docs/wsbar: update (we have i3bar now, i3-wsbar is just an example)
fixes #735
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docs/wsbar
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docs/wsbar
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@ -1,23 +1,18 @@
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External workspace bars
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=======================
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Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
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May 2010
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Michael Stapelberg <michael@i3wm.org>
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April 2013
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This document describes why the internal workspace bar is minimal and how an
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external workspace bar can be used. It explains the concepts using +i3-wsbar+
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as the reference implementation.
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i3 comes with i3bar by default, a simple bar that is sufficient for most users.
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In case you are unhappy with it, this document explains how to use a different,
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external workspace bar. Note that we do not provide support for external
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programs.
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== Internal and external bars
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The internal workspace bar of i3 is meant to be a reasonable default so that
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you can use i3 without having too much hassle when setting it up. It is quite
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simple and intended to stay this way. So, there is no way to display your own
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information in this bar (unlike dwm, wmii, awesome, …).
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We chose not to implement such a mechanism because that would be duplicating
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already existing functionality of tools such as dzen2, xmobar and similar.
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Instead, you should disable the internal bar and use an external workspace bar
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(which communicates with i3 through its IPC interface).
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simple and intended to stay this way.
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== dock mode
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@ -25,10 +20,10 @@ You typically want to see the same workspace bar on every workspace on a
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specific screen. Also, you don’t want to place the workspace bar somewhere
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in your layout by hand. This is where dock mode comes in: When a program sets
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the appropriate hint (_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DOCK), it will be managed in dock
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mode by i3. That means it will be placed at the bottom of the screen (while
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other edges of the screen are possible in the NetWM standard, this is not yet
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implemented in i3), it will not overlap any other window and it will be on
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every workspace for the specific screen it was placed on initially.
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mode by i3. That means it will be placed at the bottom or top of the screen
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(while other edges of the screen are possible in the NetWM standard, this is
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not yet implemented in i3), it will not overlap any other window and it will be
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on every workspace for the specific screen it was placed on initially.
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== The IPC interface
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@ -37,8 +32,8 @@ provide the bar program with the current workspaces and output (as in VGA-1,
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LVDS-1, …) configuration. In the other direction, the program has to be able
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to switch to specific workspaces.
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By default, the IPC interface is enabled and places its UNIX socket in
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+~/.i3/ipc.sock+.
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By default, the IPC interface is enabled and you can get the path to the socket
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by calling +i3 --get-socketpath+.
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To learn more about the protocol which is used for IPC, see +docs/ipc+.
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@ -49,17 +44,17 @@ external workspace bar implementation needs to make sure that when you change
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the resolution of any of your screens (or enable/disable an output), the bars
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will be adjusted properly.
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== i3-wsbar, the reference implementation
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== i3-wsbar, an example implementation
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Please keep in mind that +i3-wsbar+ is just a reference implementation. It is
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shipped with i3 to have a reasonable default. Thus, +i3-wsbar+ is designed to
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work well with dzen2 and there are no plans to make it more generic.
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+i3-wsbar+ used to be the reference implementation before we had +i3bar+.
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Nowadays, it is not shipped with release tarballs, but you can still get it at
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http://code.stapelberg.de/git/i3/tree/contrib/i3-wsbar
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=== The big picture
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The most common reason to use an external workspace bar is to integrate system
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information such as what +i3status+ provides into the workspace bar (to save
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screen space). So, we have +i3status+ or a similar program, which only provides
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information such as what +i3status+ or +conky+ provide into the workspace bar.
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So, we have +i3status+ or a similar program, which only provides
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text output (formatted in some way). To display this text nicely on the screen,
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there are programs such as dzen2, xmobar and similar. We will stick to dzen2
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from here on. So, we have the output of i3status, which needs to go into dzen2
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@ -89,6 +84,3 @@ To actually get a benefit, you want to give +i3-wsbar+ some input:
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------------------------------------------
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i3status | i3-wsbar -c "dzen2 -x %x -dock"
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------------------------------------------
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It is recommended to place the above command in your i3 configuration file
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to start it automatically with i3.
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