Status bar

2025-07-11

# xbps-install lemonbar-xft xtitle stalonetray dzen2 libX11-devel

lemonbar-xft lightweight bar, fork of lemonbar adding xft support

bar.sh (based on bspwm example):

#! /bin/sh
PANEL_HEIGHT=16
PANEL_FONT="Terminus:size=8"
PANEL_WM_NAME=bspwm_panel

PANEL_FIFO=/tmp/panel-fifo
[ -e "$PANEL_FIFO" ] && rm "$PANEL_FIFO"
mkfifo "$PANEL_FIFO"

pkill -9 lemonbar
pkill stalonetray
#pkill bar_parse.sh

trap 'trap - TERM; rm -f "$PANEL_FIFO"; kill 0' INT TERM QUIT EXIT

xtitle -sf 'T%s\n' > "$PANEL_FIFO" &
dwmstatus | stdbuf -oL sed 's/^/S/' > "$PANEL_FIFO" &
bspc subscribe > "$PANEL_FIFO" &

. colors.sh
bar_parse.sh < "$PANEL_FIFO" | lemonbar -a 32  -g x$PANEL_HEIGHT -u 0 -d -f "$PANEL_FONT" -F "$COLOR_FG" -B "$COLOR_BG" | sh

bar_parse.sh (basically the same as bspwm example):

#! /bin/sh
. colors.sh

num_mon=$(bspc query -M | wc -l)
while read -r line ; do
	case $line in
		S*) # info output
			sys="${line#?} %{B-}%{F-}"
			;;
		T*)
			# xtitle output
			title="${line#?} %{B-}%{F-}"
			;;
		W*)
			# bspwm's state
            cmon=0
			wm=""
			IFS=':'
			set -- ${line#?}
			while [ $# -gt 0 ] ; do
				item=$1
				name=${item#?}
				case $item in
					[mM]*)
						[ $num_mon -lt 2 ] && shift && continue
						case $item in
							m*)
								# monitor
								FG=$COLOR_FG
								BG=$COLOR_BG
								;;
							M*)
								# focused monitor
								FG=$COLOR_FG
								BG=$COLOR_FOCUSED_MONITOR_BG
								;;
						esac
                        wm="${wm}%{l}%{S${cmon}}%{F${FG}}%{B${BG}}%{A:bspc monitor -f ${name}:} ${name} %{A}%{B-}%{F-}"
                        cmon=$((cmon+1))
						;;
					[fFoOuU]*)
						case $item in
							f*)
								# free desktop
								FG=$COLOR_FREE_FG
								BG=$COLOR_BG
								;;
							F*)
								# focused free desktop
								FG=$COLOR_FREE_FG
								BG=$COLOR_FOCUSED_BG
								;;
							o*)
								# occupied desktop
								FG=$COLOR_OCCUPIED_FG
								BG=$COLOR_BG
								;;
							O*)
								# focused occupied desktop
								FG=$COLOR_OCCUPIED_FG
								BG=$COLOR_FOCUSED_BG
								;;
							u*)
								# urgent desktop
								FG=$COLOR_URGENT_FG
								BG=$COLOR_BG
								;;
							U*)
								# focused urgent desktop
								FG=$COLOR_URGENT_FG
								BG=$COLOR_FOCUSED_BG
								;;
						esac
						wm="${wm}%{F${FG}}%{B${BG}}%{A:bspc desktop -f ${name}:} ${name} %{A}%{B-}%{F-}"
						;;
					L*)
						# layout
                        #WMLVDS1:OQ:oW:oE:fA:fS:fD:LT:TF:G example state string from bspc subscribe
                        case $name in
                            T*)
                                symbol="#"
                                ;;
                            M*)
                                symbol="[]"
                                ;;
                        esac
						wm="${wm}%{F${COLOR_FREE_FG}} %{A:bspc desktop -l next:}${symbol}%{A}%{B-}%{F-}"
						;;
					[TG]*)
						# state and flags
						;;
				esac
				shift
			done
			;;
	esac
	printf "%s\n" "%{l}${wm}      ${title}%{r}${sys}"
	if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    	exit 1
	fi
done

colors.sh:

#! /bin/sh
COLOR_FG="#bea786"
COLOR_BG="#000000"

COLOR_FOCUSED_MONITOR_BG="#292216"
COLOR_FOCUSED_BG="#292216"

COLOR_FREE_FG="#a3804b"
COLOR_OCCUPIED_FG="#ffe5bb"
COLOR_URGENT_FG="#cd9641"

Launching the bar at the end of ./config/bspwm/bspwmrc:

exec bar.sh

Window titles

xtitle outputs X window titles

In bar.sh:

xtitle -sf 'T%s\n' > "$PANEL_FIFO" &

s: snoop mode (keep running and output new title whenever it changes)
f: format (%s - window title)

Bspwm integration

In bar.sh:

bspc subscribe > "$PANEL_FIFO" &

Status

I based my status gathering and printing program on dwmstatus.

libX11-devel X11 development headers necessary to compile dwmstatus

Launching in bar.sh:

dwmstatus | stdbuf -oL sed 's/^/S/g' > "$PANEL_FIFO" &

stdbuf -oL: buffer the output of dwmstatus by lines
sed ’s/^/S/g’: put letter S on at start of every line (needed to parse $PANEL_FIFO)

Tray icons

stalonetray lightweight standalone system tray for X11

stalonetray below lemonbar

In lemonbar you can define clickable areas that will launch a command:

"%{A:bar-tray.sh:}click this to toggle tray%{A}"

I set my bar so when I click on the time, bar-tray.sh is launched and toggles displaying stalonetray:

#!/bin/sh

if pgrep -x stalonetray > /dev/null ; then
    pkill stalonetray
    exit 0
fi

stalonetray --window-type dock &

Stalonetray’s settings in ~/.stalonetrayrc:

decorations none
dockapp_mode simple
fuzzy_edges 0
geometry 1x1+1349+17
grow_gravity SE
icon_size 8
log_level err
kludges force_icons_size
max_geometry 0x0
no_shrink false
scrollbars none
skip_taskbar true
sticky true
tint_color white
tint_level 0  # color range - 0 255
transparent false
vertical false
window_layer normal
window_strut none
window_type toolbar
xsync false
parent_bg true

dzen2 general purpose messaging, notification and popup menu for X11

Define clickable area in lemonbar that launches custom script, for example clicking on battery percentage displays more info about battery:

"%{A:bar-dropdown.sh bat:} B:100 %{A}"

battery info in dzen2

bar-dropdown.sh:

#!/bin/sh
(
	case "$1" in
	"conn")
		echo "eth in/out: $(( $(cat /sys/class/net/eth0/statistics/rx_bytes) / 1048576 ))/$(( $(cat /sys/class/net/eth0/statistics/tx_bytes) / 1048576 )) (MB)"
		echo "wlan in/out: $(( $(cat /sys/class/net/wlan0/statistics/rx_bytes) / 1048576 ))/$(( $(cat /sys/class/net/wlan0/statistics/tx_bytes) / 1048576 )) (MB)"
		ip route
	;;
	"disc")
		df -hTx 'tmpfs' -x 'devtmpfs'
	;;
	"temp")
		sensors
	;;
	"cpu")
		ps -Ao user,comm,pid,pcpu,time --sort=-pcpu | head -n 12
	;;
	"mem")
		free -g; echo ""; ps -Ao user,comm,pid,%mem,time --sort=-rss | head -n 12
	;;
	"bat")
		acpi -bita
	;;
	"cal")
		TODAY=$(date +%d | sed 's/^0*//')
		MONTH=$(date +%m | sed 's/^0*//')
		YEAR=$(date +%Y)

		echo "$(date +'%A %d %B %Y')"
		echo

		cal | sed -E \
  		  -e "s/(^|[[:space:]])($TODAY)([[:space:]]|\$)/\1^fg(#ffffff)^bg(#4f3d52)\2^fg()^bg()\3/"

		echo

		if [ "$MONTH" -eq 12 ]; then
  		  NEXT_MONTH=1
  		  NEXT_YEAR=$((YEAR + 1))
		else
  		  NEXT_MONTH=$((MONTH + 1))
  		  NEXT_YEAR=$YEAR
		fi

		cal "$NEXT_MONTH" "$NEXT_YEAR"
	;;
esac) | bar-dzen2.sh "$1"

The text is piped to bar-dzen2.sh, which displays dzen2 at the position of cursor and makes a lock file, if the lock file already exists, it kills dzen2 for this type of info, that is how the dropdown is toggled:

#!/bin/sh
NAME="$1"
shift
LCK="/tmp/dzen-$NAME.lock"

if [ -f "$LCK" ]; then
    kill -9 "$(cat "$LCK")" 2>/dev/null
    rm -f "$LCK"
    exit 0
fi
TMP="$(mktemp)"
echo "" > "$TMP"
cat >> "$TMP"

LINES=$(wc -l < "$TMP")
CHARS=$(sed 's/\^..([^)]*)//g' "$TMP" | awk '{ print length }' | sort -nr | head -n1)

CHAR_WIDTH=8 #adjust depending on font 
WIN_WIDTH=$((CHARS * CHAR_WIDTH))

eval "$(xdotool getmouselocation --shell)"
X_POS=$((X - WIN_WIDTH / 2))
Y_POS=$Y

dzen2 \
    -x "$X_POS" \
    -y "$((Y_POS + PANEL_HEIGHT))" \
    -w "$WIN_WIDTH" \
	-l "$LINES" \
    -p \
    -e "onstart=uncollapse;button1=ungrabkeys,exit;onexit=exec:rm $LCK" < "$TMP" &

echo $! > "$LCK"

Dzen2 font and colors can be set in ~/.Xresources:

dzen2.font:         -*-terminus-*-*-normal-*-14-*-*-*-*-*-*-u
dzen2.foreground:   #cac0b7
dzen2.background:   #111111

Run xrdb ~/.Xresources for changes take effect.

Status bar

Window titles

Bspwm integration

Status

Tray icons

Dropdown info