Status Bar Guide
Status Bar Guide
Introduction
The status bar in your dwm environment provides essential information about your system and workspace. It consists of two sections: the Workspace/ Tags indicator on the left and various system status notifiers, including the date, volume, music player status, local weather if available, and system tray on the right.
Workspace/Tags Indicator
To the left of the status bar, you’ll find the numbers representing your current workspace/tag(s) And your dwm stacking layout. Each workspace/tag corresponds to a specific set of applications or tasks. You can switch between workspaces/tags using keyboard shortcuts configured in your dwm configuration file Mod + Number. And you can Display multiple Tags in the same time by pressing Mod + Ctrl + [Numbers Of Tags]
System Status Notifiers
On the right side of the status bar, you’ll find various modules that display system status information. These modules are implemented as scripts located in ~/.local/bin/statusbar/. Each script is responsible for retrieving and displaying specific system information, such as Battery status, CPU usage, Memory usage, and Network status.
System Tray
The system tray, located on the right side of the status bar, provides a space for displaying icons representing running background applications and system utilities. These icons may include indicators for network connectivity, audio volume control, battery status, and notifications from running applications. That contains an GUI
Customization
You can customize the behavior and appearance of the status bar by modifying the scripts located in ~/.local/bin/statusbar/. These scripts are written in shell scripting language and can be edited to display additional information or customize the layout of the status bar.
Dwmblocks Configuration
The status bar is generated by the program dwmblocks, which reads configuration from ~/.local/src/dwmblocks-flexipatch/config.h. You can edit this configuration file to specify which scripts/commands you want dwmblocks to display in the status bar. Additionally, you can modify the source code of dwmblocks to customize its behavior further.You can Add / Change / Remove modules from .local/src/dwmblocks/config.h you can accses it using Mod + Shift + C and selecting dwmblocks and selecting Config.h
//
Modify
this
file
to
change
what
commands
output
to
your
statusbar,
and
recompile
using
the
make
command.
static
const
Block
blocks[]
=
{
/*Icon*/
/
*
Command
*
/
/
*
Update
Interval
*
/
/
*
Update
Signal
*
/
{
""
,
"
cat /tmp/recordingicon 2>/dev/null
"
,
0
,
9
},
{
""
,
"
sb-tasks
"
,
10
,
26
},
{
""
,
"
sb-camera
"
,
3
,
27
},
{
""
,
"
sb-nettraf
"
,
1
,
16
},
{
" "
,
"
sb-clock
"
,
60
,
1
},
{
""
,
"
sb-volume
"
,
0
,
10
},
{
""
,
"
sb-bluetooth
"
,
3
,
11
},
{
""
,
"
sb-internet
"
,
5
,
4
},
{
""
,
"
sb-eth
"
,
5
,
14
},
{
""
,
"
sb-battery
"
,
5
,
3
},
{
" "
,
"
sb-kbselect
"
,0,
30
}
};
Additionally, you can customize the behavior of individual modules by editing their respective scripts. For example, you can modify the weather module to display weather information for your location or customize the music player module to support your preferred music player application. and you can always just hit Mod+ b to hide the status bar.
Interactivity
You can interact with the status bar modules by clicking on them with the mouse. Shift + Left clicking on a module will open the corresponding script in a text editor, allowing you to inspect and modify its code. Right clicking on a module will display a context menu with options to perform specific actions related to that module.
Conclusion
The status bar in your dwm environment provides essential system information and workspace management functionality. By understanding how it works and customizing its configuration, you can tailor it to suit your preferences and workflow.