Polybar is an exceptional and customizable status bar for Linux desktops, designed to bring important information to your fingertips while enhancing your screen space. Unlike other desktop customization tools, Polybar is lightweight, fast, and user-friendly, allowing users to quickly set up their desired layouts without needing advanced shell scripting knowledge.
Polybar is a versatile panel that can be placed at the top or bottom of the screen, showcasing key information such as workspaces, system resource usage, network status, battery levels, and more. This tool shines particularly for users of tiling window managers—like i3 and bspwm—where built-in status bars may be minimal or non-existent. However, it’s also compatible with any X11-based Linux environment, making it a universal solution for enhancing desktops.
Polybar is easily accessible and can be installed through the official package repositories in most major Linux distributions. For instance, on Ubuntu, installation can be completed using:
sudo apt install polybarFor Debian users, Polybar might require enabling backports, while Arch users can simply utilize the community repository. Once installed, users can run the Polybar command in the terminal to see a basic bar configuration with pre-configured modules.
For those wishing to run Polybar automatically upon login, it can be added to the startup applications list on traditional desktop environments or integrated into i3 configurations for window manager setups.
The customization of Polybar is one of its most appealing features. Users can modify its appearance and functionality by editing a simple configuration file written in INI format. This file is divided into sections allowing for easy theming and module selection.
To start customizing, you can create your own user configuration by copying the default one. A basic configuration will look like this:
[bar/mybar]monitor = primarywidth = 100%height = 28background = ${colors.background}foreground = ${colors.foreground}font-0 = "FiraCode Nerd Font:size=10"modules-left = workspaces volumeEach module listed has its own section, representing various widgets such as a clock or volume indicator. Theming options include colors, fonts, spacing, and interactivity—modules can respond to clicks and scrolling actions, allowing for user controls directly from the bar.
Polybar also supports custom scripts to run external commands. For example, users can create a script to check for system updates and display the output in the bar. This adaptability extends Polybar’s capability beyond basic status reporting, allowing users to monitor weather updates, stock prices, or real-time Spotify information right from their desktop.
Polybar makes it evident that Linux users who value customization can significantly enhance their workspace and efficiency, allowing them to create a desktop environment that is uniquely tailored to their needs and preferences.
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