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<h1 class="post-title"><a href="https://paulwilde.uk/ponderings/wm-tools/">wm_tools</a></h1>
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<span class="post-date">
2022-05-08
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:: tags:
<a class="post-tag" href="https://paulwilde.uk/tags/development/">#development</a>
<a class="post-tag" href="https://paulwilde.uk/tags/nim/">#nim</a>
<a class="post-tag" href="https://paulwilde.uk/tags/tools/">#tools</a>
<a class="post-tag" href="https://paulwilde.uk/tags/window-manager-tools/">#window manager tools</a></span>
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<a href="https://codeberg.org/pswilde/wm_tools" target="_blank">source code</a>
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<h1 id="a-selection-of-information-output-tools-for-dmenu">A selection of information output tools for dmenu</h1>
<p>These are a selection of independant tools for displaying various information
about system status in dmenu. Some of them i.e. <code>volume</code> have options (up, down, mute...)
which are selectable options in dmenu.</p>
<span id="continue-reading"></span><h2 id="tools">Tools</h2>
<ul>
<li><code>pingclock</code> performs a single <code>ping</code> to a server and returns the response time</li>
<li><code>battery</code> shows the current battery level</li>
<li><code>brightness</code> shows the current backlight level and gives options to adjust it</li>
<li><code>volume</code> shows the current volume level and gives options to adjust and manage it</li>
<li><code>date</code> shows the date</li>
<li><code>fuzzytime</code> shows the fuzzytime clock</li>
<li><code>wlan</code> shows the state of the wireless network interface. SSID connected to and signal level.</li>
<li><code>nic</code> shows the status and/or the ip address of the network interface card</li>
<li><code>temperature</code> shows the current CPU temperature</li>
<li><code>notes</code> a simple one liner note taking tool, displaying notes in <code>dmenu</code>/<code>rofi</code></li>
</ul>
<p>The next two do not work with <code>rofi</code> unless you have <code>alias dmenu=rofi</code> set, but they're pretty nice tools</p>
<ul>
<li><code>passmenu_wrapper</code> a wrapper for passmenu. It basically just styles <code>passmenu</code> with no other features</li>
<li><code>command_wrapper</code> inspired by passmenu_wrapper, a basic tool to run other <code>dmenu</code> related tools with uniform styling.
<ul>
<li>For example: <code>dmenu_run</code>, <code>clipmenu</code>, <code>passmenu</code> etc.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="example-in-dmenu">Example in <code>dmenu</code>:</h3>
<p><img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/31094984/167123173-ee8092a2-d5ab-47b4-b207-ced328072cc0.gif" alt="dmenu_tools" /></p>
<h3 id="example-of-command-wrapper-with-clipmenu">Example of <code>command_wrapper</code> with <code>clipmenu</code></h3>
<p><img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/31094984/167122436-eea0be88-a929-46e8-9b4d-cb677dcb129c.gif" alt="command_wrap" /></p>
<h2 id="how-to-compile">How to compile</h2>
<p>There are some configuration variables explicit to me, you'll need to change them for you for them to be useful I imagine.<br />
Configuration variables are compile - there are no config files or runtime parameters (except for "rofi")</p>
<p>Each tool is compiled separately, for example:</p>
<pre data-lang="sh" style="background-color:#212121;color:#eeffff;" class="language-sh "><code class="language-sh" data-lang="sh"><span style="color:#82aaff;">nim c pingclock
</span></code></pre>
<p>and then run with</p>
<pre data-lang="sh" style="background-color:#212121;color:#eeffff;" class="language-sh "><code class="language-sh" data-lang="sh"><span style="color:#82aaff;">./pingclock
</span><span style="font-style:italic;color:#4a4a4a;"># or
</span><span style="color:#82aaff;">./pingclock rofi
</span></code></pre>
<h2 id="how-to-use">How to use</h2>
<p>Personally, I have these bound to key combinations in i3.
In fact, I have a seperate <code>bindsym</code> mode in which all these
tools are accessible i.e. <code>$mod+i</code> to get to "info" mode then <code>p</code> to show pingclock.<br />
It's completely up to you how to run them, they're just simple CLI tools really.</p>
<h3 id="you-can-also-set-the-volume-and-brightness-levels-by-typing-a-numeric-figure-into-the-dmenu-rofi-input-box">You can also set the volume and brightness levels by typing a numeric figure into the dmenu/rofi input box</h3>
<h2 id="dependencies">Dependencies</h2>
<ul>
<li><code>dmenu</code> or <code>rofi</code></li>
<li><code>yad</code> for calendar</li>
<li><code>passmenu</code> for passmenu_wrapper</li>
<li>basically any tool that's used to gather the information.</li>
<li>"tools" for audio etc. (<code>pamixer</code>, <code>ncpamixer</code>, etc.) can be set in the source</li>
</ul>
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