A hackable Swaybar generator, written and configured with Guile Scheme.

cd gubar/
guix shell
autoreconf -vif && ./configure
./pre-inst-env gubar

Gubar is available in the main Guix channel.

guix package -i gubar

The repository includes the package manifest for manual installation with Guix, useful for hacking on gubar.

cd gubar/
guix package -f guix.scm

• Guile 3
• guile-fibers
• guile-json

Once gubar is installed, add the following to your Sway config:

bar {
    ...
    status_command gubar
    ...

Gubar will look for a config file in ~/.config/gubar/config.scm before falling back to the default config, which is just the system time.

The config.scm file must return a list of gublocks in the order in which you want them displayed, from left to right. You may use the bundled blocks in (blocks/)[./src/gubar/blocks/] or create your own using the helper procedure gublocks that exists in the gubar gublock module.

A gublock is the fundamental building block of Gubar.

(gublock 
    #:block [block] 
    #:interval [interval]
    #:procedure [procedure]
    #:click-handler [click-handler]
    #:signal [signal]
    #:event-source [event-source])

The effects of the keys are as follows:

All keys are optional, so the most basic block with no text at all is (gublock). Here's a block that displays the number of seconds it has been active:

(gublock
 #:interval 1 ; update each second
 #:procedure
 (let ((counter 0))
   (lambda (block)
     (set! counter (+ counter 1))
     (set-block-full-text! block (number->string counter))
     block)))

And here's a block that shows a random number every time you click it:

(gublock
 #:block (("full_text" . "Click me!")
          ("name" . "randomizer"))
 #:click-handler
 (lambda (_ block)
   (set-block-full-text! block (number->string (random 1000000)))
   block))

(use-modules (gubar gublock)
             (gubar swaybar-protocol)
             (gubar blocks label)
             (gubar blocks xkb-layout)
             (gubar blocks network-manager)
             (gubar blocks brightness)
             (gubar blocks volume-pipewire)
             (gubar blocks battery)
             (gubar blocks date-time))

(list
 (label "some text")
 (xkb-layout #:alias-pairs '((0 . "lang1") (1 . "lang2")))
 (network-manager #:ssid #t)
 (brightness #:nerd-icons #t)
 (volume-pipewire)
 (battery #:nerd-icons #t)
 (date-time #:format "%a %b %d %Y %-I:%M %p" #:interval 'persistent))

For the modules that require signals:

# Volume control
bindsym --locked  XF86AudioMute exec pactl set-sink-mute @DEFAULT_SINK@ toggle
bindsym --release XF86AudioMute exec pkill -SIGRTMIN+2 gubar
bindsym --locked  XF86AudioLowerVolume exec pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ -5%
bindsym --release XF86AudioLowerVolume exec pkill -SIGRTMIN+2 gubar
bindsym --locked  XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ +5%
bindsym --release XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec pkill -SIGRTMIN+2 gubar

# Brightness control
bindsym --locked  XF86MonBrightnessDown exec brightnessctl set 5%-
bindsym --release XF86MonBrightnessDown exec pkill -SIGRTMIN+4 gubar
bindsym --locked  XF86MonBrightnessUp   exec brightnessctl set 5%+
bindsym --release XF86MonBrightnessUp   exec pkill -SIGRTMIN+4 gubar

# Switch layout
bindsym --release $mod+Control_R exec swaymsg input type:keyboard \
                                      xkb_switch_layout next && \
                                      pkill -SIGRTMIN+3 gubar

Bar declaration:

bar {
    ...
    status_command gubar
    ...

This project uses Guile Hall to generate the files necessary for the GNU Build System. If you are contributing new source files, e.g., new gublock definitions, the files must be added to hall.scm in the (files (libraries ... section and then regenerated as follows.

# Rebuild GNU Build System files
hall build -xf

• Make configuration more ergonomic with some kind of syntax for defining blocks, instead of having to use assoc lists.
• Try to use channels to send click updates to a block instead of finding the block and updating manually (maybe)
• Better error handling or assertions
• Fix guix.scm to install with gnu-build-system so that we can install the script as a program with default configs, docs, etc.