i3bar-river

This is a port of i3bar for wlroots-based window managers. Tags/workspaces are implemented for river, hyprland and niri.

i3bar compatibility

I've tested i3status-rs, bumblebee-status and py3status and everything seems usable.

A list of things that are missing (for now):

• border[_top|_right|_bottom|_left]
• Click events lack some info (IDK if anyone actually relies on x, y, width, etc.)
• Tray icons

Features

• river support (obviously)
• short_text switching is "progressive" (see https://github.com/i3/i3/issues/4113)
• Support for rounded corners
• Show/hide with pkill -SIGUSR1 i3bar-river

Installation

From Source

External dependencies: libpango1.0-dev.

cargo install --locked i3bar-river

Configuration

Add this to the end of your river init script:

riverctl spawn i3bar-river

The configuration file should be stored in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/i3bar-river/config.toml or ~/.config/i3bar-river/config.toml.

The default configuration (every parameter is optional):

# The status generator command.
# Optional: with no status generator the bar will display only tags and layout name.
# command = "your command here"

# Colors
background = "#282828ff"
color = "#ffffffff"
separator = "#9a8a62ff"
tag_fg = "#d79921ff"
tag_bg = "#282828ff"
tag_focused_fg = "#1d2021ff"
tag_focused_bg = "#689d68ff"
tag_urgent_fg = "#282828ff"
tag_urgent_bg = "#cc241dff"
tag_inactive_fg = "#d79921ff"
tag_inactive_bg = "#282828ff"

# The font and various sizes
font = "monospace 10"
height = 24
margin_top = 0
margin_bottom = 0
margin_left = 0
margin_right = 0
separator_width = 2.0
tags_r = 0.0
tags_padding = 25.0
tags_margin = 0.0
blocks_r = 0.0
blocks_overlap = 0.0

# Misc
position = "top" # either "top" or "bottom"
layer = "top" # one of "top", "overlay", "bottom" or "background"
hide_inactive_tags = true
invert_touchpad_scrolling = true
show_tags = true
show_layout_name = true
blend = true # whether tags/blocks colors should blend with bar's background
show_mode = true

# WM-specific options
[wm.river]
max_tag = 9 # Show only the first nine tags

# Per output overrides
# [output.your-output-name]
# right now only "enable" option is available
# enable = false
#
# You can have any number of overrides
# [output.eDP-1]
# enable = false

How progressive short mode and rounded corners work

Some status bar generators (such as i3status-rs) use more than one "json block" per logical block to implement, for example, buttons.

Short text management and corner rounding are performed on per-logical-block basis.

i3bar-river defines a logical block as a continuous series of "json blocks" with the same name. Also, only the last "json block" is allowed to have a non zero (or absent) separator_block_width, all the other "json blocks" should explicitly set it to zero. If you think this definition is not the best one, feel free to open a new github issue.

blocks_overlap option

Sometimes pango lives a gap between "powerline separators" and the blocks (see https://github.com/greshake/i3status-rust/issues/246#issuecomment-1086753440). In this case, you can set blocks_overlap option to number of pixels you want your blocks to overlap. Usually, 1 is a good choice.

Showcase (with i3status-rs)

Native separators

i3bar-river

font = "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font 10"
height = 20
command = "i3status-rs"

i3status-rs

[theme]
theme = "native"
[theme.overrides]
idle_fg = "#ebdbb2"
info_fg = "#458588"
good_fg = "#8ec07c"
warning_fg = "#fabd2f"
critical_fg = "#fb4934"

Powerline separators

i3bar-river

font = "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font 10"
height = 20
command = "i3status-rs"

i3status-rs

[theme]
theme = "slick"

Rounded corners

i3bar-river

font = "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font 10"
height = 20
separator_width = 0
tags_r = 6
blocks_r = 6
command = "i3status-rs"

i3status-rs

[theme]
theme = "slick"
[theme.overrides]
separator = "native"
alternating_tint_bg = "none"
alternating_tint_fg = "none"