DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / waybar / waybar-custom.5.en
waybar-custom(5) File Formats Manual waybar-custom(5)

waybar - custom module

The custom module displays either the output of a script or static text. To display static text, specify only the format field.

Addressed by custom/<name>

exec:
typeof: string
The path to the script, which should be executed.

exec-if:
typeof: string
The path to a script, which determines if the script in exec should be executed.

exec will be executed if the exit code of exec-if equals 0.

exec-on-event:
typeof: bool
default: true
If an event command is set (e.g. on-click or on-scroll-up) then re-execute the script after

executing the event command.

return-type:
typeof: string
See return-type

interval:
typeof: integer
The interval (in seconds) in which the information gets polled.

Use once if you want to execute the module only on startup. You can update it manually with a signal. If no interval is defined, it is assumed that the out script loops it self.

restart-interval:
typeof: integer
The restart interval (in seconds).

Can't be used with the interval option, so only with continuous scripts. Once the script exit, it'll be re-executed after the restart-interval.

signal:
typeof: integer
The signal number used to update the module.

The number is valid between 1 and N, where SIGRTMIN+N = SIGRTMAX.

format:
typeof: string
default: {}
The format, how information should be displayed. On {} data gets inserted.

format-icons:
typeof: array
Based on the set percentage, the corresponding icon gets selected. The order is low to high.

rotate:
typeof: integer
Positive value to rotate the text label.

max-length:
typeof: integer
The maximum length in character the module should display.

min-length:
typeof: integer
The minimum length in characters the module should take up.

align:
typeof: float
The alignment of the text, where 0 is left-aligned and 1 is right-aligned. If the module is rotated, it will follow the flow of the text.

on-click:
typeof: string
Command to execute when clicked on the module.

on-click-middle:
typeof: string
Command to execute when middle-clicked on the module using mousewheel.

on-click-right:
typeof: string
Command to execute when you right clicked on the module.

on-update:
typeof: string
Command to execute when the module is updated.

on-scroll-up:
typeof: string
Command to execute when scrolling up on the module.

on-scroll-down:
typeof: string
Command to execute when scrolling down on the module.

smooth-scrolling-threshold:
typeof: double
Threshold to be used when scrolling.

tooltip:
typeof: bool
default: true
Option to disable tooltip on hover.

escape:
typeof: bool
default: false
Option to enable escaping of script output.

When return-type is set to json, Waybar expects the exec-script to output its data in JSON format. This should look like this:

{"text": "$text", "tooltip": "$tooltip", "class": "$class", "percentage": $percentage }

The class parameter also accepts an array of strings.

If nothing or an invalid option is specified, Waybar expects i3blocks style output. Values are newline separated. This should look like this:

$text\n$tooltip\n$class*

class is a CSS class, to apply different styles in style.css

{}: Output of the script.

{percentage} Percentage which can be set via a json return-type.

{icon}: An icon from 'format-icons' according to percentage.

"custom/spotify": {
	"format": " {}",
	"max-length": 40,
	"interval": 30, // Remove this if your script is endless and write in loop
	"exec": "$HOME/.config/waybar/mediaplayer.sh 2> /dev/null", // Script in resources folder
	"exec-if": "pgrep spotify",
	"return-type": "json"
}

"custom/mpd": {
	"format": "♪ {}",
	//"max-length": 15,
	"interval": 10,
	"exec": "mpc current",
	"exec-if": "pgrep mpd",
	"on-click": "mpc toggle",
	"on-click-right": "sonata"
}

"custom/cmus": {
	"format": "♪ {}",
	//"max-length": 15,
	"interval": 10,
	"exec": "cmus-remote -C "format_print '%a - %t'"", // artist - title
	"exec-if": "pgrep cmus",
	"on-click": "cmus-remote -u",                        //toggle pause
	"escape": true                                       //handle markup entities
}

"custom/pacman": {
	"format": "{}  ",
	"interval": "once",
	"exec": "pacman_packages",
	"on-click": "update-system",
	"signal": 8
}

"custom/pacman": {
	"format": "{}  ",
	"interval": 3600,                     // every hour
	"exec": "checkupdates | wc -l",       // # of updates
	"exec-if": "exit 0",                  // always run; consider advanced run conditions
	"on-click": "termite -e 'sudo pacman -Syu'; pkill -SIGRTMIN+8 waybar", // update system
	"signal": 8
}

You can use the signal and update the number of available packages with pkill -RTMIN+8 waybar.

•#custom-<name>
•#custom-<name>.<class>
•<class> can be set by the script. For more information see return-type
2023-02-28