krowbar

krowbar

Status bar made for BSPWM, focused on ease of use, stability and speed.

Motivation

Generic status bars, while being complex, provide great customization, but I've always wanted a BSPWM bar that just works out-of-the-box.

Features

• Listens to BSPWM events directly via Unix socket, i.e. instant updates
• Focused desktop window count widget, no more getting lost in monocle mode
• Urgent desktop support
• All widgets are written in Rust – forget slow scripts
• First class multi-monitor support
• In-built desktop, node count, active node name, network, cpu, mem, storage, battery, clock widgets

Install

AUR

paru -S krowbar-git

Cargo

cargo install krowbar

note: When installed via cargo you have to ensure krowbar is in PATH before BSPWM launches. Depending on your setup, appending to the PATH in .bashrc/.zshrc might be too late. Alternatively you can use global path, e.g. /home/user/.cargo/bin/krowbar & (which is not as nice).

Prebuilt binary

1. Download the binary from Releases
2. tar -xzvf krowbar-{VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
3. cp krowbar-{VERSION}-x86_64-linux-gnu/krowbar /usr/local/bin/krowbar

Setup

Add this to your bspwmrc:

# Kill krowbar, when restarting BSPWM. Allows for quick iteration, if configuring.
killall krowbar

# Regular BSPWM monitor setup, krowbar will use these as dekstop names
bspc monitor {your-monitor-name} -d web code III IV V VI

# Start krowbar
krowbar &

Config

krowbar looks for a config at XDG_HOME/.config/krowbar/config.toml or path passed via --config.

All values are optional, redefine only those you want to change (see Examples section).

# Default values

[theme]
fg = "#ebc17a"
fg_dim = "#8b7653"
fg_bright = "#f7f7f7"
bg = "#1c1c1c"
bg_dim = "#232323"
ok = "#909d63"
ok_dim = "#5e6547"
alert = "#bc5653"
alert_dim = "#74423f"
warn = "#bc5653"
warn_dim = "#74423f"
bright = "#cacaca"
bright_dim = "#828282"
accent = "#bc5653"

[font]
font_family = "Terminess Nerd Font"
font_size = "16px"
font_weight = "bold"

[bar]
height = 30
position = "Top" # Top or Bottom

Args

Some additional configuration can be done via CLI args:

Status bar for BSPWM

Usage: krowbar [OPTIONS]

Options:
  -d, --debug
          Enable debug logging
      --enabled-widgets <ENABLED_WIDGETS>
          Enabled widgets [possible values: desktops, win-count, focused-name, network, cpu, mem, disk, bat, clock]
      --disabled-widgets <DISABLED_WIDGETS>
          Disabled widgets (takes precedence over --enabled-widgets) [possible values: desktops, win-count, focused-name, network, cpu, mem, disk, bat, clock]
      --no-pad
          Disable automatic padding. Useful when you want to manage padding yourself.
  -c, --config <CONFIG>
          Path to config. Defaults to ~/.config/krowbar/config.toml
  -h, --help
          Print help
  -V, --version
          Print version

Examples

krowbar classic

krowbar mute

[theme]
fg = "#cacaca"
fg_dim = "#828282"

krowbar moss

[theme]
fg = "#909d63"
fg_dim = "#5e6547"
accent = "#ebc17a"

[font]
font_family = "Terminess Nerd Font"
font_size = "12px"
font_weight = "bold"

[bar]
height = 20

krowbar might be for you, if you:

• Skipped on BSPWM, because it has no default status bar
• Are drowning in semi-working configuration
• Need a decently looking, functional status bar while searching for a nice eww config in /r/unixporn
• Always wanted something akin to i3status but for BSPWM