goi3bar

Finally, a configurable, lightweight and easily extensible replacement for i3status.

Why use this over several other alternatives?

• Speed. This performs better than its' cousins written in interpreted languages (python, php, etc)
• Fine-grained concurrency. You can assign individual timings to all plugins, allowing you to make expensive calls less frequently (think making a network call to retrieve the weather, vs. updating the time).
• Simple configuration. goi3bar is driven by JSON configuration, allowing you to easily customise your i3bar. Have you ever tried to use conky?
• Simple Extensibility. Writing new plugins is much simpler than writing new functionality for a C-based project like conky. There are simple interfaces that let you build your own plugins, and handle JSON configuration. Look in the godoc for Producer, Genreator and Builder.

Talk is cheap! This powers my own i3bar:

Installation

If you have the pleasure of running Arch Linux, you can simply install the goi3bar-git package from the aur. Otherwise, read on:

1. Install the go tool (at least version 1.5)
2. Set up your GOPATH and PATH environment variables as described here.
3. Download this repository and it's dependencies with go get github.com/denbeigh2000/goi3bar/...
4. Install with go install github.com/denbeigh2000/goi3bar/cmd/goi3bar

Required for WLAN: iwconfig. Should be available in $PATH. Simple installation check:

$ which iwconfig>/dev/null && echo "yay" || echo "no"
yay

Usage

Run the goi3bar binary with your config file path as an argument:

$ goi3bar -config-path /path/to/your/config.json

Set this as the status_command field in ~/.i3/config.

If you see Error: status_command not found or is missing a library dependency (exit 127) in your i3bar, it means goi3bar is not in your $PATH. Either set your $PATH in the script that instantiates i3, such as xinitc, or provide the fully-qualified to the goi3bar binary, i.e. /home/denbeigh/dev/go/bin/goi3bar

Configuration

A configuration file is represented with JSON, consisting of refresh interval and zero or more entries

Each entry has a "package" referring to the plugin it uses, a "name" (anything, but must be unique) and an "options" struct, which will be dependent on the package you are using.

A set of packages come pre-included in the default "goi3bar" binary

Package key	Function
cpu_load	1, 5, 15 minute CPU loads
cpu_util	Current CPU percentage utilisation
memory	Current memory usage
disk_usage	Current free disk space
disk_access	Current data I/O rate
battery	Current battery level/remaining time
network	Information about currently connected networks
clock	Current time

Sample

This sample config defines an i3bar with custom colours, a 5 second refresh (not poll) interval, and a single memory printout with colour thresholds which refreshes every 10 seconds. A full sample config file with all options configured can be found in cmd/goi3bar/config.json.

{
    "colors": {
        "color_crit": "#FF0000",
        "color_warn": "#FFA500",
        "color_ok": "#00FF00",
        "color_general": "#FFFFFF"
    },
    "interval": "5s",
    "entries": [
        {
            "package": "memory",
            "name": "memory",
            "options": {
                "interval": "10s",
                "warn_threshold": 75,
                "crit_threshold": 85
            }
        }
    ]

TODO

Currently have:

• Support (but no action) for click events
• Configuration via JSON
• Formattable clock
• Memory usage (with configurable color thresholds)
• CPU load averages (with configurable color thresholds)
• Battery values (with automagic discovery and configurable thresholds)
• Network info with funky applet which only shows most preferred connected network
• Disk read/write rates
• Disk usage

Want to have:

• Unit testing!
• More configurability for memory, battery moinitors (e.g., formattable)
• Support for more batteries(?) This was written for a ThinkPad x240 because that's what I have. Pull requests welcome if some battery functionality does not work on your machine.