XMonad.Hooks.DynamicLog

xmonad calls the logHook with every internal state update, which is useful for (among other things) outputting status information to an external status bar program such as xmobar or dzen. DynamicLog provides several drop-in logHooks for this purpose, as well as flexible tools for specifying your own formatting.

Usage

You can use this module with the following in your ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs:

    import XMonad
    import XMonad.Hooks.DynamicLog

If you just want a quick-and-dirty status bar with zero effort, try the xmobar or dzen functions:

 main = xmonad =<< xmobar myConfig

 myConfig = defaultConfig { ... }

There is also statusBar if you'd like to use another status bar, or would like to use different formatting options. The xmobar, dzen, and statusBar functions are preferred over the other options listed below, as they take care of all the necessary plumbing -- no shell scripting required!

Alternatively, you can choose among several default status bar formats (dynamicLog or dynamicLogXinerama) by simply setting your logHook to the appropriate function, for instance:

 main = xmonad $ defaultConfig {
    ...
    logHook = dynamicLog
    ...
  }

For more flexibility, you can also use dynamicLogWithPP and supply your own pretty-printing format (by either defining one from scratch, or customizing one of the provided examples). For example:

    -- use sjanssen's pretty-printer format, but with the sections
    -- in reverse
    logHook = dynamicLogWithPP $ sjanssenPP { ppOrder = reverse }

Note that setting the logHook only sets up xmonad's output; you are responsible for starting your own status bar program (e.g. dzen or xmobar) and making sure xmonad's output is piped into it appropriately, either by putting it in your .xsession or similar file, or by using spawnPipe in your main function, for example:

 import XMonad.Util.Run   -- for spawnPipe and hPutStrLn

 main = do
     h <- spawnPipe "xmobar -options -foo -bar"
     xmonad $ defaultConfig {
       ...
       logHook = dynamicLogWithPP $ defaultPP { ppOutput = hPutStrLn h }

If you use spawnPipe, be sure to redefine the ppOutput field of your pretty-printer as in the example above; by default the status will be printed to stdout rather than the pipe you create.

Even if you don't use a statusbar, you can still use dynamicLogString to show on-screen notifications in response to some events. For example, to show the current layout when it changes, you could make a keybinding to cycle the layout and display the current status:

    , ((mod1Mask, xK_a     ), sendMessage NextLayout >> (dynamicLogString myPP >>= \d->spawn $"xmessage "++d))

Drop-in loggers

dzen :: LayoutClass l Window => XConfig l -> IO (XConfig (ModifiedLayout AvoidStruts l))

Run xmonad with a dzen status bar set to some nice defaults.

 main = xmonad =<< dzen myConfig

 myConfig = defaultConfig { ... }

The intent is that the above config file should provide a nice status bar with minimal effort.

If you wish to customize the status bar format at all, you'll have to use the statusBar function instead.

The binding uses the XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks module to automatically handle screen placement for dzen, and enables 'mod-b' for toggling the menu bar.

xmobar :: LayoutClass l Window => XConfig l -> IO (XConfig (ModifiedLayout AvoidStruts l))

Run xmonad with a xmobar status bar set to some nice defaults.

 main = xmonad =<< xmobar myConfig

 myConfig = defaultConfig { ... }

This works pretty much the same as dzen function above.

statusBar

Arguments

:: LayoutClass l Window

=> String

the command line to launch the status bar

-> PP

the pretty printing options

-> (XConfig Layout -> (KeyMask, KeySym))

the desired key binding to toggle bar visibility

-> XConfig l

the base config

-> IO (XConfig (ModifiedLayout AvoidStruts l))

Modifies the given base configuration to launch the given status bar, send status information to that bar, and allocate space on the screen edges for the bar.

dynamicLog :: X ()

An example log hook, which prints status information to stdout in the default format:

 1 2 [3] 4 7 : full : title

That is, the currently populated workspaces, the current workspace layout, and the title of the focused window.

To customize the output format, see dynamicLogWithPP.

dynamicLogXinerama :: X ()

Workspace logger with a format designed for Xinerama:

 [1 9 3] 2 7

where 1, 9, and 3 are the workspaces on screens 1, 2 and 3, respectively, and 2 and 7 are non-visible, non-empty workspaces.

Unfortunately, at the present time, the current layout and window title are not shown, and there is no way to incorporate the xinerama workspace format shown above with dynamicLogWithPP. Hopefully this will change soon.

Build your own formatter

dynamicLogWithPP :: PP -> X ()

Format the current status using the supplied pretty-printing format, and write it to stdout.

dynamicLogString :: PP -> X String

The same as dynamicLogWithPP, except it simply returns the status as a formatted string without actually printing it to stdout, to allow for further processing, or use in some application other than a status bar.

data PP

The PP type allows the user to customize the formatting of status information.

Constructors

PP

Fields

ppCurrent :: WorkspaceId -> String

how to print the tag of the currently focused workspace

ppVisible :: WorkspaceId -> String

how to print tags of visible but not focused workspaces (xinerama only)

ppHidden :: WorkspaceId -> String

how to print tags of hidden workspaces which contain windows

ppHiddenNoWindows :: WorkspaceId -> String

how to print tags of empty hidden workspaces

ppUrgent :: WorkspaceId -> String

format to be applied to tags of urgent workspaces. NOTE that ppUrgent is applied in addition to ppHidden!

ppSep :: String

separator to use between different log sections (window name, layout, workspaces)

ppWsSep :: String

separator to use between workspace tags

ppTitle :: String -> String

window title format

ppLayout :: String -> String

layout name format

ppOrder :: [String] -> [String]

how to order the different log sections. By default, this function receives a list with three formatted strings, representing the workspaces, the layout, and the current window title, respectively. If you have specified any extra loggers in ppExtras, their output will also be appended to the list. To get them in the reverse order, you can just use ppOrder = reverse. If you don't want to display the current layout, you could use something like ppOrder = \(ws:_:t:_) -> [ws,t], and so on.

ppSort :: X ([WindowSpace] -> [WindowSpace])

how to sort the workspaces. See XMonad.Util.WorkspaceCompare for some useful sorts.

ppExtras :: [X (Maybe String)]

loggers for generating extra information such as time and date, system load, battery status, and so on. See XMonad.Util.Loggers for examples, or create your own!

ppOutput :: String -> IO ()

applied to the entire formatted string in order to output it. Can be used to specify an alternative output method (e.g. write to a pipe instead of stdout), and/or to perform some last-minute formatting.

defaultPP :: PP

The default pretty printing options, as seen in dynamicLog.

Example formatters

dzenPP :: PP

Settings to emulate dwm's statusbar, dzen only. Uses dzenStrip in ppUrgent.

xmobarPP :: PP

Some nice xmobar defaults.

sjanssenPP :: PP

The options that sjanssen likes to use with xmobar, as an example. Note the use of xmobarColor and the record update on defaultPP.

byorgeyPP :: PP

The options that byorgey likes to use with dzen, as another example.

Formatting utilities

wrap

Arguments

:: String

left delimiter

-> String

right delimiter

-> String

output string

-> String

Wrap a string in delimiters, unless it is empty.

pad :: String -> String

Pad a string with a leading and trailing space.

trim :: String -> String

Trim leading and trailing whitespace from a string.

shorten :: Int -> String -> String

Limit a string to a certain length, adding ... if truncated.

xmobarColor

Arguments

:: String

foreground color: a color name, or #rrggbb format

-> String

background color

-> String

output string

-> String

Use xmobar escape codes to output a string with given foreground and background colors.

xmobarStrip :: String -> String

Strip xmobar markup. Useful to remove ppHidden color from ppUrgent field. For example:

     , ppHidden          = xmobarColor "gray20" "" . wrap "<" ">"
     , ppUrgent          = xmobarColor "dark orange" "" .  xmobarStrip

dzenColor

Arguments

:: String

foreground color: a color name, or #rrggbb format

-> String

background color

-> String

output string

-> String

Use dzen escape codes to output a string with given foreground and background colors.

dzenEscape :: String -> String

Escape any dzen metacharacters.

dzenStrip :: String -> String

Strip dzen formatting or commands. Useful to remove ppHidden formatting in ppUrgent field. For example:

     , ppHidden          = dzenColor "gray20" "" . wrap "(" ")"
     , ppUrgent          = dzenColor "dark orange" "" .  dzenStrip

Internal formatting functions

pprWindowSet :: WorkspaceSort -> [Window] -> PP -> WindowSet -> String

Format the workspace information, given a workspace sorting function, a list of urgent windows, a pretty-printer format, and the current WindowSet.

pprWindowSetXinerama :: WindowSet -> String

To Do

• incorporate dynamicLogXinerama into the PP framework somehow
• add an xmobarEscape function