[−][src]Crate cnx

A simple X11 status bar for use with simple WMs.

Cnx is written to be customisable, simple and fast. Where possible, it prefers to asynchronously wait for changes in the underlying data sources (and uses mio/tokio to achieve this), rather than periodically calling out to external programs.

How to use

Cnx is a library that allows you to make your own status bar.

In normal usage, you will create a new binary project that relies on the cnx crate, and customize it through options passed to the main Cnx object and its widgets. (It's inspired by QTile and dwm, in that the configuration is done entirely in code, allowing greater extensibility without needing complex configuration handling).

An simple example of a binary using Cnx is:

#[macro_use]
extern crate cnx;

use cnx::*;
use cnx::text::*;
use cnx::widgets::*;

fn main() -> Result<()> {
    let attr = Attributes {
        font: Font::new("SourceCodePro 21"),
        fg_color: Color::white(),
        bg_color: None,
        padding: Padding::new(8.0, 8.0, 0.0, 0.0),
    };

    let mut cnx = Cnx::new(Position::Top)?;
    cnx_add_widget!(cnx, ActiveWindowTitle::new(&cnx, attr.clone()));
    cnx_add_widget!(cnx, Clock::new(&cnx, attr.clone()));
    Ok(cnx.run()?)
}

A more complex example is given in src/bin/cnx.rs alongside the project. (This is the default [bin] target for the crate, so you could use it by either executing cargo run from the crate root, or even running cargo install cnx; cnx. However, neither of these are recommended as options for customizing Cnx are then limited).

Before running Cnx, you'll need to make sure your system has the required dependencies, which are described in the README.

Built-in widgets

There are currently these widgets available:

  • Active Window Title — Shows the title (EWMH's _NET_WM_NAME) for the currently focused window (EWMH's _NEW_ACTIVE_WINDOW).
  • Pager — Shows the WM's workspaces/groups, highlighting whichever is currently active. (Uses EWMH's _NET_DESKTOP_NAMES, _NET_NUMBER_OF_DESKTOPS and _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP).
  • Sensors — Periodically parses and displays the output of the lm_sensors utility, allowing CPU temperature to be displayed.
  • Volume — Uses alsa-lib to show the current volume/mute status of the default output device. (Disable by removing default feature volume-control).
  • Battery — Uses /sys/class/power_supply/ to show details on the remaining battery and charge status.
  • Clock — Shows the time.

Dependencies

In addition to the Rust dependencies in Cargo.toml, Cnx also depends on these system libraries:

  • xcb-util: xcb-ewmh / xcb-icccm / xcb-keysyms
  • x11-xcb
  • pango
  • cairo
  • pangocairo

Some widgets have additional dependencies:

Creating new widgets

Cnx is designed such that thirdparty widgets can be written in external crates and used with the main Cnx instance. However, this API is currently very unstable and isn't recommended.

The adventurous may choose to ignore this warning and look into the documentation of the Widget trait. The built-in widgets should give you some examples on which to base your work.

Re-exports

pub use crate::widgets::Widget;

Modules

text
widgets

Built-in widgets

Macros

cnx_add_widget

Adds a Widget to a Cnx instance.

Structs

Cnx

The main object, used to instantiate an instance of Cnx.

Enums

Position

An enum specifying the position of the Cnx bar.

Type Definitions

Result