> &str {
      &self.id
}

Here you can react to the user clicking your block. The i3barEvent instance contains all fields to describe the click action, including mouse button and location down to the pixel. You may also update the internal state here. Note that this event is sent to every block on every click. To filter, use the event.name property, which corresponds to the name property on widgets!

Example:

if event.name.is_some() {
            let action = match &event.name.clone().unwrap() as &str {
                  "play" => "PlayPause",
                  "next" => "Next",
                  "prev" => "Previous",
                  _ => ""
            };
      }
}

Edit src/blocks/mod.rs and add:

1. A module export line: pub mod <name>;
2. A use directive: use self::<name>::*;
3. Mapping to a name string: "<name>" => boxed!(<name>::new(config)),

Congratulations You're done. Recompile and just add the block to your config file now.