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)