Xmobar - A Minimalistic Text Based Status Bar

ABOUT

Xmobar is a minimalistic, text based, status bar.

It was inspired by the Ion3 status bar, and supports similar features, like dynamic color management, output templates, and extensibility through plugins.

See xmobar.config-sample for a sample configuration.

Try it with: xmobar xmobar.config-sample

DOWNLOAD

You can get the Xmobar source code from Hackage: http://hackage.haskell.org/cgi-bin/hackage-scripts/package/xmobar

To get the darcs source run: darcs get http://gorgias.mine.nu/repos/xmobar/

The latest binary can be found here: http://gorgias.mine.nu/xmobar/xmobar-0.7.bin

A recent screen shot can be found here: http://gorgias.mine.nu/xmobar/xmobar-0.7.png

INSTALLATION

tar xvfz xmobar-0.7 cd xmobar-0.7 runhaskell Setup.lhs configure --prefix=/usr/local runhaskell Setup.lhs build runhaskell Setup.lhs haddock (optional for building the code documentation) runhaskell Setup.lhs install (possibly to be run as root)

Run with: xmobar /path/to/config & or xmobar & if you have the default configuration file saved as: ~/.xmobarrc

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.

• <fc=#FF0000>string will print "string" with #FF0000 color (red).

Other configuration options:

font: Name of the font to be used bgColor: Backgroud color fgColor: Default font color xPos: x position (origin in the upper left corner) of the Xmobar window yPos: y position width: width of the Xmobar window height: height align: text alignment refresh: Refresh rate in tenth of seconds 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 '%') template: The output template

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 -x x pos --xpos=x pos The x position. Default 0 -y y pos --ypos=y pos The y position. Default 0 -W width --width=width The status bar width. Default 1024 -H height --height=height The status bar height. Default 15 -a align --align=align The text alignment: center, left or right. Default: left -r rate --refresh=rate The refresh rate in tenth of seconds: default 1 sec. -s char --sepchar=char The character used to separate commands in the output template. Default '%' -t tempate --template=tempate The output template -c commands --commands=commands The list of commands to be executed Mail bug reports and suggestions to andrea.rossato@unibz.it

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 search (internal commands such as Weather or Network have default aliasing, 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 try 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]

The only internal available command is Com (see below Executing External Commands). But by default Xmobar comes with a plugin consisting in a set of system monitors. This plugin installs the following internal commands: Weather, Network, Memory, Swap, Cpu, Battery.

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

This is an example of a command in the "commands" list: Run Memory ["-t","Mem: %"] 10

Internal Commands and Aliases

Each command in the "commands" configuration option list has an alias to be used in the template.

Internal commands have default aliases:

Weather StationID Args RefreshRate

• aliases to the Station ID: so Weather "LIPB" [] can be used in template as %LIBP%
• 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 % ()"

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"
• Default template: ": |"

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"
• 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", "user", "nice", "system", "idle"
• 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"
• Default template: "Batt: "

Internal 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" -t output template --template=output template Output template of the command.

Commands' arguments must be set as a list. Es: Run Weather "EGPF" ["-t",": 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 ProgarmName 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%

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 3 needed methods:

run :: e -> IO String
rate :: e -> Int
alias :: e -> String

"run" must produce the IO String that will be displayed by Xmobar. "rate" is the refresh rate for you plugin (the number of tenth of seconds between two successive runs); "alias" is the name to be used in the output template.

That 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 you plugin into Config.hs and adding you type to the type list in the type signature of Config.runnableTypes.

For a vary basic example see Plugins/HelloWorld.hs that is 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.

AUTHOR

Andrea Rossato andrea.rossato@unibz.it

CREDITS

Thanks to Robert Manea and Spencer Janssen for their help in understanding how X works. He 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 thing I grasp existential types...;-).

Xmobar incorporates patches from: Krzysztof Kosciuszkiewicz and Spencer Janssen.

LINKS

The Xmobar home page: http://gorgias.mine.nu/repos/xmobar/

Xmobars darcs repository: http://gorgias.mine.nu/repos/xmobar/

To understand the internal mysteries of Xmobar try reading this: http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/X_window_programming_in_Haskell