---
name: "lemonbar"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "lemonbar"
version: "1.5-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/lemonbar"
---

# lemonbar(1)

Featherweight lemon-scented bar

## NAME

lemonbar - Featherweight lemon-scented bar

## SYNOPSIS

*lemonbar* \[-h \| -g *width***x***height***+***x***+***y* \| -o \| -b \| -d \| -f *font* \| -p \| -n *name* \| -u *pixel* \| -B *color* \| -F *color* \| -U *color*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**lemonbar** (formerly known as **bar**) is a lightweight statusbar based on XCB. Provides full UTF-8 support, basic formatting, RandR and Xinerama support and EWMH compliance without wasting your precious memory.

## INPUT

The data to be parsed is read from the standard input, parsing and printing the input data are delayed until a newline is found.

## OPTIONS

- **-h**

  Display the help and exit.

- **-g** *width***x***height***+***x***+***y*

  Set the window geometry. If a parameter is omitted it's filled with the default value. If the *y* parameter is specified along with the **-b** switch then the position is relative to the bottom of the screen.

- **-o** *name*

  Set next output to *name*. May be used multiple times; order is significant. If any **-o** options are given, only **-o** specified monitors will be used. Invalid output names are silently ignored. (only supported on randr configurations at this time)

- **-b**

  Dock the bar at the bottom of the screen.

- **-d**

  Force docking without asking the window manager. This is needed if the window manager isn't EWMH compliant.

- **-f** *font*

  Specifies a font to use. Can be used multiple times to load more than a single font.

- **-p**

  Make the bar permanent, don't exit after the standard input is closed.

- **-n** *name*

  Set the WM\_NAME atom value for the bar.

- **-u** *pixel*

  Sets the underline width in pixels. The default is 1.

- **-B** *color*

  Set the background color of the bar. *color* must be specified in the hex format (#aarrggbb, #rrggbb, #rgb). If no compositor such as compton or xcompmgr is running the alpha channel is silently ignored.

- **-F** *color*

  Set the foreground color of the bar. Accepts the same color formats as **-B**.

- **-U** *color*

  Set the underline color of the bar. Accepts the same color formats as **-B**.

## FORMATTING

lemonbar provides a screenrc-inspired formatting syntax to allow full customization at runtime. Every formatting block is opened with `"%{"` and closed by `"}"` and accepts the following commands, the parser tries its best to handle malformed input. Use `"%%"` to get a literal percent sign (`"%"`).

- **R**

  Swap the current background and foreground colors.

- **l**

  Aligns the following text to the left side of the screen.

- **c**

  Aligns the following text to the center of the screen.

- **r**

  Aligns the following text to the right side of the screen.

- **O***width*

  Offset the current position by *width* pixels in the alignment direction.

- **B***color*

  Set the text background color. The parameter *color* can be *-* or a color in one of the formats mentioned before. The special value *-* resets the color to the default one.

- **F***color*

  Set the text foreground color. The parameter *color* can be *-* or a color in one of the formats mentioned before. The special value *-* resets the color to the default one.

- **T***index*

  Set the font used to draw the following text. The parameter *index* can either be *-* or the 1-based index of the slot which contains the desired font. If the parameter is *-* lemonbar resets to the normal behavior (matching the first font that can be used for the character). If the selected font can't be used to draw a character, lemonbar will fall back to normal behavior for that character

- **U***color*

  Set the text underline color. The parameter *color* can be *-* or a color in one of the formats mentioned before. The special value *-* resets the color to the default one.

- **A***button*:*command*:

  Create a clickable area starting from the current position, when the area is clicked *command* is printed on stdout. The area is closed when a **A** token, not followed by : is encountered.

  Eg. *%{A:reboot:} Click here to reboot %{A}*

  The *button* field is optional, it defaults to the left button, and it's a number ranging from 1 to 5 which maps to the left, middle, right, scroll up and scroll down movements. Your mileage may vary.

  Nested clickable areas can trigger different commands.

  Eg. *%{A:reboot:}%{A3:halt:} Left click to reboot, right click to shutdown %{A}%{A}*

- **S***dir*

  Change the monitor the bar is rendered to. *dir* can be either

  - **+**/**-**

    Next/previous monitor.

  - **f**/**l**

    First/last monitor.

  - *0-9*

    Nth monitor.

  - *n***NAME**

    Named monitor. Eg. *%{SnHDMI-0} This text will show up on the HDMI-0 output*

**Attribute modifiers**

- **+***attribute*

  Set the attribute *attribute* for the following text.

- **-***attribute*

  Unset the attribute *attribute* for the following text.

- **!***attribute*

  Toggle the attribute *attribute* for the following text.

Where *attribute* is one of the following

- **o**

  Draw a line over the text.

- **u**

  Draw a line under the text.

## OUTPUT

Clicking on an area makes lemonbar output the command to stdout, followed by a newline, allowing the user to pipe it into a script, execute it or simply ignore it. Simple and powerful, that's it.

## WWW

git repository \<https://github.com/LemonBoy/bar\>

## AUTHOR

2012-2020 (C) The Lemon Man

Xinerama support was kindly contributed by Stebalien

RandR support was kindly contributed by jvvv

Clickable areas support was heavily based off u-ra contribution