py3status

py3status is an extensible i3status wrapper written in python.

Using py3status, you can take control of your i3bar easily by:

• using one of the available modules shipped with py3status
• grouping multiple modules and automatically or manually cycle their display
• writing your own modules and have their output displayed on your bar
• handling click events on your i3bar and play with them in no time
• seeing your clock tick every second whatever your i3status interval

No extra configuration file needed, just install & enjoy !

About

You will love py3status if you're using i3wm and are frustrated by the i3status limitations on your i3bar such as:

• you cannot hack into it easily
• you want more than the built-in modules and their limited configuration
• you cannot pipe the result of one of more scripts or commands in your bar easily

Philosophy

• no added configuration file, use the standard i3status.conf
• rely on i3status' strengths and its existing configuration as much as possible
• be extensible, it must be easy for users to add their own stuff/output by writing a simple python class which will be loaded and executed dynamically
• easily allow interactivity with the i3bar
• add some built-in enhancement/transformation of basic i3status modules output

Documentation

Up-to-date documentation:

• Using modules
• Custom click events
• Writing custom modules
• Contributing

Get help or share your ideas on IRC:

• channel #py3status on FreeNode

Usage

In your i3 config file, simply switch from i3status to py3status in your status_command:

status_command py3status

Usually you have your own i3status configuration, just point to it:

status_command py3status -c ~/.i3/i3status.conf

Available modules

You can get a list with short descriptions of all available modules by using the CLI:

$ py3status modules list

To get more details about all available modules and their configuration, use:

$ py3status modules details

All modules shipped with py3status are present as the Python source files in the py3status/modules directory.

Most of them are configurable directly from your current i3status.conf, check them out to see all the configurable variables.

Installation

Pypi

Using pip:

$ pip install py3status

Gentoo Linux

Using emerge:

$ sudo emerge -a py3status

Arch Linux

Using pacman:

$ pacman -S py3status

Fedora

Using dnf:

$ dnf install py3status

NixOS

Installing in local environment using nix-env:

$ nix-env -i python3.6-py3status-3.7

To have it globally persistent add to your NixOS configuration file py3status as a Python 3.6 package with

(python36.withPackages(ps: with ps; [ py3status ]))

If you are, and you probably are, using i3 you might want a section in your /etc/nixos/configuration.nix that looks like this:

services.xserver.windowManager.i3 = {
  enable = true;
  extraPackages = with pkgs; [
    dmenu
    i3status
    i3lock
    (python36.withPackages(ps: with ps; [ py3status pytz tzlocal ]))
  ];
};

In this example I included the python packages pytz and tzlocal which are necessary for the py3status module clock. The default packages that come with i3 (dmenu, i3status, i3lock) have to be mentioned if they should still be there.

Debian/Ubuntu

Packaged by @sdelafond, and available via apt-get:

$ apt-get install py3status

For now it's only in testing and unstable, but will soon be added to stable-backports.

Note: if you want to use pip, you should consider using pypi-install from the python-stdeb package (which will create a .deb out from a python package) instead of directly calling pip.

Options

You can see the help of py3status by issuing py3status -h:

-h, --help            show this help message and exit
-b, --dbus-notify     use notify-send to send user notifications rather than
                      i3-nagbar, requires a notification daemon eg dunst
-c I3STATUS_CONF, --config I3STATUS_CONF
                      path to i3status config file
-d, --debug           be verbose in syslog
-i INCLUDE_PATHS, --include INCLUDE_PATHS
                      include user-written modules from those directories
                      (default ~/.i3/py3status)
-l LOG_FILE, --log-file LOG_FILE
                      path to py3status log file
-n INTERVAL, --interval INTERVAL
                      update interval in seconds (default 1 sec)
-s, --standalone      standalone mode, do not use i3status
-t CACHE_TIMEOUT, --timeout CACHE_TIMEOUT
                      default injection cache timeout in seconds (default 60
                      sec)
-v, --version         show py3status version and exit

Control

Just like i3status, you can force an update of your i3bar by sending a SIGUSR1 signal to py3status. Note that this will also send a SIGUSR1 signal to i3status.

killall -USR1 py3status

To refresh individual modules, the py3-cmd utility can be used, e.g.:

py3-cmd refresh wifi