path: root/doc/quick-start.org

#+title: Quick start: using xmobar

Xmobar can either be configured using the configuration language, or
used as a Haskell library (similar to xmonad) and compiled with your
specific configuration. For an example of the latter, you can have a
loot at [[../examples/xmobar.hs][examples/xmobar.hs]] or, for a more complicated example, peruse
[[https://gitlab.com/jaor/xmobar-config/][the author's configuration]].

There is also an example of a config using the configuration language
available [[http://github.com/jaor/xmobar/raw/master/examples/xmobar.config][here]].

* 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:

  #+begin_src shell
    xmobar -B white -a right -F blue -t '%LIPB%' -c '[Run Weather "LIPB" [] 36000]'
  #+end_src

  This is the list of command line options (the output of =xmobar --help=):

  #+begin_src shell
    Usage: xmobar [OPTION...] [FILE]
    Options:
      -h, -?        --help                 This help
      -v            --verbose              Emit verbose debugging messages
      -r            --recompile            Force recompilation
      -V            --version              Show version information
      -f font name  --font=font name       Font name
      -N font name  --add-font=font name   Add to the list of additional fonts
      -w class      --wmclass=class        X11 WM_CLASS property
      -n name       --wmname=name          X11 WM_NAME property
      -B bg color   --bgcolor=bg color     The background color. Default black
      -F fg color   --fgcolor=fg color     The foreground color. Default grey
      -i path       --iconroot=path        Root directory for icon pattern paths. Default '.'
      -A alpha      --alpha=alpha          Transparency: 0 is transparent, 255 is opaque. Default: 255
      -o            --top                  Place xmobar at the top of the screen
      -b            --bottom               Place xmobar at the bottom of the screen
      -d            --dock                 Don't override redirect from WM and function as a dock
      -a alignsep   --alignsep=alignsep    Separators for left, center and right text
                                           alignment. Default: '}{'
      -s char       --sepchar=char         Character used to separate commands in
                                           the output template. Default '%'
      -t template   --template=template    Output template
      -c commands   --commands=commands    List of commands to be executed
      -C command    --add-command=command  Add to the list of commands to be executed
      -x screen     --screen=screen        On which X screen number to start
      -p position   --position=position    Specify position of xmobar. Same syntax as in config file
      -T [format]   --text[=format]        Write output to stdout

    Mail bug reports and suggestions to <mail@jao.io>
  #+end_src
* Configuration Options
*** Global options
    Here are all the global configuration options that you can set within
    the =Config= block in your configuration.

    - =font= Name of the font to be used. Use the =xft:= prefix for XFT
      fonts.

    - =additionalFonts= Haskell-style list of fonts to be used with the
      =fn=-template. Use the =xft:= prefix for XFT fonts. See also
      =textOffsets= below. For example:

      #+begin_src haskell
        additionalFonts = [iconFont, altIconFont]
      #+end_src

    - =bgColor= Background color.

    - =fgColor= Default font color.

    - =alpha= The transparency. 0 is transparent, 255 is opaque.

    - =position= Top, TopH, TopP, TopW, TopSize, Bottom, BottomH,
      BottomP, BottomW, BottomSize or Static (with x, y, width and height).

      TopP and BottomP take 2 arguments: left padding and right padding.

      TopW and BottomW take 2 arguments: an alignment parameter (L for left,
      C for centered, R for Right) and an integer for the percentage width
      xmobar window will have in respect to the screen width.

      TopSize and BottomSize take 3 arguments: an alignment parameter, an
      integer for the percentage width, and an integer for the minimum pixel
      height that the xmobar window will have.

      TopH and BottomH take one argument (Int) which adjusts the bar height.

      For example:

      #+begin_src haskell
        position = TopH 30
      #+end_src

      to make a 30 tall bar on the top, or

      #+begin_src haskell
        position = BottomH 30
      #+end_src

      to make a 30 tall bar on the bottom of the screen.

      #+begin_src haskell
        position = BottomW C 75
      #+end_src

      to place xmobar at the bottom, centered with the 75% of the screen
      width. Or

      #+begin_src haskell
        position = BottomP 120 0
      #+end_src

      to place xmobar at the bottom, with 120 pixel indent of the left. Or

      #+begin_src haskell
        position = Static { xpos = 0 , ypos = 0, width = 1024, height = 15 }
      #+end_src

      or

      #+begin_src haskell
        position = Top
      #+end_src

    - =textOffset= The vertical offset, in pixels, for the text baseline. If
      negative or not given, xmobar will try to center text vertically.

    - =textOffsets= A list of vertical offsets, in pixels, for the text
      baseline, to be used with the each of the fonts in =additionalFonts=
      (if any). If negative or not given, xmobar will try to center text
      vertically for that font.

    - =iconOffset= The vertical offset, in pixels, for icons bottom line. If
      negative or not given, xmobar will try to center icons vertically.

    - =lowerOnStart= When True the window is sent the bottom of the window
      stack initially.

    - =hideOnStart= When set to True the window is initially not mapped,
      i.e. hidden. It then can be toggled manually (for example using the
      dbus interface) or automatically (by a plugin) to make it reappear.

    - =allDesktops= When set to True (the default), xmobar will tell the
      window manager explicitly to be shown in all desktops, by setting
      =_NET_WM_DESKTOP= to 0xffffffff.

    - =overrideRedirect= If you're running xmobar in a tiling window
      manager, you might need to set this option to =False= so that it
      behaves as a docked application. Defaults to =True=.

    - =pickBroadest= When multiple displays are available, xmobar will
      choose by default the first one to place itself. With this flag set to
      =True= (the default is =False=) it will choose the broadest one
      instead.

    - =persistent= When True the window status is fixed i.e. hiding or
      revealing is not possible. This option can be toggled at runtime.
      Defaults to False.

    - =border= TopB, TopBM, BottomB, BottomBM, FullB, FullBM or NoBorder
      (default).

      TopB, BottomB, FullB take no arguments, and request drawing a border
      at the top, bottom or around xmobar's window, respectively.

      TopBM, BottomBM, FullBM take an integer argument, which is the margin,
      in pixels, between the border of the window and the drawn border.

    - =borderColor= Border color.

    - =borderWidth= Border width in pixels.

    - =iconRoot= Root folder where icons are stored. For =<icon=path/>= if
      path start with =/=, =./= or =../= it is interpreted as it is.
      Otherwise it will have

      #+begin_src haskell
        iconRoot ++ "/"
      #+end_src

      prepended to it. Default is =.=.

    - =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 '%').

    - =alignSep= a 2 character string for aligning text in the output
      template. The text before the first character will be align to left,
      the text in between the 2 characters will be centered, and the text
      after the second character will be align to the right.

    - =template= The output template.

    - =wmClass= The value for the window's X11 ~WM_CLASS~ property. Defaults
      to "xmobar".

    - =wmName= The value for the window's X11 ~WM_NAME~ property. Defaults to
      "xmobar".

    - =textOutput= When True, instead of running as an X11 application,
      write output to stdout, with optional color escape sequences.  In
      this mode, icon and action specifications are ignored.  Default is
      False.

    - =textOutputFormat= Plain, Ansi or Pango, to emit, when in text
      mode, escape color sequences using ANSI controls (for terminals) or
      pango markup.  Default is Plain.

*** The output =template=

    The output template is how xmobar will end up printing all of your
    configured commands. It must contain at least one command. Xmobar
    will parse the template and search for the command to be executed
    in the =commands= configuration option. First an =alias= will be
    searched (some plugins, such as =Weather= or =Network=, have default
    aliases, see the [[./plugins.org][plugin documentation]]).  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 ask the
    operating system to execute a program with the name found in the
    template. If the execution is not successful an error will be
    reported.

***** Template syntax

      The syntax for the output template is as follows:

      - =%command%= will execute command and print the output. The output may
        contain markups to change the characters' color.

      - =<fc=#FF0000>string</fc>= will print =string= with =#FF0000= color
        (red). =<fc=#FF0000,#000000>string</fc>= will print =string= in red
        with a black background (=#000000=). Background absolute offsets can
        be specified for XFT fonts. =<fc=#FF0000,#000000:0>string</fc>= will
        have a background matching the bar's height.

      - =<fn=1>string</fn>= will print =string= with the first font from
        =additionalFonts=. The index =0= corresponds to the standard font.

      - =<hspace=X/>= will insert a blank horizontal space of =X= pixels.
        For example, to add a blank horizontal space of 123 pixels,
        =<hspace=123/>= may be used.

       - =<box>string</box>= will print string surrounded by a box in the
         foreground color. The =box= tag accepts several optional arguments to
         tailor its looks: see next section.

      - =<icon=/path/to/icon.xbm/>= will insert the given bitmap. XPM image
        format is also supported when compiled with the =with_xpm= flag.

      - =<action=`command` button=12345>= will execute given command when
        clicked with specified buttons. If not specified, button is equal to 1
        (left mouse button). Using old syntax (without backticks surrounding
        =command=) will result in =button= attribute being ignored.

      - =<raw=len:str/>= allows the encapsulation of arbitrary text =str=
        (which must be =len= =Char=s long, where =len= is encoded as a decimal
        sequence). Careful use of this and =UnsafeStdinReader=, for example,
        permits window managers to feed xmobar strings with =<action>= tags
        mixed with un-trusted content (e.g. window titles). For example, if
        xmobar is invoked as

        #+begin_src shell
          xmobar -c "[Run UnsafeStdinReader]" -t "%UnsafeStdinReader%"
        #+end_src

        and receives on standard input the line

        #+begin_src shell
          <action=`echo test` button=1><raw=41:<action=`echo mooo` button=1>foo</action>/></action>`
        #+end_src

        then it will display the text
        =<action=`echo mooo` button=1>foo</action>=, which, when clicked, will
        cause =test= to be echoed.

        See the subsections below for more information on ~<box/>~,
        ~<icon/>~ and ~<action/>~.

***** Boxes around text

     - =<box>string</box>= will print string surrounded by a box in the
       foreground color. The =box= tag accepts several optional arguments to
       tailor its looks:

       - =type=: =Top=, =Bottom=, =VBoth= (a single line above or below
         string, or both), =Left=, =Right=, =HBoth= (single vertical lines),
         =Full= (a rectangle, the default).
       - =color=: the color of the box lines.
       - =width=: the width of the box lines.
       - =offset=: an alignment char (L, C or R) followed by the amount of
         pixels to offset the box lines; the alignment denotes the position
         of the resulting line, with L/R meaning top/bottom for the vertical
         lines, and left/right for horizontal ones.
       - =mt=, =mb=, =ml=, =mr= specify margins to be added at the top,
         bottom, left and right lines.

       For example, a box underlining its text with a red line of width 2:

       #+begin_src shell
         <box type=Bottom width=2 color=red>string</box>
       #+end_src

       and if you wanted an underline and an overline with a margin of 2
       pixels either side:

       #+begin_src shell
         <box type=VBoth mt=2 mb=2>string</box>
       #+end_src

       When xmobar is run in text mode with output format swaybar, box
       types, colors and widths are valid too, but margins and offsets
       are ignored.

***** Bitmap Icons

      It's possible to insert in the global templates icon directives of the
      form:

      prepended to it. Default is =.=.



      #+begin_src shell
        <icon=/path/to/bitmap.xbm/>
      #+end_src

      which will produce the expected result. Accepted image formats are XBM
      and XPM (when =with_xpm= flag is enabled). If path does not start with
      =/=, =./=, =../= it will have

      #+begin_src haskell
        iconRoot ++ "/"
      #+end_src

      prepended to it.

      Icons are ignored when xmobar is run in text output mode.

***** Action Directives

      It's also possible to use action directives of the form:

      #+begin_src shell
        <action=`command` button=12345>
      #+end_src

      which will be executed when clicked on with specified mouse
      buttons.  This tag can be nested, allowing different commands to
      be run depending on button clicked.

      Actions work also when xmobar is run in text mode and used as
      the status command of swaybar.

*** 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:

    #+begin_src haskell
      [Run Memory ["-t","Mem: <usedratio>%"] 10, Run Swap [] 10]
    #+end_src

    to run the Memory monitor plugin with the specified template, and the
    swap monitor plugin, with default options, every second. And here's an
    example of a template for the commands above using an icon:

    #+begin_src haskell
      template = "<icon=/home/jao/.xmobar/mem.xbm/><memory> <swap>"
    #+end_src

    This example will run "xclock" command when date is clicked:

    #+begin_src haskell
      template = "<action=`xclock`>%date%</action>"
    #+end_src

    The only internal available command is =Com= (see below Executing
    External Commands). All other commands are provided by plugins. xmobar
    comes with some plugins, providing a set of system monitors, a standard
    input reader, an Unix named pipe reader, a configurable date plugin, and
    much more: we list all available plugins below.

    Other commands can be created as plugins with the Plugin infrastructure.
    See below.

* Runtime behaviour
*** Running xmobar with =i3status=

 xmobar can be used to display information generated by [[http://i3wm.org/i3status/][i3status]], a small
 program that gathers system information and outputs it in formats
 suitable for being displayed by the dzen2 status bar, wmii's status bar
 or xmobar's =StdinReader=. See [[http://i3wm.org/i3status/manpage.html#_using_i3status_with_xmobar][i3status manual]] for further details.

*** Dynamically sizing xmobar

 See [[https://github.com/jaor/xmobar/issues/239#issuecomment-233206552][this idea]] by Jonas Camillus Jeppensen for a way of adapting
 dynamically xmobar's size and run it alongside a system tray widget such
 as trayer or stalonetray (although the idea is not limited to trays,
 really). For your convenience, there is a version of Jonas' script in
 [[../examples/padding-icon.sh][examples/padding-icon.sh]].

*** Signal Handling

    xmobar reacts to ~SIGUSR1~ and ~SIGUSR2~:

    - After receiving ~SIGUSR1~ xmobar moves its position to the next screen.

    - After receiving ~SIGUSR2~ xmobar repositions itself on the current
      screen.
* The DBus Interface

  When compiled with the optional =with_dbus= flag, xmobar can be
  controlled over dbus. All signals defined in [[https://github.com/jaor/xmobar/blob/master/src/Xmobar/System/Signal.hs][src/Signal.hs]] as =data
  SignalType= can now be sent over dbus to xmobar.

  Due to current limitations of the implementation only one process of
  xmobar can acquire the dbus. This is handled on a
  first-come-first-served basis, meaning that the first process will
  get the dbus interface. Other processes will run without further
  problems, yet have no dbus interface.

  - Bus Name: =org.Xmobar.Control=
  - Object Path: =/org/Xmobar/Control=
  - Member Name: Any of SignalType, e.g. =string:Reveal=
  - Interface Name: =org.Xmobar.Control=

  An example using the =dbus-send= command line utility:

  #+begin_src shell
  dbus-send \
      --session \
      --dest=org.Xmobar.Control \
      --type=method_call \
      --print-reply \
      '/org/Xmobar/Control' \
      org.Xmobar.Control.SendSignal \
      "string:SetAlpha 192"
  #+end_src

  It is also possible to send multiple signals at once:

  #+begin_src shell
    # send to another screen, reveal and toggle the persistent flag
    dbus-send [..] \
        "string:ChangeScreen 0" "string:Reveal 0" "string:TogglePersistent"
  #+end_src

  The =Toggle=, =Reveal=, and =Hide= signals take an additional integer
  argument that denotes an initial delay, in tenths of a second,
  before the command takes effect, while =SetAlpha= takes a new alpha
  value (also an integer, between 0 and 255) as argument.

  See [[./window-managers.org::*Example of using][Interfacing with window managers]] for an example of how to use
  the DBus interface from xmonad.