polybar-dwm-module

polybar-dwm-module is a fork of polybar which implements a dwm module.

Requirements

• dwm with the IPC patch applied
• dwmipcpp C++ client library for communicating with dwm (included as a submodule).
• jsoncpp for polybar and dwmipcpp (required by module).

The dwm-anybar patch is optionally recommended for a better experience. This patch allows dwm to manage polybar and fixes some weird quirks that you may experience without it.

The DWM Module

The dwm module currently supports the following:

• Labels:
  • Display dwm tags
    • Separator label between tags
  • Display the current layout
  • Display the currently focused window title (per monitor)
  • Display label when focused window is floating
• Click Handlers:
  • Tags:
    • Left-click tag to view tag
    • Right-click tag to toggle view on tag
    • Scroll tags to view different tags (with wrapping, reverse scroll, and empty tag scroll)
  • Layout:
    • Left-click to set secondary-layout (specified in config)
    • Right-click to set previous layout
    • Scroll to cycle through layouts (with wrapping and reverse scroll)
• Different formatting for different tag states:
  • Focused: selected tag on selected monitor
  • Unfocused: selected tag on unselected monitor
  • Visible: unselected, but occupied tag on any monitor
  • Urgent: Tag with window that has the urgent hint set
  • Empty: Unselected and unoccupied tags
• The combined power of polybar

How to Install

First, apply all the patches you want on dwm, saving the IPC patch for last.

Optionally, apply the dwm-anybar patch and make sure your config.h contains the following

static const int showbar            = 1;        /* 0 means no bar */
static const int topbar             = 1;        /* 0 means bottom bar */
static const int usealtbar          = 1;        /* 1 means use non-dwm status bar */
static const char *altbarclass = "Polybar";     /* Alternate bar class name */
static const char *altbarcmd  = "$HOME/bar.sh"; /* Alternate bar launch command */

If your polybar is to be displayed on the bottom of the monitor, set topbar to 0.

Next, apply the IPC patch. There will likely be merge conflicts. The IPC patch is mostly additive, so in most conflict cases, you will be keeping both changes.

After applying all your patches, make sure you compile and install dwm

$ sudo make install

Make sure you have jsoncpp installed, and any other requirements from polybar.

Arch linux users can install the polybar-dwm-module package from the AUR.

Otherwise you can clone, make, and install polybar yourself. Follow the on screen prompts in the build.sh script and enable any additional features you want.

$ git clone https://github.com/mihirlad55/polybar-dwm-module
$ cd polybar-dwm-module
$ ./build.sh -d

Configure the bar! You can view /usr/share/doc/polybar/config for a sample config that includes the supported settings for the dwm module.

IF YOU APPLIED THE ANYBAR PATCH, make sure you have override-redirect = false in your polybar config.

IF YOU DID NOT APPLY THE ANYBAR PATCH, make sure you have override-redirect = true in your polybar config. You will have to set the bar height in your dwm's config.h to match polybar's height and make sure showbar is set to 1 in your config.h. Also make sure topbar is set to the correct value based on if your polybar is a bottom/top bar.

Launching Polybar

There are multiple ways to launch polybar. Whatever way you decide to use, make sure polybar launches a few seconds after dwm, else dwm's socket will not be initialized and the module will fail:

Anybar Method

The altbarcmd variable can be set to the bar launch script. When you apply the anybar patch, make sure spawnbar() occurs in the setup() function after setupepoll() and this will ensure that the bar is launched after dwm is ready. Also make sure that the script checks for running bars before launching more, else if dwm is restarted, duplicate bars will be launched.

Hacky Delay Method

In your .xsession script or whatever script launches at startup, add something like the following:

$(sleep 4s && "$HOME/launch-polybar.sh") &

This will start your polybar script after a 4 second delay which should give dwm enough time to initialize before polybar tries to connect to dwm. If this doesn't work, try a longer delay.

Autostart Method

Apply the autostart patch. In your autostart_blocking.sh, add your command to launch polybar.

Sample Module Configuration

...

modules-left = ... dwm ...

...

[module/dwm]
type = internal/dwm
format = <label-tags> <label-layout> <label-floating> <label-title>
; Path to dwm socket (default: /tmp/dwm.sock)
; socket-path = /tmp/dwm.sock

; Left-click to view tag, right-click to toggle tag view
enable-tags-click = false
; Scroll to cycle between available tags
enable-tags-scroll = false
; If true and enable-tags-scroll = true, scrolling will view all tags regardless if occupied
tags-scroll-empty = false
; If true and enable-tags-scroll = true, scrolling will cycle through tags backwards
tags-scroll-reverse = false
; If true and enable-tags-scroll = true, wrap active tag when scrolling
tags-scroll-wrap = false
; Left-click to set secondary layout, right-click to switch to previous layout
enable-layout-click = false
; Scroll to cycle between available layouts
enable-layout-scroll = false
; Wrap when scrolling and reaching beginning/end of layouts
layout-scroll-wrap = false
; Reverse scroll direction
layout-scroll-reverse = false

; If enable-layout-click = true, clicking the layout symbol will switch to this layout
secondary-layout-symbol = [M]

; Separator in between shown tags
; label-separator = |

; Title of currently focused window
; Available tokens:
;   %title%
label-title = %title%
label-title-padding = 2
label-title-foreground = ${colors.primary}
label-title-maxlen = 30

; Symbol of current layout
; Available tokens:
;   %symbol%
label-layout = %symbol%
label-layout-padding = 2
label-layout-foreground = #000
label-layout-background = ${colors.primary}

; Text to show when currently focused window is floating
label-floating = F

; States: focused, unfocused, visible, urgent, empty
; Available tokens:
;   %name%

; focused = Selected tag on focused monitor
label-focused = %name%
label-focused-background = ${colors.background-alt}
label-focused-underline= ${colors.primary}
label-focused-padding = 2

; unfocused = Unselected tag on unselected monitor
label-unfocused = %name%
label-unfocused-padding = 2

; visible = Unselected tag, but occupied tag on any monitor
label-visible = %name%
label-visible-background = ${self.label-focused-background}
label-visible-underline = ${self.label-focused-underline}
label-visible-padding = ${self.label-focused-padding}

; urgent = Unselected tag with window that has urgency hint set
label-urgent = %name%
label-urgent-background = ${colors.alert}
label-urgent-padding = 2

; empty = Unselected and unoccupied tag
; This can be set to an empty string to hide empty tags
label-empty = %name%
label-empty-background = ${colors.primary}
label-empty-padding = 2

You can also take a look at my personal bar configuration which is more representative of the screenshot above.

License

Polybar is licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE for more information.