# Polybar [](https://travis-ci.org/jaagr/polybar) [](https://github.com/jaagr/polybar/blob/master/LICENSE) A fast and easy-to-use tool for creating status bars. **Polybar** aims to help users build beautiful and highly customizable status bars for their desktop environment, without the need of having a black belt in shell scripting. Here are a few screenshots showing you what it can look like: [](http://i.imgur.com/xvlw9iH.png) [](http://i.imgur.com/cYQOuRr.png) [](http://i.imgur.com/A6spiZZ.png) [](http://i.imgur.com/TY5a5r9.png) If you need help, check out the [Support](SUPPORT.md) page. Please report any issues or bugs you may find by [creating an issue ticket](https://github.com/jaagr/polybar/issues/new) here on GitHub. Make sure you include steps on how to reproduce it. There's also an irc channel available at freenode, cleverly named `#polybar`. ## Table of Contents * [Introduction](#introduction) * [Getting started](#getting-started) * [Dependencies](#dependencies) * [Building from source](#building-from-source) * [Configuration](#configuration) * [Running](#running) * [License](#license) ## Introduction The main purpose of **Polybar** is to help users create awesome status bars. It has built-in functionality to display information about the most commonly used services. Some of the services included so far: - Systray icons - Window title - Playback controls and status display for [MPD](https://www.musicpd.org/) using [libmpdclient](https://www.musicpd.org/libs/libmpdclient/) - [ALSA](http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page) volume controls - Workspace and desktop panel for [bspwm](https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm) and [i3](https://github.com/i3/i3) - Workspace module for [EWMH compliant](https://specifications.freedesktop.org/wm-spec/wm-spec-1.3.html#idm140130320786080) window managers - Keyboard layout and indicator status - CPU and memory load indicator - Battery display - Network connection details - Backlight level - Date and time label - Time-based shell script execution - Command output tailing - User-defined menu tree - Inter-process messaging - And more... [See the wiki for more details](https://github.com/jaagr/polybar/wiki). ## Getting started <a href="https://repology.org/metapackage/polybar"> <img src="https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/polybar.svg" alt="Packaging status" align="right"> </a> If you are using **Arch Linux**, you can install the AUR package [polybar-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/polybar-git/) to get the latest version, or [polybar](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/polybar/) for the latest stable release. If you create a package for any other distribution, please consider contributing the template. If you are using **Void Linux**, you can install [polybar](https://github.com/voidlinux/void-packages/blob/master/srcpkgs/polybar/template) using `xbps-install -S polybar`. If you are using **NixOS**, polybar is available in both the stable and unstable channels and can be installed with the command `nix-env -iA nixos.polybar`. If you are using **Ubuntu**, polybar is available from the [GetDeb](http://www.getdeb.net/app/Polybar) repository. If you are using **Slackware**, polybar is available from the [SlackBuilds](https://slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/desktop/polybar/) repository. If you are using **Source Mage GNU/Linux**, polybar spell is available in test grimoire and can be installed via `cast polybar`. If you are using **openSUSE**, polybar is available from [OBS](https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:sysek/polybar) repository. For now package is only for Tumbleweed. ### Dependencies A compiler with C++14 support ([clang-3.4+](http://llvm.org/releases/download.html), [gcc-5.1+](https://gcc.gnu.org/releases.html)). - cairo - libxcb - python2 - xcb-proto - xcb-util-image - xcb-util-wm - xcb-util-xrm **Optional dependencies:** - xcb-util-cursor *required for the `cursor-click` and `cursor-scroll` settings* **Optional dependencies for extended module support:** - alsa-lib *required by `internal/alsa`* - libpulse *required by `internal/pulseaudio`* - i3-wm *required by `internal/i3`* - jsoncpp *required by `internal/i3`* - libmpdclient *required by `internal/mpd`* - libcurl *required by `internal/github`* - wireless_tools *required by `internal/network`* Find a more complete list on the [dedicated wiki page](https://github.com/jaagr/polybar/wiki/Compiling). ### Building from source Please [report any problems](https://github.com/jaagr/polybar/issues/new) you run into when building the project. ~~~ sh $ git clone --branch 3.1.0 --recursive https://github.com/jaagr/polybar $ mkdir polybar/build $ cd polybar/build $ cmake .. $ sudo make install ~~~ There's also a helper script available in the root folder: ~~~ sh $ ./build.sh ~~~ ### Configuration Details on how to setup and configure the bar and each module have been moved to [the wiki](https://github.com/jaagr/polybar/wiki/Configuration). #### Install the example configuration ~~~ sh $ make userconfig ~~~ #### Launch the example bar ~~~ sh $ polybar example ~~~ ### Running [See the wiki for details on how to run polybar](https://github.com/jaagr/polybar/wiki). ## License Polybar is licensed under the MIT license. [See LICENSE for more information](https://github.com/jaagr/polybar/blob/master/LICENSE).