Ubuntu Manpage: i3blocks - A flexible scheduler for your i3bar blocks

NAME

       i3blocks - A flexible scheduler for your i3bar blocks

SYNOPSIS

       i3blocks [options]

DESCRIPTION

       i3blocks  allows  one  to  easily  describe  blocks  in  a  simple format, and generate a status line for
       i3bar(1).  It handles clicks, signals and time interval for user scripts.

OPTIONS

       -c     Specifies an alternate configuration file path.  By  default,  i3blocks  looks  for  configuration
              files  in  the  following  order  (note that /etc may be prefixed with /usr/local depending on the
              compilation flags):

                     1. ~/.config/i3blocks/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3blocks/config if set)
                     2. ~/.i3blocks.conf
                     3. /etc/xdg/i3blocks/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/i3blocks/config if set)
                     4. /etc/i3blocks.conf

       -v     Log level.  This option is cumulative.  By  default,  error  messages  are  displayed  on  stderr.
              Passed once, a failure during an update is shown within the block.  Passed twice enables the debug
              messages on stderr.

       -V     Print the version and exit.

       -h     Print the help message and exit.

CONFIGURATION

       The configuration file is an ini file.  Each section describes a new block.  A line beginning  with  a  #
       sign  is  a comment, and empty lines are ignored.  A property is a key=value pair per line, with no space
       around the equal sign.  Properties declared outside a block (i.e.  at the beginning of the file) describe
       global settings.

       Here is an example config file:

              # This is a comment
              interval=5
              color=#00FF00

              [weather]
              command=~/bin/weather.pl
              interval=1800

              [time]
              command=date +%T

       To use i3blocks as your status line, define it in a bar block of your ~/i3/config file:

              bar {
                status_command i3blocks
              }

BLOCK

The properties used to describe a block are the keys specified in the i3bar protocol
http://i3wm.org/docs/i3bar-protocol.html , plus additional properties used by i3blocks to describe when
and how to update a block. All the supported properties are described below.

The following keys are standard, see http://i3wm.org/docs/i3bar-protocol.html for details.

• full_text

• short_text

• color

• min_width

• align

• name

• instance

• urgent

• separator

• separator_block_width

• markup

The following keys are specific to i3blocks.

command
The command executed by a shell, used to update the block. The expected behavior is described
below, in the COMMAND section.

interval
If it is a positive integer, then the block is spawned on startup and the value is used as a time
interval in seconds to schedule future updates. If unspecified or 0, the block won't be executed
on startup (which is useful to simulate buttons).

If "once" (or -1), the block will be executed only on startup (note that a click or signal will
still trigger an update).

If "repeat" (or -2), the block will be spawned on startup, and as soon as it terminates (useful to
repeat blocking commands). Use with caution!

If "persist" (or -3), the block will be executed only on startup, and updated as soon as it
outputs a line. Thus limited to single line updates.

signal The signal number used to update the block. All the real-time (think prioritized and queueable)
signals are available to the user. The number is valid between 1 and N, where SIGRTMIN+N =
SIGRTMAX. (Note: there are 31 real-time signals in Linux.) For instance, signal=10 means that
this block will be updated when i3blocks receives SIGRTMIN+10.

label An optional label to preprend to the full_text after an update.

format This property specifies the format of the output text. The default format is plain text, as
described in the COMMAND section. If "json" (or 1) is used, the block output is parsed as JSON.

COMMAND

       The value of the command key will be passed and executed as is by a shell.

       The  standard output of the command line is used to update the block content.  Each non-empty line of the
       output will overwrite the corresponding property:

       1. full_text

       2. short_text

       3. color

       For example, this script sets the full_text in blue but no short_text:

              echo "Here's my label"
              echo
              echo \#0000FF

       If the command line returns 0 or 33, the block is updated.  Otherwise, it is considered a failure and the
       first  line  (if any) is still displayed.  Note that stderr is ignored.  A return code of 33 will set the
       urgent flag to true.

       For example, this script prints the battery percentage and sets the urgent flag if it is below 10%:

              BAT=`acpi -b | grep -E -o '[0-9][0-9]?%'`
              echo "BAT: $BAT"
              test ${BAT%?} -le 10 && exit 33 || exit 0

       When forking a block command, i3blocks will  set  the  environment  with  some  BLOCK_*  variables.   The
       following variables are always provided, with eventually an empty string as the value.

       BLOCK_NAME
              The name of the block (usually the section name).

       BLOCK_INSTANCE
              An optional argument to the script.

       BLOCK_BUTTON
              Mouse button (1, 2 or 3) if the block was clicked.

       BLOCK_X and BLOCK_Y
              Coordinates where the click occurred, if the block was clicked.

       Here is an example using the environment:

              [block]
              command=echo name=$BLOCK_NAME instance=$BLOCK_INSTANCE
              interval=1

              [clickme]
              full_text=Click me!
              command=echo button=$BLOCK_BUTTON x=$BLOCK_X y=$BLOCK_Y
              min_width=button=1 x=1366 y=768
              align=left

       Note  that  i3blocks  provides a set of optional scripts for convenience, such as network status, battery
       check, cpu load, volume, etc.

EXAMPLES

       As an example, here is a close configuration to i3status(1) default settings:

       TODO

              interval=5
              signal=10

              [ipv6]

              [free]

              [dhcp]

              [vpn]

              [wifi]

              [ethernet]
              min_width=E: 255.255.255.255 (1000 Mbit/s)

              [battery]

              [cpu]

              [datetime]

       The following block shows the usage of signal with some i3(1) bindings which adjust  the  volume,  before
       issuing a pkill -RTMIN+1 i3blocks:

              [volume]
              command=echo -n 'Volume: '; amixer get Master | grep -E -o '[0-9][0-9]?%'
              interval=once
              signal=1
              # no interval, only check on SIGRTMIN+1

       Here  is an example of a very minimalist config, assuming you have a bunch of scripts under ~/bin/blocks/
       with the same name as the blocks:

              command=~/bin/blocks/$BLOCK_NAME
              interval=1

              [free]
              [wifi]
              [ethernet]
              [battery]
              [cpu]
              [datetime]

Reporting Bugs

       Please report bugs on the issue tracker (https://github.com/vivien/i3blocks/issues).

Known Bugs

       None.

AUTHOR

       Written by Vivien Didelot <vivien.didelot@gmail.com>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2014 Vivien Didelot <vivien.didelot@gmail.com>

       License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.

       This  is  free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent
       permitted by law.

                                                                                                     I3BLOCKS(1)