Introduction¶

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
support python 2.7 and python 3.x

We apply the Zen of py3status to improve this project and encourage everyone to read it!

Installation¶

Distro	Helpful Command	Useful Note
Arch Linux	`$ pacman -S py3status`	Stable updates. Official releases.
Arch Linux	`$ yay -S py3status-git`	Real-time updates from master branch.
Debian & Ubuntu	`$ apt-get install py3status`	Stable updates. In testing and unstable, and soon in stable backports.
Fedora	`$ dnf install py3status`
Gentoo Linux	`$ emerge -a py3status`	Check available USE flags!
Pypi	`$ pip install py3status`	There are optional requirements that you could find useful: py3status[gevent] for gevent support. py3status[udev] for udev support. Or if you want everything: py3status[all] to install all core extra requirements and features.
Void Linux	`$ xbps-install -S py3status`
NixOS	`$ nix-env -i` `python3.6-py3status`	Not a global install. See below.

Debian/Ubuntu¶

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.

NixOS¶

To have it globally persistent add to your NixOS configuration file py3status as a Python 3 package with

(python3Packages.py3status.overrideAttrs (oldAttrs: {
  propagatedBuildInputs = [ python3Packages.pytz python3Packages.tzlocal ];
}))

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
    (python3Packages.py3status.overrideAttrs (oldAttrs: {
      propagatedBuildInputs = [ python3Packages.pytz python3Packages.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.

Support¶

Get help, share ideas or feedbacks, join community, report bugs, or others, see:

Github¶

Issues / Pull requests

Live IRC Chat¶

Visit #py3status at freenode.net

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 list --all

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

$ py3status list --all --full

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

Options¶

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

-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
-g, --gevent          enable gevent monkey patching (default False)
-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)
-m, --disable-click-events
                      disable all click events
-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

Note

Since version 3.6 py3status can be controlled via the py3-cmd which is recommended.

Contributing¶

We value very much any kind of feedback/contribution, see Developing and Contributing to read more about how to help!