Everything you need to know about Qtile¶

Getting started¶

Installing Qtile¶

Distro Guides¶

Below are the preferred installation methods for specific distros. If you are running something else, please see Installing From Source.

Installing on Arch Linux¶

Stable versions of Qtile are currently packaged for Arch Linux. To install this package, run:

pacman -S qtile

Please see the ArchWiki for more information on Qtile.

Installing on Fedora¶

Stable versions of Qtile are currently packaged for current versions of Fedora. To install this package, run:

dnf -y install qtile

Installing on Funtoo¶

Latest versions of Qtile are available on Funtoo. To install it, run:

emerge -av x11-wm/qtile

You can also install the development version from GitHub:

echo "x11-wm/qtile-9999 **" >> /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords
emerge -av qtile

Customize¶

You can customize your installation with the following useflags:

dbus
widget-khal-calendar
widget-imap
widget-keyboardkbdd
widget-launchbar
widget-mpd
widget-mpris
widget-wlan

The dbus useflag is enabled by default. Disable it only if you know what it is and know you don’t use/need it.

All widget-* useflags are disabled by default because these widgets require additional dependencies while not everyone will use them. Enable only widgets you need to avoid extra dependencies thanks to these useflags.

Visit Funtoo Qtile documentation for more details on Qtile installation on Funtoo.

Installing on Debian or Ubuntu¶

Note: As of Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa), the package has been outdated and removed from the Ubuntu’s official package list. Users are advised to follow the instructions of Installing From Source.

On other recent Ubuntu (17.04 or greater) and Debian unstable versions, there are Qtile packages available via:

sudo apt-get install qtile

On older versions of Ubuntu (15.10 to 16.10) and Debian 9, the dependencies are available via:

sudo apt-get install python3-xcffib python3-cairocffi

Installing on Slackware¶

Qtile is available on the SlackBuilds.org as:

Package Name	Description
qtile	stable branch (release)

Using slpkg (third party package manager)¶

The easy way to install Qtile is with slpkg. For example:

slpkg -s sbo qtile

Manual installation¶

Download dependencies first and install them. The order in which you need to install is:

pycparser
cffi
futures
python-xcffib
trollius
cairocffi
qtile

Please see the HOWTO for more information on SlackBuild Usage HOWTO.

Installing on FreeBSD¶

Qtile is available via FreeBSD Ports. It can be installed with

pkg install qtile

Installing From Source¶

First, you need to install all of Qtile’s dependencies (although some are optional/not needed depending on your Python version, as noted below).

We aim to always support the last three versions of CPython, the reference Python interpreter. We usually support the latest stable version of PyPy as well. You can check the versions and interpreters we currently run our test suite against in our tox configuration file.

There are not many differences between versions aside from Python features you may or may not be able to use in your config. PyPy should be faster at runtime than any corresponding CPython version under most circumstances, especially for bits of Python code that are run many times. CPython should start up faster than PyPy and has better compatibility for external libraries.

xcffib¶

Qtile uses xcffib as an XCB binding, which has its own instructions for building from source. However, if you’d like to skip building it, you can install its dependencies, you will need libxcb and libffi with the associated headers (libxcb-render0-dev and libffi-dev on Ubuntu), and install it via PyPI:

pip install xcffib

cairocffi¶

Qtile uses cairocffi with XCB support via xcffib. You’ll need libcairo2, the underlying library used by the binding. You should be sure before you install cairocffi that xcffib has been installed, otherwise the needed cairo-xcb bindings will not be built. Once you’ve got the dependencies installed, you can use the latest version on PyPI:

pip install --no-cache-dir cairocffi

pangocairo¶

You’ll also need libpangocairo, which on Ubuntu can be installed via sudo apt-get install libpangocairo-1.0-0. Qtile uses this to provide text rendering (and binds directly to it via cffi with a small in-tree binding).

dbus-next¶

Qtile uses dbus-next to interact with dbus. Qtile will run without this package but certain functionality will be lost (e.g. notifications).

You can install dbus-next from PyPi:

pip install dbus-next

Qtile¶

With the dependencies in place, you can now install qtile:

git clone git://github.com/qtile/qtile.git
cd qtile
pip install .

Stable versions of Qtile can be installed from PyPI:

pip install qtile

As long as the necessary libraries are in place, this can be done at any point, however, it is recommended that you first install xcffib to ensure the cairo-xcb bindings are built (see above).

Wayland¶

Qtile can also be run as a Wayland compositor rather than an X11 window manager. This does not require an X server or xcffib to be installed. Instead Qtile uses pywlroots, a Python binding around the wlroots library, both of which must be installed with the latest release. Be aware that some distributions package outdated versions of wlroots. pywlroots can be installed using pip install as above.

Qtile can then be run either from a TTY, or within an existing X11 or Wayland session where it will run inside a nested window:

qtile start -b wayland

If you want your config file to work with different backends but want some options set differently per backend, something like this may be useful:

from libqtile import qtile

if qtile.core.name == "x11":
    term = "urxvt"
elif qtile.core.name == "wayland":
    term = "foot"

Configuration¶

Qtile is configured in Python. A script (~/.config/qtile/config.py by default) is evaluated, and a small set of configuration variables are pulled from its global namespace.

Configuration lookup order¶

Qtile looks in the following places for a configuration file, in order:

The location specified by the -c argument.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/qtile/config.py, if it is set
~/.config/qtile/config.py
It reads the module libqtile.resources.default_config, included by default with every Qtile installation.

Qtile will try to create the configuration file as a copy of the default config, if it doesn’t exist yet.

Default Configuration¶

The default configuration is invoked when qtile cannot find a configuration file. In addition, if qtile is restarted via qshell, qtile will load the default configuration if the config file it finds has some kind of error in it. The documentation below describes the configuration lookup process, as well as what the key bindings are in the default config.

The default config is not intended to be suitable for all users; it’s mostly just there so qtile does /something/ when fired up, and so that it doesn’t crash and cause you to lose all your work if you reload a bad config.

Key Bindings¶

The mod key for the default config is mod4, which is typically bound to the “Super” keys, which are things like the windows key and the mac command key. The basic operation is:

mod + k or mod + j: switch windows on the current stack
mod + <space>: put focus on the other pane of the stack (when in stack layout)
mod + <tab>: switch layouts
mod + w: close window
mod + <ctrl> + r: restart qtile with new config
mod + <group name>: switch to that group
mod + <shift> + <group name>: send a window to that group
mod + <enter>: start terminal guessed by libqtile.utils.guess_terminal
mod + r: start a little prompt in the bar so users can run arbitrary commands

The default config defines one screen and 8 groups, one for each letter in asdfuiop. It has a basic bottom bar that includes a group box, the current window name, a little text reminder that you’re using the default config, a system tray, and a clock.

The default configuration has several more advanced key combinations, but the above should be enough for basic usage of qtile.

See Keybindings in images for visual keybindings in keyboard layout.

Mouse Bindings¶

By default, holding your mod key and clicking (and holding) a window will allow you to drag it around as a floating window.

Configuration variables¶

A Qtile configuration consists of a file with a bunch of variables in it, which qtile imports and then runs as a Python file to derive its final configuration. The documentation below describes the most common configuration variables; more advanced configuration can be found in the qtile-examples repository, which includes a number of real-world configurations that demonstrate how you can tune Qtile to your liking. (Feel free to issue a pull request to add your own configuration to the mix!)

Lazy objects¶

The lazy.lazy object is a special helper object to specify a command for later execution. This object acts like the root of the object graph, which means that we can specify a key binding command with the same syntax used to call the command through a script or through qtile shell.

Example¶

from libqtile.config import Key
from libqtile.command import lazy

keys = [
    Key(
        ["mod1"], "k",
        lazy.layout.down()
    ),
    Key(
        ["mod1"], "j",
        lazy.layout.up()
    )
]

Lazy functions¶

This is overview of the commonly used functions for the key bindings. These functions can be called from commands on the Qtile object or on another object in the command tree.

Some examples are given below.

General functions¶

function	description
`lazy.spawn("application")`	Run the `application`
`lazy.spawncmd()`	Open command prompt on the bar. See prompt widget.
`lazy.restart()`	Restart Qtile and reload its config. It won’t close your windows
`lazy.shutdown()`	Close the whole Qtile

Group functions¶

function	description
`lazy.next_layout()`	Use next layout on the actual group
`lazy.prev_layout()`	Use previous layout on the actual group
`lazy.screen.next_group()`	Move to the group on the right
`lazy.screen.prev_group()`	Move to the group on the left
`lazy.screen.toggle_group()`	Move to the last visited group
`lazy.group.next_window()`	Switch window focus to next window in group
`lazy.group.prev_window()`	Switch window focus to previous window in group
`lazy.group["group_name"].toscreen()`	Move to the group called `group_name`. Takes an optional `toggle` parameter (defaults to True). If this group is already on the screen, then the group is toggled with last used
`lazy.layout.increase_ratio()`	Increase the space for master window at the expense of slave windows
`lazy.layout.decrease_ratio()`	Decrease the space for master window in the advantage of slave windows

Window functions¶

function	description
`lazy.window.kill()`	Close the focused window
`lazy.layout.next()`	Switch window focus to other pane(s) of stack
`lazy.window.togroup("group_name")`	Move focused window to the group called `group_name`
`lazy.window.toggle_floating()`	Put the focused window to/from floating mode
`lazy.window.toggle_fullscreen()`	Put the focused window to/from fullscreen mode

ScratchPad DropDown functions¶

function	description
`lazy.group["group_name"].dropdown_toggle("name")`	Toggles the visibility of the specified DropDown window. On first use, the configured process is spawned.

User-defined functions¶

function	description
`lazy.function(func, args, *kwargs)`	Calls `func(qtile, args, *kwargs)`. NB. the `qtile` object is automatically passed as the first argument.

Groups¶

A group is a container for a bunch of windows, analogous to workspaces in other window managers. Each client window managed by the window manager belongs to exactly one group. The groups config file variable should be initialized to a list of DGroup objects.

DGroup objects provide several options for group configuration. Groups can be configured to show and hide themselves when they’re not empty, spawn applications for them when they start, automatically acquire certain groups, and various other options.

Example¶

from libqtile.config import Group, Match
groups = [
    Group("a"),
    Group("b"),
    Group("c", matches=[Match(wm_class=["Firefox"])]),
]

# allow mod3+1 through mod3+0 to bind to groups; if you bind your groups
# by hand in your config, you don't need to do this.
from libqtile.dgroups import simple_key_binder
dgroups_key_binder = simple_key_binder("mod3")

Reference¶

Group¶

class libqtile.config.Group(name: str, matches: Optional[List[libqtile.config.Match]] = None, exclusive=False, spawn: Optional[Union[str, List[str]]] = None, layout: Optional[str] = None, layouts: Optional[List] = None, persist=True, init=True, layout_opts=None, screen_affinity=None, position=9223372036854775807, label: Optional[str] = None)[source]¶

Represents a “dynamic” group

These groups can spawn apps, only allow certain Matched windows to be on them, hide when they’re not in use, etc. Groups are identified by their name.

Parameters

name: string: the name of this group
matches: default ``None``: list of Match objects whose windows will be assigned to this group
exclusive: boolean: when other apps are started in this group, should we allow them here or not?
spawn: string or list of strings: this will be exec() d when the group is created, you can pass either a program name or a list of programs to exec()
layout: string: the name of default layout for this group (e.g. ‘max’ or ‘stack’). This is the name specified for a particular layout in config.py or if not defined it defaults in general the class name in all lower case.
layouts: list: the group layouts list overriding global layouts. Use this to define a separate list of layouts for this particular group.
persist: boolean: should this group stay alive with no member windows?
init: boolean: is this group alive when qtile starts?
position int: group position
label: string: the display name of the group. Use this to define a display name other than name of the group. If set to None, the display name is set to the name.

libqtile.dgroups.simple_key_binder(mod, keynames=None)[source]¶: Bind keys to mod+group position or to the keys specified as second argument

Group Matching¶

Match¶

class libqtile.config.Match(title=None, wm_class=None, role=None, wm_type=None, wm_instance_class=None, net_wm_pid=None, func: Optional[Callable[[Union[libqtile.backend.base.Window, libqtile.backend.base.Internal, libqtile.backend.base.Static]], bool]] = None)[source]¶

Match for dynamic groups or auto-floating windows.

It can match by title, wm_class, role, wm_type, wm_instance_class or net_wm_pid.

Match supports both regular expression objects (i.e. the result of re.compile()) or strings (match as an “include”-match). If a window matches all specified values, it is considered a match.

Parameters

title:: matches against the WM_NAME atom (X11) or title (Wayland)
wm_class:: matches against the second string in WM_CLASS atom (X11) or app ID (Wayland)
role:: matches against the WM_ROLE atom (X11 only)
wm_type:: matches against the WM_TYPE atom (X11 only)
wm_instance_class:: matches against the first string in WM_CLASS atom (X11) or app ID (Wayland)
net_wm_pid:: matches against the _NET_WM_PID atom (X11) or PID (Wayland) - (only int allowed for this rule)
func:: delegate the match to the given function, which receives the tested client as argument and must return True if it matches, False otherwise

Rule¶

class libqtile.config.Rule(match, group=None, float=False, intrusive=False, break_on_match=True)[source]¶

How to act on a match

A Rule contains a list of Match objects, and a specification about what to do when any of them is matched.

Parameters

match :: Match object or a list of such associated with this Rule
float :: auto float this window?
intrusive :: override the group’s exclusive setting?
break_on_match :: Should we stop applying rules if this rule is matched?

Example¶

from libqtile.config import Group, ScratchPad, DropDown, Key
from libqtile.command import lazy
groups = [
    ScratchPad("scratchpad", [
        # define a drop down terminal.
        # it is placed in the upper third of screen by default.
        DropDown("term", "urxvt", opacity=0.8),

        # define another terminal exclusively for qshell at different position
        DropDown("qshell", "urxvt -hold -e qshell",
                 x=0.05, y=0.4, width=0.9, height=0.6, opacity=0.9,
                 on_focus_lost_hide=True) ]),
    Group("a"),
]

keys = [
  # toggle visibiliy of above defined DropDown named "term"
  Key([], 'F11', lazy.group['scratchpad'].dropdown_toggle('term')),
  Key([], 'F12', lazy.group['scratchpad'].dropdown_toggle('qshell')),
]

There is only one DropDown visible in current group at a time. If a further DropDown is set visible the currently shown DropDown turns invisble immediately.

Note that if the window is set to not floating, it is detached from DropDown and ScratchPad, and a new pocess is spawned next time the DropDown is set visible.

Reference¶

ScratchPad¶

class libqtile.config.ScratchPad(name, dropdowns=None, position=9223372036854775807, label='')[source]¶

Represents a “ScratchPad” group

ScratchPad adds a (by default) invisible group to qtile. That group is used as a place for currently not visible windows spawned by a DropDown configuration.

Parameters

namestring: the name of this group
dropdownsdefault None: list of DropDown objects
positionint: group position
labelstring: The display name of the ScratchPad group. Defaults to the empty string such that the group is hidden in GroupList widget.

DropDown¶

class libqtile.config.DropDown(name, cmd, **config)[source]¶

Configure a specified command and its associated window for the ScratchPad. That window can be shown and hidden using a configurable keystroke or any other scripted trigger.

key	default	description
`height`	`0.35`	‘Height of window as fraction of current screen.’
`on_focus_lost_hide`	`True`	‘Shall the window be hidden if focus is lost? If so, the DropDown is hidden if window focus or the group is changed.’
`opacity`	`0.9`	‘Opacity of window as fraction. Zero is opaque.’
`warp_pointer`	`True`	‘Shall pointer warp to center of window on activation? This has only effect if any of the on_focus_lost_xxx configurations is True’
`width`	`0.8`	‘Width of window as fraction of current screen width’
`x`	`0.1`	‘X position of window as fraction of current screen width. 0 is the left most position.’
`y`	`0.0`	‘Y position of window as fraction of current screen height. 0 is the top most position. To show the window at bottom, you have to configure a value < 1 and an appropriate height.’

Keys¶

The keys variable defines Qtile’s key bindings. Individual key bindings are defined with libqtile.config.Key as demonstrated in the following example. Note that you may specify more than one callback functions.

from libqtile.config import Key

keys = [
   # Pressing "Meta + Shift + a".
   Key(["mod4", "shift"], "a", callback, ...),

   # Pressing "Control + p".
   Key(["control"], "p", callback, ...),

   # Pressing "Meta + Tab".
   Key(["mod4", "mod1"], "Tab", callback, ...),
]

The above may also be written more concisely with the help of the libqtile.config.EzKey helper class. The following example is functionally equivalent to the above:

from libqtile.config import EzKey as Key

keys = [
   Key("M-S-a", callback, ...),
   Key("C-p",   callback, ...),
   Key("M-A-<Tab>", callback, ...),
]

The EzKey modifier keys (i.e. MASC) can be overwritten through the EzKey.modifier_keys dictionary. The defaults are:

modifier_keys = {
   'M': 'mod4',
   'A': 'mod1',
   'S': 'shift',
   'C': 'control',
}

Callbacks can also be configured to work only under certain conditions by using the when() method. Currently, two conditions are supported:

from libqtile.config import Key

keys = [
    # Only trigger callback for a specific layout
    Key(
        [mod, 'shift'],
        "j",
        lazy.layout.grow().when(layout='verticaltile'),
        lazy.layout.grow_down().when(layout='columns')
    ),

    # Limit action to when the current window is not floating (default True)
    Key([mod], "f", lazy.window.toggle_fullscreen().when(when_floating=False))
]

KeyChords¶

Qtile also allows sequences of keys to trigger callbacks. In Qtile, these sequences are known as chords and are defined with libqtile.config.KeyChord. Chords are added to the keys section of the config file.

from libqtile.config import Key, KeyChord

keys = [
    KeyChord([mod], "z", [
        Key([], "x", lazy.spawn("xterm"))
    ])
]

The above code will launch xterm when the user presses Mod + z, followed by x.

Warning

Users should note that key chords are aborted by pressing <escape>. In the above example, if the user presses Mod + z, any following key presses will still be sent to the currently focussed window. If <escape> has not been pressed, the next press of x will launch xterm.

Modes¶

Chords can optionally specify a “mode”. When this is done, the mode will remain active until the user presses <escape>. This can be useful for configuring a subset of commands for a particular situations (i.e. similar to vim modes).

from libqtile.config import Key, KeyChord

keys = [
    KeyChord([mod], "z", [
        Key([], "g", lazy.layout.grow()),
        Key([], "s", lazy.layout.shrink()),
        Key([], "n", lazy.layout.normalize()),
        Key([], "m", lazy.layout.maximize())],
        mode="Windows"
    )
]

In the above example, pressing Mod + z triggers the “Windows” mode. Users can then resize windows by just pressing g (to grow the window), s to shrink it etc. as many times as needed. To exit the mode, press <escape>.

Note

If using modes, users may also wish to use the Chord widget (libqtile.widget.chord.Chord) as this will display the name of the currently active mode on the bar.

Chains¶

Chords can also be chained to make even longer sequences.

from libqtile.config import Key, KeyChord

keys = [
    KeyChord([mod], "z", [
        KeyChord([], "x", [
            Key([], "c", lazy.spawn("xterm"))
        ])
    ])
]

Modes can also be added to chains if required. The following example demonstrates the behaviour when using the mode argument in chains:

from libqtile.config import Key, KeyChord

keys = [
    KeyChord([mod], "z", [
        KeyChord([], "y", [
            KeyChord([], "x", [
                Key([], "c", lazy.spawn("xterm"))
            ], mode="inner")
        ])
    ], mode="outer")
]

After pressing Mod+z y x c, the “inner” mode will remain active. When pressing <escape>, the “inner” mode is exited. Since the mode in between does not have mode set, it is also left. Arriving at the “outer” mode (which has this argument set) stops the “leave” action and “outer” now becomes the active mode.

Note

If you want to bind a custom key to leave the current mode (e.g. Control + G in addition to <escape>), you can specify lazy.ungrab_chord() as the key action. To leave all modes and return to the root bindings, use lazy.ungrab_all_chords().

Modifiers¶

On most systems mod1 is the Alt key - you can see which modifiers, which are enclosed in a list, map to which keys on your system by running the xmodmap command. This example binds Alt-k to the “down” command on the current layout. This command is standard on all the included layouts, and switches to the next window (where “next” is defined differently in different layouts). The matching “up” command switches to the previous window.

Modifiers include: “shift”, “lock”, “control”, “mod1”, “mod2”, “mod3”, “mod4”, and “mod5”. They can be used in combination by appending more than one modifier to the list:

Key(
    ["mod1", "control"], "k",
    lazy.layout.shuffle_down()
)

Special keys¶

These are most commonly used special keys. For complete list please see the code. You can create bindings on them just like for the regular keys. For example Key(["mod1"], "F4", lazy.window.kill()).

Return

BackSpace

Tab

space

Home, End

Left, Up, Right, Down

F1, F2, F3, …

XF86AudioRaiseVolume

XF86AudioLowerVolume

XF86AudioMute

XF86AudioNext

XF86AudioPrev

XF86MonBrightnessUp

XF86MonBrightnessDown

Reference¶

Key¶

class libqtile.config.Key(modifiers: List[str], key: str, *commands, desc: str = '')[source]¶

Defines a keybinding.

Parameters

modifiers:: A list of modifier specifications. Modifier specifications are one of: “shift”, “lock”, “control”, “mod1”, “mod2”, “mod3”, “mod4”, “mod5”.
key:: A key specification, e.g. “a”, “Tab”, “Return”, “space”.
commands:: A list of lazy command objects generated with the lazy.lazy helper. If multiple Call objects are specified, they are run in sequence.
desc:: description to be added to the key binding

KeyChord¶

class libqtile.config.KeyChord(modifiers: List[str], key: str, submappings: List[Union[libqtile.config.Key, libqtile.config.KeyChord]], mode: str = '')[source]¶

Define a key chord aka vim like mode

Parameters

modifiers:: A list of modifier specifications. Modifier specifications are one of: “shift”, “lock”, “control”, “mod1”, “mod2”, “mod3”, “mod4”, “mod5”.
key:: A key specification, e.g. “a”, “Tab”, “Return”, “space”.
submappings:: A list of Key or KeyChord declarations to bind in this chord.
mode:: A string with vim like mode name. If it’s set, the chord mode will not be left after a keystroke (except for Esc which always leaves the current chord/mode).

EzConfig¶

class libqtile.config.EzConfig[source]¶: Helper class for defining key and button bindings in an emacs-like format. Inspired by Xmonad’s XMonad.Util.EZConfig.

Layouts¶

A layout is an algorithm for laying out windows in a group on your screen. Since Qtile is a tiling window manager, this usually means that we try to use space as efficiently as possible, and give the user ample commands that can be bound to keys to interact with layouts.

The layouts variable defines the list of layouts you will use with Qtile. The first layout in the list is the default. If you define more than one layout, you will probably also want to define key bindings to let you switch to the next and previous layouts.

See Built-in Layouts for a listing of available layouts.

Example¶

from libqtile import layout
layouts = [
    layout.Max(),
    layout.Stack(stacks=2)
]

Mouse¶

The mouse config file variable defines a set of global mouse actions, and is a list of Click and Drag objects, which define what to do when a window is clicked or dragged.

Example¶

from libqtile.config import Click, Drag
mouse = [
    Drag([mod], "Button1", lazy.window.set_position_floating(),
        start=lazy.window.get_position()),
    Drag([mod], "Button3", lazy.window.set_size_floating(),
        start=lazy.window.get_size()),
    Click([mod], "Button2", lazy.window.bring_to_front())
]

The above example can also be written more concisely with the help of the EzClick and EzDrag helpers:

from libqtile.config import EzClick as Click, EzDrag as Drag

mouse = [
    Drag("M-1", lazy.window.set_position_floating(),
        start=lazy.window.get_position()),
    Drag("M-3", lazy.window.set_size_floating(),
        start=lazy.window.get_size()),
    Click("M-2", lazy.window.bring_to_front())
]

Reference¶

Click¶

class libqtile.config.Click(modifiers: List[str], button: str, *commands, **kwargs)[source]¶: Defines binding of a mouse click

Drag¶

class libqtile.config.Drag(*args, start=False, **kwargs)[source]¶

Defines binding of a mouse to some dragging action

On each motion event command is executed with two extra parameters added x and y offset from previous move.

Screens¶

The screens configuration variable is where the physical screens, their associated bars, and the widgets contained within the bars are defined.

See Built-in Widgets for a listing of available widgets.

Example¶

Tying together screens, bars and widgets, we get something like this:

from libqtile.config import Screen
from libqtile import bar, widget

screens = [
    Screen(
        bottom=bar.Bar([
            widget.GroupBox(),
            widget.WindowName()
            ], 30),
        ),
    Screen(
        bottom=bar.Bar([
            widget.GroupBox(),
            widget.WindowName()
            ], 30),
        )
    ]

Bars support both solid background colors and gradients by supplying a list of colors that make up a linear gradient. For example, bar.Bar(..., background="#000000") will give you a black back ground (the default), while bar.Bar(..., background=["#000000", "#FFFFFF"]) will give you a background that fades from black to white.

Bars (and widgets) also support transparency by adding an alpha value to the desired color. For example, bar.Bar(..., background="#00000000") will result in a fully transparent bar. Widget contents will not be impacted i.e. this is different to the opacity parameter which sets the transparency of the entire window.

Note

In X11 backends, transparency will be disabled in a bar if the background color is fully opaque.

Fake Screens¶

instead of using the variable screens the variable fake_screens can be used to set split a physical monitor into multiple screens. They can be used like this:

from libqtile.config import Screen
from libqtile import bar, widget

# screens look like this
#     600         300
#  |-------------|-----|
#  |          480|     |580
#  |   A         |  B  |
#  |----------|--|     |
#  |       400|--|-----|
#  |   C      |        |400
#  |----------|   D    |
#     500     |--------|
#                 400
#
# Notice there is a hole in the middle
# also D goes down below the others

fake_screens = [
  Screen(
      bottom=bar.Bar(
          [
              widget.Prompt(),
              widget.Sep(),
              widget.WindowName(),
              widget.Sep(),
              widget.Systray(),
              widget.Sep(),
              widget.Clock(format='%H:%M:%S %d.%m.%Y')
          ],
          24,
          background="#555555"
      ),
      x=0,
      y=0,
      width=600,
      height=480
  ),
  Screen(
      top=bar.Bar(
          [
              widget.GroupBox(),
              widget.WindowName(),
              widget.Clock()
          ],
          30,
      ),
      x=600,
      y=0,
      width=300,
      height=580
  ),
  Screen(
      top=bar.Bar(
          [
              widget.GroupBox(),
              widget.WindowName(),
              widget.Clock()
          ],
          30,
      ),
      x=0,
      y=480,
      width=500,
      height=400
  ),
  Screen(
      top=bar.Bar(
          [
              widget.GroupBox(),
              widget.WindowName(),
              widget.Clock()
          ],
          30,
      ),
      x=500,
      y=580,
      width=400,
      height=400
  ),
]

Third-party bars¶

There might be some reasons to use third-party bars. For instance you can come from another window manager and you have already configured dzen2, xmobar, or something else. They definitely can be used with Qtile too. In fact, any additional configurations aren’t needed. Just run the bar and qtile will adapt.

Reference¶

Screen¶

class libqtile.config.Screen(top: Optional[Union[libqtile.bar.Bar, libqtile.bar.Gap]] = None, bottom: Optional[Union[libqtile.bar.Bar, libqtile.bar.Gap]] = None, left: Optional[Union[libqtile.bar.Bar, libqtile.bar.Gap]] = None, right: Optional[Union[libqtile.bar.Bar, libqtile.bar.Gap]] = None, wallpaper: Optional[str] = None, wallpaper_mode: Optional[str] = None, x: Optional[int] = None, y: Optional[int] = None, width: Optional[int] = None, height: Optional[int] = None)[source]¶

A physical screen, and its associated paraphernalia.

Define a screen with a given set of Bars of a specific geometry. Note that bar.Bar objects can only be placed at the top or the bottom of the screen (bar.Gap objects can be placed anywhere). Also, x, y, width, and height aren’t specified usually unless you are using ‘fake screens’.

The wallpaper parameter, if given, should be a path to an image file. How this image is painted to the screen is specified by the wallpaper_mode parameter. By default, the image will be placed at the screens origin and retain its own dimensions. If the mode is ‘fill’, the image will be centred on the screen and resized to fill it. If the mode is ‘stretch’, the image is stretched to fit all of it into the screen.

Bar¶

class libqtile.bar.Bar(widgets, size, **config)[source]¶

A bar, which can contain widgets

Parameters

widgets :: A list of widget objects.
size :: The “thickness” of the bar, i.e. the height of a horizontal bar, or the width of a vertical bar.

key	default	description
`background`	`'#000000'`	‘Background colour.’
`margin`	`0`	‘Space around bar as int or list of ints [N E S W].’
`opacity`	`1`	‘Bar window opacity.’

Gap¶

class libqtile.bar.Gap(size)[source]¶

A gap placed along one of the edges of the screen

If a gap has been defined, Qtile will avoid covering it with windows. The most probable reason for configuring a gap is to make space for a third-party bar or other static window.

Parameters

size :: The “thickness” of the gap, i.e. the height of a horizontal gap, or the width of a vertical gap.

Hooks¶

Qtile provides a mechanism for subscribing to certain events in libqtile.hook. To subscribe to a hook in your configuration, simply decorate a function with the hook you wish to subscribe to.

See Built-in Hooks for a listing of available hooks.

Examples¶

Automatic floating dialogs¶

Let’s say we wanted to automatically float all dialog windows (this code is not actually necessary; Qtile floats all dialogs by default). We would subscribe to the client_new hook to tell us when a new window has opened and, if the type is “dialog”, as can set the window to float. In our configuration file it would look something like this:

from libqtile import hook

@hook.subscribe.client_new
def floating_dialogs(window):
    dialog = window.window.get_wm_type() == 'dialog'
    transient = window.window.get_wm_transient_for()
    if dialog or transient:
        window.floating = True

A list of available hooks can be found in the Built-in Hooks reference.

Autostart¶

If you want to run commands or spawn some applications when Qtile starts, you’ll want to look at the startup and startup_once hooks. startup is emitted every time Qtile starts (including restarts), whereas startup_once is only emitted on the very first startup.

Let’s create an executable file ~/.config/qtile/autostart.sh that will start a few programs when Qtile first runs. Remember to chmod +x this file so that it can be executed.

#!/bin/sh
pidgin &
dropbox start &

We can then subscribe to startup_once to run this script:

import os
import subprocess

@hook.subscribe.startup_once
def autostart():
    home = os.path.expanduser('~/.config/qtile/autostart.sh')
    subprocess.call([home])

Accessing the qtile object¶

If you want to do something with the Qtile manager instance inside a hook, it can be imported into your config:

from libqtile import qtile

In addition to the above variables, there are several other boolean configuration variables that control specific aspects of Qtile’s behavior:

variable	default	description
auto_fullscreen	True	If a window requests to be fullscreen, it is automatically fullscreened. Set this to false if you only want windows to be fullscreen if you ask them to be.
bring_front_click	False	When clicked, should the window be brought to the front or not. If this is set to “floating_only”, only floating windows will get affected (This sets the X Stack Mode to Above.)
cursor_warp	False	If true, the cursor follows the focus as directed by the keyboard, warping to the center of the focused window. When switching focus between screens, If there are no windows in the screen, the cursor will warp to the center of the screen.
dgroups_key_binder	None	A function which generates group binding hotkeys. It takes a single argument, the DGroups object, and can use that to set up dynamic key bindings. A sample implementation is available in libqtile/dgroups.py called simple_key_binder(), which will bind groups to mod+shift+0-10 by default.
dgroups_app_rules	[]	A list of Rule objects which can send windows to various groups based on matching criteria.
extension_defaults	same as widget_defaults	Default settings for extensions.
floating_layout	layout.Floating(float_rules=[…])	The default floating layout to use. This allows you to set custom floating rules among other things if you wish. See the configuration file for the default float_rules.
focus_on_window_activation	smart	Behavior of the _NET_ACTIVATE_WINDOW message sent by applications urgent: urgent flag is set for the window focus: automatically focus the window smart: automatically focus if the window is in the current group never: never automatically focus any window that requests it
follow_mouse_focus	True	Controls whether or not focus follows the mouse around as it moves across windows in a layout.
widget_defaults	dict(font=’sans’, fontsize=12, padding=3)	Default settings for bar widgets.
reconfigure_screens	True	Controls whether or not to automatically reconfigure screens when there are changes in randr output configuration.
wmname	“LG3D”	Gasp! We’re lying here. In fact, nobody really uses or cares about this string besides java UI toolkits; you can see several discussions on the mailing lists, GitHub issues, and other WM documentation that suggest setting this string if your java app doesn’t work correctly. We may as well just lie and say that we’re a working one by default. We choose LG3D to maximize irony: it is a 3D non-reparenting WM written in java that happens to be on java’s whitelist.
auto_minimize	True	If things like steam games want to auto-minimize themselves when losing focus, should we respect this or not?

Testing your configuration¶

The best way to test changes to your configuration is with the provided Xephyr script. This will run Qtile with your config.py inside a nested X server and prevent your running instance of Qtile from crashing if something goes wrong.

See Hacking Qtile for more information on using Xephyr.

Starting Qtile¶

There are several ways to start Qtile. The most common way is via an entry in your X session manager’s menu. The default Qtile behavior can be invoked by creating a qtile.desktop file in /usr/share/xsessions.

A second way to start Qtile is a custom X session. This way allows you to invoke Qtile with custom arguments, and also allows you to do any setup you want (e.g. special keyboard bindings like mapping caps lock to control, setting your desktop background, etc.) before Qtile starts. If you’re using an X session manager, you still may need to create a custom.desktop file similar to the qtile.desktop file above, but with Exec=/etc/X11/xsession. Then, create your own ~/.xsession. There are several examples of user defined xsession s in the qtile-examples repository.

If there is no display manager such as SDDM, LightDM or other and there is need to start Qtile directly from ~/.xinitrc do that by adding exec qtile at the end.

In very special cases, ex. Qtile crashing during session, then suggestion would be to start through a loop to save running applications:

while true; do
    qtile
done

Finally, if you’re a gnome user, you can start integrate Qtile into Gnome’s session manager and use gnome as usual.

Running from systemd¶

This case will cover automatic login to Qtile after booting the system without using display manager. It logins in virtual console and init X by running through session.

Automatic login to virtual console¶

To get login into virtual console as an example edit getty service by running systemctl edit getty@tty1 and add instructions to /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/override.conf:

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/usr/bin/agetty --autologin username --noclear %I $TERM

username should be changed to current user name.

Check more for other examples.

Autostart X session¶

After login X session should be started. That can be done by .bash_profile if bash is used or .zprofile in case of zsh. Other shells can be adjusted by given examples.

if systemctl -q is-active graphical.target && [[ ! $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]]; then
  exec startx
fi

And to start Qtile itself .xinitrc should be fixed:

# some apps that should be started before Qtile, ex.
#
#   [[ -f ~/.Xresources ]] && xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources
#   ~/.fehbg &
#   nm-applet &
#   blueman-applet &
#   dunst &
#
# or
#
#   source ~/.xsession

exec qtile start

Running Inside Gnome¶

Add the following snippet to your Qtile configuration. As per this page, it registers Qtile with gnome-session. Without it, a “Something has gone wrong!” message shows up a short while after logging in. dbus-send must be on your $PATH.

import subprocess
import os
from libqtile import hook

@hook.subscribe.startup
def dbus_register():
    id = os.environ.get('DESKTOP_AUTOSTART_ID')
    if not id:
        return
    subprocess.Popen(['dbus-send',
                      '--session',
                      '--print-reply',
                      '--dest=org.gnome.SessionManager',
                      '/org/gnome/SessionManager',
                      'org.gnome.SessionManager.RegisterClient',
                      'string:qtile',
                      'string:' + id])

This adds a new entry “Qtile GNOME” to GDM’s login screen.

$ cat /usr/share/xsessions/qtile_gnome.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Qtile GNOME
Comment=Tiling window manager
TryExec=/usr/bin/gnome-session
Exec=gnome-session --session=qtile
Type=XSession

The custom session for gnome-session.

For Gnome >= 3.23.2 (Ubuntu >= 17.04, Fedora >= 26, etc.)

$ cat /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/qtile.session
[GNOME Session]
Name=Qtile session
RequiredComponents=qtile;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.A11ySettings;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Clipboard;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Color;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Datetime;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Housekeeping;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Keyboard;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.MediaKeys;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Mouse;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Power;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.PrintNotifications;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Rfkill;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.ScreensaverProxy;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Sharing;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Smartcard;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Sound;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Wacom;org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.XSettings;

Or for older Gnome versions

$ cat /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/qtile.session
[GNOME Session]
Name=Qtile session
RequiredComponents=qtile;gnome-settings-daemon;

So that Qtile starts automatically on login.

$ cat /usr/share/applications/qtile.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Qtile
Exec=qtile start
NoDisplay=true
X-GNOME-WMName=Qtile
X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=WindowManager
X-GNOME-Provides=windowmanager
X-GNOME-Autostart-Notify=false

The above does not start gnome-panel. Getting gnome-panel to work requires some extra Qtile configuration, mainly making the top and bottom panels static on panel startup and leaving a gap at the top (and bottom) for the panel window.

You might want to add keybindings to log out of the GNOME session.

Key([mod, 'control'], 'l', lazy.spawn('gnome-screensaver-command -l')),
Key([mod, 'control'], 'q', lazy.spawn('gnome-session-quit --logout --no-prompt')),
Key([mod, 'shift', 'control'], 'q', lazy.spawn('gnome-session-quit --power-off')),

The above apps need to be in your path (though they are typically installed in /usr/bin, so they probably are if they’re installed at all).

Troubleshooting¶

So something has gone wrong… what do you do?¶

When Qtile is running, it logs error messages (and other messages) to its log file. This is found at ~/.local/share/qtile/qtile.log. This is the first place to check to see what is going on. If you are getting unexpected errors from normal usage or your configuration (and you’re not doing something wacky) and believe you have found a bug, then please report a bug.

If you are hacking on Qtile and you want to debug your changes, this log is your best friend. You can send messages to the log from within libqtile by using the logger:

from libqtile.log_utils import logger

logger.warning("Your message here")
logger.warning(variable_you_want_to_print)

try:
    # some changes here that might error
raise Exception as e:
    logger.exception(e)

logger.warning is convenient because its messages will always be visibile in the log. logger.exception is helpful because it will print the full traceback of an error to the log. By sticking these amongst your changes you can look more closely at the effects of any changes you made to Qtile’s internals.

Capturing an `xtrace`¶

Occasionally, a bug will be low level enough to require an xtrace of Qtile’s conversations with the X server. To capture one of these, create an xinitrc or similar file with:

exec xtrace qtile >> ~/qtile.log

This will put the xtrace output in Qtile’s logfile as well. You can then demonstrate the bug, and paste the contents of this file into the bug report.

Note that xtrace may be named x11trace on some platforms, for example, on Fedora.

Shell commands¶

qtile uses a subcommand structure; various subcommands are listed below. Additionally, two other commands available in the scripts/ section of the repository are also documented below.

qtile start¶

This is the entry point for the window manager, and what you should run from your .xsession or similar. This will make an attempt to detect if qtile is already running and fail if it is. See qtile start --help for more details.

qtile shell¶

The Qtile command shell is a command-line shell interface that provides access to the full complement of Qtile command functions. The shell features command name completion, and full command documentation can be accessed from the shell itself. The shell uses GNU Readline when it’s available, so the interface can be configured to, for example, obey VI keybindings with an appropriate .inputrc file. See the GNU Readline documentation for more information.

Navigating the Object Graph¶

The shell presents a filesystem-like interface to the object graph - the builtin “cd” and “ls” commands act like their familiar shell counterparts:

> ls
layout/  widget/  screen/  bar/     window/  group/

> cd bar

bar> ls
bottom/

bar> cd bottom

bar['bottom']> ls
screen/

bar['bottom']> cd ../..

> ls
layout/  widget/  screen/  bar/     window/  group/

Note that the shell provides a “short-hand” for specifying node keys (as opposed to children). The following is a valid shell path:

> cd group/4/window/31457314

The command prompt will, however, always display the Python node path that should be used in scripts and key bindings:

group['4'].window[31457314]>

Live Documentation¶

The shell help command provides the canonical documentation for the Qtile API:

> cd layout/1

layout[1]> help
help command   -- Help for a specific command.

Builtins
========
cd    exit  help  ls    q     quit

Commands for this object
========================
add           commands      current       delete        doc
down          get_info      items         next          previous
rotate        shuffle_down  shuffle_up    toggle_split  up

layout[1]> help previous
previous()
Focus previous stack.

qtile cmd-obj¶

This is a simple tool to expose qtile.command functionality to shell. This can be used standalone or in other shell scripts.

Examples:¶

Output of `qtile cmd-obj -h`¶

usage: qtile cmd-obj [-h] [--object OBJ_SPEC [OBJ_SPEC ...]]
                 [--function FUNCTION] [--args ARGS [ARGS ...]] [--info]

Simple tool to expose qtile.command functionality to shell.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --object OBJ_SPEC [OBJ_SPEC ...], -o OBJ_SPEC [OBJ_SPEC ...]
                        Specify path to object (space separated). If no
                        --function flag display available commands.
  --function FUNCTION, -f FUNCTION
                        Select function to execute.
  --args ARGS [ARGS ...], -a ARGS [ARGS ...]
                        Set arguments supplied to function.
  --info, -i            With both --object and --function args prints
                        documentation for function.

Examples:
 qtile cmd-obj
 qtile cmd-obj -o cmd
 qtile cmd-obj -o cmd -f prev_layout -i
 qtile cmd-obj -o cmd -f prev_layout -a 3 # prev_layout on group 3
 qtile cmd-obj -o group 3 -f focus_back

Output of `qtile cmd-obj -o group 3`¶

-o group 3 -f commands            Returns a list of possible commands for this object
-o group 3 -f doc               * Returns the documentation for a specified command name
-o group 3 -f eval              * Evaluates code in the same context as this function
-o group 3 -f focus_back          Focus the window that had focus before the current one got it.
-o group 3 -f focus_by_name     * Focus the first window with the given name. Do nothing if the name is
-o group 3 -f function          * Call a function with current object as argument
-o group 3 -f info                Returns a dictionary of info for this group
-o group 3 -f info_by_name      * Get the info for the first window with the given name without giving it
-o group 3 -f items             * Returns a list of contained items for the specified name
-o group 3 -f next_window         Focus the next window in group.
-o group 3 -f prev_window         Focus the previous window in group.
-o group 3 -f set_label         * Set the display name of current group to be used in GroupBox widget.
-o group 3 -f setlayout
-o group 3 -f switch_groups     * Switch position of current group with name
-o group 3 -f toscreen          * Pull a group to a specified screen.
-o group 3 -f unminimize_all      Unminimise all windows in this group

Output of `qtile cmd-obj -o cmd`¶

-o cmd -f add_rule              * Add a dgroup rule, returns rule_id needed to remove it
-o cmd -f addgroup              * Add a group with the given name
-o cmd -f commands                Returns a list of possible commands for this object
-o cmd -f critical                Set log level to CRITICAL
-o cmd -f debug                   Set log level to DEBUG
-o cmd -f delgroup              * Delete a group with the given name
-o cmd -f display_kb            * Display table of key bindings
-o cmd -f doc                   * Returns the documentation for a specified command name
-o cmd -f error                   Set log level to ERROR
-o cmd -f eval                  * Evaluates code in the same context as this function
-o cmd -f findwindow            * Launch prompt widget to find a window of the given name
-o cmd -f focus_by_click        * Bring a window to the front
-o cmd -f function              * Call a function with current object as argument
-o cmd -f get_info                Prints info for all groups
-o cmd -f get_state               Get pickled state for restarting qtile
-o cmd -f get_test_data           Returns any content arbitrarily set in the self.test_data attribute.
-o cmd -f groups                  Return a dictionary containing information for all groups
-o cmd -f hide_show_bar         * Toggle visibility of a given bar
-o cmd -f info                    Set log level to INFO
-o cmd -f internal_windows        Return info for each internal window (bars, for example)
-o cmd -f items                 * Returns a list of contained items for the specified name
-o cmd -f list_widgets            List of all addressible widget names
-o cmd -f next_layout           * Switch to the next layout.
-o cmd -f next_screen             Move to next screen
-o cmd -f next_urgent             Focus next window with urgent hint
-o cmd -f pause                   Drops into pdb
-o cmd -f prev_layout           * Switch to the previous layout.
-o cmd -f prev_screen             Move to the previous screen
-o cmd -f qtile_info              Returns a dictionary of info on the Qtile instance
-o cmd -f qtilecmd              * Execute a Qtile command using the client syntax
-o cmd -f remove_rule           * Remove a dgroup rule by rule_id
-o cmd -f restart                 Restart qtile
-o cmd -f run_extension         * Run extensions
-o cmd -f run_extention         * Deprecated alias for cmd_run_extension()
-o cmd -f run_external          * Run external Python script
-o cmd -f screens                 Return a list of dictionaries providing information on all screens
-o cmd -f shutdown                Quit Qtile
-o cmd -f simulate_keypress     * Simulates a keypress on the focused window.
-o cmd -f spawn                 * Run cmd in a shell.
-o cmd -f spawncmd              * Spawn a command using a prompt widget, with tab-completion.
-o cmd -f status                  Return "OK" if Qtile is running
-o cmd -f switch_groups         * Switch position of groupa to groupb
-o cmd -f switchgroup           * Launch prompt widget to switch to a given group to the current screen
-o cmd -f sync                    Sync the X display. Should only be used for development
-o cmd -f to_layout_index       * Switch to the layout with the given index in self.layouts.
-o cmd -f to_screen             * Warp focus to screen n, where n is a 0-based screen number
-o cmd -f togroup               * Launch prompt widget to move current window to a given group
-o cmd -f tracemalloc_dump        Dump tracemalloc snapshot
-o cmd -f tracemalloc_toggle      Toggle tracemalloc status
-o cmd -f warning                 Set log level to WARNING
-o cmd -f windows                 Return info for each client window

qtile run-cmd¶

Run a command applying rules to the new windows, ie, you can start a window in a specific group, make it floating, intrusive, etc.

The Windows must have NET_WM_PID.

# run xterm floating on group "test-group"
qtile run-cmd -g test-group -f xterm

qtile top¶

Is a top like to measure memory usage of Qtile’s internals.

dqtile-cmd¶

A Rofi/dmenu interface to qtile-cmd. Accepts all arguments of qtile-cmd.

Examples:¶

Output of `dqtile-cmd -o cmd`¶

Output of `dqtile-cmd -h`¶

dqtile-cmd

    A Rofi/dmenu interface to qtile-cmd. Excepts all arguments of qtile-cmd
    (see below).

usage: dqtile-cmd [-h] [--object OBJ_SPEC [OBJ_SPEC ...]]
                  [--function FUNCTION] [--args ARGS [ARGS ...]] [--info]

Simple tool to expose qtile.command functionality to shell.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --object OBJ_SPEC [OBJ_SPEC ...], -o OBJ_SPEC [OBJ_SPEC ...]
                        Specify path to object (space separated). If no
                        --function flag display available commands.
  --function FUNCTION, -f FUNCTION
                        Select function to execute.
  --args ARGS [ARGS ...], -a ARGS [ARGS ...]
                        Set arguments supplied to function.
  --info, -i            With both --object and --function args prints
                        documentation for function.

Examples:
 dqtile-cmd
 dqtile-cmd -o cmd
 dqtile-cmd -o cmd -f prev_layout -i
 dqtile-cmd -o cmd -f prev_layout -a 3 # prev_layout on group 3
 dqtile-cmd -o group 3 -f focus_back

If both rofi and dmenu are present rofi will be selected as default, to change this us --force-dmenu as the first argument.

iqshell¶

In addition to the standard qtile shell shell interface, we provide a kernel capable of running through Jupyter that hooks into the qshell client. The command structure and syntax is the same as qshell, so it is recommended you read that for more information about that.

Dependencies¶

In order to run iqshell, you must have ipykernel and jupyter_console. You can install the dependencies when you are installing qtile by running:

$ pip install qtile[ipython]

Otherwise, you can just install these two packages separately, either through PyPI or through your distribution package manager.

Installing and Running the Kernel¶

Once you have the required dependencies, you can run the kernel right away by running:

$ python3 -m libqtile.interactive.iqshell_kernel

However, this will merely spawn a kernel instance, you will have to run a separate frontend that connects to this kernel.

A more convenient way to run the kernel is by registering the kernel with Jupyter. To register the kernel itself, run:

$ python3 -m libqtile.interactive.iqshell_install

If you run this as a non-root user, or pass the --user flag, this will install to the user Jupyter kernel directory. You can now invoke the kernel directly when starting a Jupyter frontend, for example:

$ jupyter console --kernel qshell

The iqshell script will launch a Jupyter terminal console with the qshell kernel.

iqshell vs qtile shell¶

One of the main drawbacks of running through a Jupyter kernel is the frontend has no way to query the current node of the kernel, and as such, there is no way to set a custom prompt. In order to query your current node, you can call pwd.

This, however, enables many of the benefits of running in a Jupyter frontend, including being able to save, run, and re-run code cells in frontends such as the Jupyter notebook.

The Jupyter kernel also enables more advanced help, text completion, and introspection capabilities (however, these are currently not implemented at a level much beyond what is available in the standard qtile shell).

Reference¶

Built-in Hooks¶

subscribe.addgroup(func)¶

Called when group is added

Arguments

name of new group

subscribe.changegroup(func)¶

Called whenever a group change occurs

Arguments

None

subscribe.client_focus(func)¶

Called whenever focus changes

Arguments

Window object of the new focus.

subscribe.client_killed(func)¶

Called after a client has been unmanaged

Arguments

Window object of the killed window.

subscribe.client_managed(func)¶

Called after Qtile starts managing a new client

Called after a window is assigned to a group, or when a window is made static. This hook is not called for internal windows.

Arguments

Window object of the managed window

subscribe.client_mouse_enter(func)¶

Called when the mouse enters a client

Arguments

Window of window entered

subscribe.client_name_updated(func)¶

Called when the client name changes

Arguments

Window of client with updated name

subscribe.client_new(func)¶

Called before Qtile starts managing a new client

Use this hook to declare windows static, or add them to a group on startup. This hook is not called for internal windows.

Arguments

Window object

Examples

@libqtile.hook.subscribe.client_new
def func(c):
    if c.name == "xterm":
        c.togroup("a")
    elif c.name == "dzen":
        c.cmd_static(0)

subscribe.client_urgent_hint_changed(func)¶

Called when the client urgent hint changes

Arguments

Window of client with hint change

subscribe.current_screen_change(func)¶

Called when the current screen (i.e. the screen with focus) changes

Arguments

None

subscribe.delgroup(func)¶

Called when group is deleted

Arguments

name of deleted group

subscribe.enter_chord(func)¶

Called when key chord begins

Arguments

name of chord(mode)

subscribe.float_change(func)¶

Called when a change in float state is made

Arguments

None

subscribe.focus_change(func)¶

Called when focus is changed

Arguments

None

subscribe.group_window_add(func)¶

Called when a new window is added to a group

Arguments

Group receiving the new window

Window added to the group

subscribe.layout_change(func)¶

Called on layout change

Arguments

layout object for new layout

group object on which layout is changed

subscribe.leave_chord(func)¶

Called when key chord ends

Arguments

None

subscribe.net_wm_icon_change(func)¶

Called on _NET_WM_ICON chance

Arguments

Window of client with changed icon

subscribe.restart(func)¶

Called before qtile is restarted

Arguments

None

subscribe.screen_change(func)¶

Called when the output configuration is changed (e.g. via randr in X11).

Arguments

xproto.randr.ScreenChangeNotify event (X11) or None (Wayland).

subscribe.selection_change(func)¶

Called on selection change

Arguments

name of the selection

dictionary describing selection, containing owner and selection as keys

subscribe.selection_notify(func)¶

Called on selection notify

Arguments

name of the selection

dictionary describing selection, containing owner and selection as keys

subscribe.setgroup(func)¶

Called when group is changed

Arguments

None

subscribe.shutdown(func)¶

Called before qtile is shutdown

Arguments

None

subscribe.startup(func)¶

Called when qtile is started

Arguments

None

subscribe.startup_complete(func)¶

Called when qtile is started after all resources initialized

Arguments

None

subscribe.startup_once(func)¶

Called when Qtile has started on first start

This hook is called exactly once per session (i.e. not on each lazy.restart()).

Arguments

None

Built-in Layouts¶

Floating¶

class libqtile.layout.floating.Floating(float_rules=None, no_reposition_rules=None, **config)[source]¶

Floating layout, which does nothing with windows but handles focus order

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#0000ff'`	‘Border colour for the focused window.’
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	‘Border colour for un-focused windows.’
`border_width`	`1`	‘Border width.’
`fullscreen_border_width`	`0`	‘Border width for fullscreen.’
`max_border_width`	`0`	‘Border width for maximize.’

Bsp¶

class libqtile.layout.bsp.Bsp(**config)[source]¶

This layout is inspired by bspwm, but it does not try to copy its features.

The first client occupies the entire screen space. When a new client is created, the selected space is partitioned in 2 and the new client occupies one of those subspaces, leaving the old client with the other.

The partition can be either horizontal or vertical according to the dimensions of the current space: if its width/height ratio is above a pre-configured value, the subspaces are created side-by-side, otherwise, they are created on top of each other. The partition direction can be freely toggled. All subspaces can be resized and clients can be shuffled around.

All clients are organized at the leaves of a full binary tree.

An example key configuration is:

Key([mod], "j", lazy.layout.down()),
Key([mod], "k", lazy.layout.up()),
Key([mod], "h", lazy.layout.left()),
Key([mod], "l", lazy.layout.right()),
Key([mod, "shift"], "j", lazy.layout.shuffle_down()),
Key([mod, "shift"], "k", lazy.layout.shuffle_up()),
Key([mod, "shift"], "h", lazy.layout.shuffle_left()),
Key([mod, "shift"], "l", lazy.layout.shuffle_right()),
Key([mod, "mod1"], "j", lazy.layout.flip_down()),
Key([mod, "mod1"], "k", lazy.layout.flip_up()),
Key([mod, "mod1"], "h", lazy.layout.flip_left()),
Key([mod, "mod1"], "l", lazy.layout.flip_right()),
Key([mod, "control"], "j", lazy.layout.grow_down()),
Key([mod, "control"], "k", lazy.layout.grow_up()),
Key([mod, "control"], "h", lazy.layout.grow_left()),
Key([mod, "control"], "l", lazy.layout.grow_right()),
Key([mod, "shift"], "n", lazy.layout.normalize()),
Key([mod], "Return", lazy.layout.toggle_split()),

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#881111'`	‘Border colour for the focused window.’
`border_normal`	`'#220000'`	‘Border colour for un-focused windows.’
`border_width`	`2`	‘Border width.’
`fair`	`True`	‘New clients are inserted in the shortest branch.’
`grow_amount`	`10`	‘Amount by which to grow a window/column.’
`lower_right`	`True`	‘New client occupies lower or right subspace.’
`margin`	`0`	‘Margin of the layout (int or list of ints [N E S W]).’
`ratio`	`1.6`	‘Width/height ratio that defines the partition direction.’

Columns¶

class libqtile.layout.columns.Columns(**config)[source]¶

Extension of the Stack layout.

The screen is split into columns, which can be dynamically added or removed. Each column can present its windows in 2 modes: split or stacked. In split mode, all windows are presented simultaneously, spliting the column space. In stacked mode, only a single window is presented from the stack of windows. Columns and windows can be resized and windows can be shuffled around.

This layout can also emulate wmii’s default layout via:

layout.Columns(num_columns=1, insert_position=1)

Or the “Vertical”, and “Max”, depending on the default parameters.

An example key configuration is:

Key([mod], "j", lazy.layout.down()),
Key([mod], "k", lazy.layout.up()),
Key([mod], "h", lazy.layout.left()),
Key([mod], "l", lazy.layout.right()),
Key([mod, "shift"], "j", lazy.layout.shuffle_down()),
Key([mod, "shift"], "k", lazy.layout.shuffle_up()),
Key([mod, "shift"], "h", lazy.layout.shuffle_left()),
Key([mod, "shift"], "l", lazy.layout.shuffle_right()),
Key([mod, "control"], "j", lazy.layout.grow_down()),
Key([mod, "control"], "k", lazy.layout.grow_up()),
Key([mod, "control"], "h", lazy.layout.grow_left()),
Key([mod, "control"], "l", lazy.layout.grow_right()),
Key([mod, "shift", "control"], "h", lazy.layout.swap_column_left()),
Key([mod, "shift", "control"], "l", lazy.layout.swap_column_right()),
Key([mod], "Return", lazy.layout.toggle_split()),
Key([mod], "n", lazy.layout.normalize()),

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#881111'`	‘Border colour for the focused window.’
`border_focus_stack`	`'#881111'`	‘Border colour for the focused window in stacked columns.’
`border_normal`	`'#220000'`	‘Border colour for un-focused windows.’
`border_normal_stack`	`'#220000'`	‘Border colour for un-focused windows in stacked columns.’
`border_on_single`	`False`	‘Draw a border when there is one only window.’
`border_width`	`2`	‘Border width.’
`fair`	`False`	‘Add new windows to the column with least windows.’
`grow_amount`	`10`	‘Amount by which to grow a window/column.’
`insert_position`	`0`	‘Position relative to the current window where new ones are inserted (0 means right above the current window, 1 means right after).’
`margin`	`0`	‘Margin of the layout (int or list of ints [N E S W]).’
`margin_on_single`	`None`	‘Margin when only one window. (int or list of ints [N E S W])’
`num_columns`	`2`	‘Preferred number of columns.’
`split`	`True`	‘New columns presentation mode.’
`wrap_focus_columns`	`True`	‘Wrap the screen when moving focus across columns.’
`wrap_focus_rows`	`True`	‘Wrap the screen when moving focus across rows.’
`wrap_focus_stacks`	`True`	‘Wrap the screen when moving focus across stacked.’

Matrix¶

class libqtile.layout.matrix.Matrix(columns=2, **config)[source]¶

This layout divides the screen into a matrix of equally sized cells and places one window in each cell. The number of columns is configurable and can also be changed interactively.

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#0000ff'`	‘Border colour for the focused window.’
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	‘Border colour for un-focused windows.’
`border_width`	`1`	‘Border width.’
`margin`	`0`	‘Margin of the layout (int or list of ints [N E S W])’

Max¶

class libqtile.layout.max.Max(**config)[source]¶

Maximized layout

A simple layout that only displays one window at a time, filling the screen_rect. This is suitable for use on laptops and other devices with small screens. Conceptually, the windows are managed as a stack, with commands to switch to next and previous windows in the stack.

MonadTall¶

class libqtile.layout.xmonad.MonadTall(**config)[source]¶

Emulate the behavior of XMonad’s default tiling scheme.

Main-Pane:

A main pane that contains a single window takes up a vertical portion of the screen_rect based on the ratio setting. This ratio can be adjusted with the cmd_grow_main and cmd_shrink_main or, while the main pane is in focus, cmd_grow and cmd_shrink.

---------------------
|            |      |
|            |      |
|            |      |
|            |      |
|            |      |
|            |      |
---------------------

Using the cmd_flip method will switch which horizontal side the main pane will occupy. The main pane is considered the “top” of the stack.

---------------------
|      |            |
|      |            |
|      |            |
|      |            |
|      |            |
|      |            |
---------------------

Secondary-panes:

Occupying the rest of the screen_rect are one or more secondary panes. The secondary panes will share the vertical space of the screen_rect however they can be resized at will with the cmd_grow and cmd_shrink methods. The other secondary panes will adjust their sizes to smoothly fill all of the space.

---------------------          ---------------------
|            |      |          |            |______|
|            |______|          |            |      |
|            |      |          |            |      |
|            |______|          |            |      |
|            |      |          |            |______|
|            |      |          |            |      |
---------------------          ---------------------

Panes can be moved with the cmd_shuffle_up and cmd_shuffle_down methods. As mentioned the main pane is considered the top of the stack; moving up is counter-clockwise and moving down is clockwise.

The opposite is true if the layout is “flipped”.

---------------------          ---------------------
|            |  2   |          |   2   |           |
|            |______|          |_______|           |
|            |  3   |          |   3   |           |
|     1      |______|          |_______|     1     |
|            |  4   |          |   4   |           |
|            |      |          |       |           |
---------------------          ---------------------

Normalizing/Resetting:

To restore all secondary client windows to their default size ratios use the cmd_normalize method.

To reset all client windows to their default sizes, including the primary window, use the cmd_reset method.

Maximizing:

To toggle a client window between its minimum and maximum sizes simply use the cmd_maximize on a focused client.

Suggested Bindings:

Key([modkey], "h", lazy.layout.left()),
Key([modkey], "l", lazy.layout.right()),
Key([modkey], "j", lazy.layout.down()),
Key([modkey], "k", lazy.layout.up()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "h", lazy.layout.swap_left()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "l", lazy.layout.swap_right()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "j", lazy.layout.shuffle_down()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "k", lazy.layout.shuffle_up()),
Key([modkey], "i", lazy.layout.grow()),
Key([modkey], "m", lazy.layout.shrink()),
Key([modkey], "n", lazy.layout.normalize()),
Key([modkey], "o", lazy.layout.maximize()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "space", lazy.layout.flip()),

key	default	description
`align`	`0`	‘Which side master plane will be placed (one of `MonadTall._left` or `MonadTall._right`)’
`border_focus`	`'#ff0000'`	‘Border colour for the focused window.’
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	‘Border colour for un-focused windows.’
`border_width`	`2`	‘Border width.’
`change_ratio`	`0.05`	‘Resize ratio’
`change_size`	`20`	‘Resize change in pixels’
`margin`	`0`	‘Margin of the layout’
`max_ratio`	`0.75`	‘The percent of the screen-space the master pane should occupy at maximum.’
`min_ratio`	`0.25`	‘The percent of the screen-space the master pane should occupy at minimum.’
`min_secondary_size`	`85`	‘minimum size in pixel for a secondary pane window ‘
`new_client_position`	`'after_current'`	‘Place new windows : after_current - after the active window. before_current - before the active window, top - at the top of the stack, bottom - at the bottom of the stack,’
`ratio`	`0.5`	‘The percent of the screen-space the master pane should occupy by default.’
`single_border_width`	`None`	‘Border width for single window’
`single_margin`	`None`	‘Margin size for single window’

MonadWide¶

class libqtile.layout.xmonad.MonadWide(**config)[source]¶

Emulate the behavior of XMonad’s horizontal tiling scheme.

This layout attempts to emulate the behavior of XMonad wide tiling scheme.

Main-Pane:

A main pane that contains a single window takes up a horizontal portion of the screen_rect based on the ratio setting. This ratio can be adjusted with the cmd_grow_main and cmd_shrink_main or, while the main pane is in focus, cmd_grow and cmd_shrink.

---------------------
|                   |
|                   |
|                   |
|___________________|
|                   |
|                   |
---------------------

Using the cmd_flip method will switch which vertical side the main pane will occupy. The main pane is considered the “top” of the stack.

---------------------
|                   |
|___________________|
|                   |
|                   |
|                   |
|                   |
---------------------

Secondary-panes:

Occupying the rest of the screen_rect are one or more secondary panes. The secondary panes will share the horizontal space of the screen_rect however they can be resized at will with the cmd_grow and cmd_shrink methods. The other secondary panes will adjust their sizes to smoothly fill all of the space.

---------------------          ---------------------
|                   |          |                   |
|                   |          |                   |
|                   |          |                   |
|___________________|          |___________________|
|     |       |     |          |   |           |   |
|     |       |     |          |   |           |   |
---------------------          ---------------------

Panes can be moved with the cmd_shuffle_up and cmd_shuffle_down methods. As mentioned the main pane is considered the top of the stack; moving up is counter-clockwise and moving down is clockwise.

The opposite is true if the layout is “flipped”.

---------------------          ---------------------
|                   |          |  2  |   3   |  4  |
|         1         |          |_____|_______|_____|
|                   |          |                   |
|___________________|          |                   |
|     |       |     |          |        1          |
|  2  |   3   |  4  |          |                   |
---------------------          ---------------------

Normalizing/Resetting:

To restore all secondary client windows to their default size ratios use the cmd_normalize method.

To reset all client windows to their default sizes, including the primary window, use the cmd_reset method.

Maximizing:

To toggle a client window between its minimum and maximum sizes simply use the cmd_maximize on a focused client.

Suggested Bindings:

Key([modkey], "h", lazy.layout.left()),
Key([modkey], "l", lazy.layout.right()),
Key([modkey], "j", lazy.layout.down()),
Key([modkey], "k", lazy.layout.up()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "h", lazy.layout.swap_left()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "l", lazy.layout.swap_right()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "j", lazy.layout.shuffle_down()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "k", lazy.layout.shuffle_up()),
Key([modkey], "i", lazy.layout.grow()),
Key([modkey], "m", lazy.layout.shrink()),
Key([modkey], "n", lazy.layout.normalize()),
Key([modkey], "o", lazy.layout.maximize()),
Key([modkey, "shift"], "space", lazy.layout.flip()),

key	default	description
`align`	`0`	‘Which side master plane will be placed (one of `MonadTall._left` or `MonadTall._right`)’
`border_focus`	`'#ff0000'`	‘Border colour for the focused window.’
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	‘Border colour for un-focused windows.’
`border_width`	`2`	‘Border width.’
`change_ratio`	`0.05`	‘Resize ratio’
`change_size`	`20`	‘Resize change in pixels’
`margin`	`0`	‘Margin of the layout’
`max_ratio`	`0.75`	‘The percent of the screen-space the master pane should occupy at maximum.’
`min_ratio`	`0.25`	‘The percent of the screen-space the master pane should occupy at minimum.’
`min_secondary_size`	`85`	‘minimum size in pixel for a secondary pane window ‘
`new_client_position`	`'after_current'`	‘Place new windows : after_current - after the active window. before_current - before the active window, top - at the top of the stack, bottom - at the bottom of the stack,’
`ratio`	`0.5`	‘The percent of the screen-space the master pane should occupy by default.’
`single_border_width`	`None`	‘Border width for single window’
`single_margin`	`None`	‘Margin size for single window’

RatioTile¶

class libqtile.layout.ratiotile.RatioTile(**config)[source]¶

Tries to tile all windows in the width/height ratio passed in

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#0000ff'`	‘Border colour for the focused window.’
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	‘Border colour for un-focused windows.’
`border_width`	`1`	‘Border width.’
`fancy`	`False`	‘Use a different method to calculate window sizes.’
`margin`	`0`	‘Margin of the layout (int or list of ints [N E S W])’
`ratio`	`1.618`	‘Ratio of the tiles’
`ratio_increment`	`0.1`	‘Amount to increment per ratio increment’

Slice¶

class libqtile.layout.slice.Slice(**config)[source]¶

Slice layout

This layout cuts piece of screen_rect and places a single window on that piece, and delegates other window placement to other layout

key	default	description
`fallback`	`<libqtile.layout.max.Max object at 0x7f47afdda290>`	‘Layout to be used for the non-slice area.’
`match`	`None`	‘Match-object describing which window(s) to move to the slice.’
`side`	`'left'`	‘Position of the slice (left, right, top, bottom).’
`width`	`256`	‘Slice width.’

Stack¶

class libqtile.layout.stack.Stack(**config)[source]¶

A layout composed of stacks of windows

The stack layout divides the screen_rect horizontally into a set of stacks. Commands allow you to switch between stacks, to next and previous windows within a stack, and to split a stack to show all windows in the stack, or unsplit it to show only the current window.

Unlike the columns layout the number of stacks is fixed.

key	default	description
`autosplit`	`False`	‘Auto split all new stacks.’
`border_focus`	`'#0000ff'`	‘Border colour for the focused window.’
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	‘Border colour for un-focused windows.’
`border_width`	`1`	‘Border width.’
`fair`	`False`	‘Add new windows to the stacks in a round robin way.’
`margin`	`0`	‘Margin of the layout (int or list of ints [N E S W])’
`num_stacks`	`2`	‘Number of stacks.’

Tile¶

class libqtile.layout.tile.Tile(**config)[source]¶

A layout with two stacks of windows dividing the screen

The Tile layout divides the screen_rect horizontally into two stacks. The maximum amount of “master” windows can be configured; surplus windows will be displayed in the slave stack on the right. Within their stacks, the windows will be tiled vertically. The windows can be rotated in their entirety by calling up() or down() or, if shift_windows is set to True, individually.

key	default	description
`add_after_last`	`False`	‘Add new clients after all the others. If this is True, it overrides add_on_top.’
`add_on_top`	`True`	‘Add new clients before all the others, potentially pushing other windows into slave stack.’
`border_focus`	`'#0000ff'`	‘Border colour for the focused window.’
`border_normal`	`'#000000'`	‘Border colour for un-focused windows.’
`border_width`	`1`	‘Border width.’
`expand`	`True`	‘Expand the master windows to the full screen width if no slaves are present.’
`margin`	`0`	‘Margin of the layout (int or list of ints [N E S W])’
`master_length`	`1`	‘Amount of windows displayed in the master stack. Surplus windows will be moved to the slave stack.’
`master_match`	`None`	‘A Match object defining which window(s) should be kept masters.’
`ratio`	`0.618`	‘Width-percentage of screen size reserved for master windows.’
`ratio_increment`	`0.05`	‘By which amount to change ratio when cmd_decrease_ratio or cmd_increase_ratio are called.’
`shift_windows`	`False`	‘Allow to shift windows within the layout. If False, the layout will be rotated instead.’

TreeTab¶

class libqtile.layout.tree.TreeTab(**config)[source]¶

Tree Tab Layout

This layout works just like Max but displays tree of the windows at the left border of the screen_rect, which allows you to overview all opened windows. It’s designed to work with uzbl-browser but works with other windows too.

The panel at the left border contains sections, each of which contains windows. Initially the panel looks like flat lists inside its section, and looks like trees if some of the windows are “moved” left or right.

For example, it looks like below with two sections initially:

+------------+
|Section Foo |
+------------+
| Window A   |
+------------+
| Window B   |
+------------+
| Window C   |
+------------+
|Section Bar |
+------------+

And then it will look like below if “Window B” is moved right and “Window C” is moved right too:

+------------+
|Section Foo |
+------------+
| Window A   |
+------------+
|  Window B  |
+------------+
|   Window C |
+------------+
|Section Bar |
+------------+

key	default	description
`active_bg`	`'000080'`	‘Background color of active tab’
`active_fg`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground color of active tab’
`bg_color`	`'000000'`	‘Background color of tabs’
`border_width`	`2`	‘Width of the border’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None (no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`14`	‘Font pixel size.’
`inactive_bg`	`'606060'`	‘Background color of inactive tab’
`inactive_fg`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground color of inactive tab’
`level_shift`	`8`	‘Shift for children tabs’
`margin_left`	`6`	‘Left margin of tab panel’
`margin_y`	`6`	‘Vertical margin of tab panel’
`padding_left`	`6`	‘Left padding for tabs’
`padding_x`	`6`	‘Left padding for tab label’
`padding_y`	`2`	‘Top padding for tab label’
`panel_width`	`150`	‘Width of the left panel’
`previous_on_rm`	`False`	‘Focus previous window on close instead of first.’
`section_bottom`	`6`	‘Bottom margin of section’
`section_fg`	`'ffffff'`	‘Color of section label’
`section_fontsize`	`11`	‘Font pixel size of section label’
`section_left`	`4`	‘Left margin of section label’
`section_padding`	`4`	‘Bottom of margin section label’
`section_top`	`4`	‘Top margin of section label’
`sections`	`['Default']`	‘Foreground color of inactive tab’
`urgent_bg`	`'ff0000'`	‘Background color of urgent tab’
`urgent_fg`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground color of urgent tab’
`vspace`	`2`	‘Space between tabs’

VerticalTile¶

class libqtile.layout.verticaltile.VerticalTile(**config)[source]¶

Tiling layout that works nice on vertically mounted monitors

The available height gets divided by the number of panes, if no pane is maximized. If one pane has been maximized, the available height gets split in master- and secondary area. The maximized pane (master pane) gets the full height of the master area and the other panes (secondary panes) share the remaining space. The master area (at default 75%) can grow and shrink via keybindings.

-----------------                -----------------  ---
|               |                |               |   |
|       1       |  <-- Panes     |               |   |
|               |        |       |               |   |
|---------------|        |       |               |   |
|               |        |       |               |   |
|       2       |  <-----+       |       1       |   |  Master Area
|               |        |       |               |   |
|---------------|        |       |               |   |
|               |        |       |               |   |
|       3       |  <-----+       |               |   |
|               |        |       |               |   |
|---------------|        |       |---------------|  ---
|               |        |       |       2       |   |
|       4       |  <-----+       |---------------|   |  Secondary Area
|               |                |       3       |   |
-----------------                -----------------  ---

Normal behavior. No One maximized pane in the master area maximized pane. No and two secondary panes in the specific areas. secondary area.

-----------------------------------  In some cases VerticalTile can be
|                                 |  useful on horizontal mounted
|                1                |  monitors two.
|                                 |  For example if you want to have a
|---------------------------------|  webbrowser and a shell below it.
|                                 |
|                2                |
|                                 |
-----------------------------------

Suggested keybindings:

Key([modkey], 'j', lazy.layout.down()),
Key([modkey], 'k', lazy.layout.up()),
Key([modkey], 'Tab', lazy.layout.next()),
Key([modkey, 'shift'], 'Tab', lazy.layout.next()),
Key([modkey, 'shift'], 'j', lazy.layout.shuffle_down()),
Key([modkey, 'shift'], 'k', lazy.layout.shuffle_up()),
Key([modkey], 'm', lazy.layout.maximize()),
Key([modkey], 'n', lazy.layout.normalize()),

key	default	description
`border_focus`	`'#FF0000'`	‘Border color for the focused window.’
`border_normal`	`'#FFFFFF'`	‘Border color for un-focused windows.’
`border_width`	`1`	‘Border width.’
`margin`	`0`	‘Border margin (int or list of ints [N E S W]).’

Zoomy¶

class libqtile.layout.zoomy.Zoomy(**config)[source]¶

A layout with single active windows, and few other previews at the right

key	default	description
`columnwidth`	`150`	‘Width of the right column’
`margin`	`0`	‘Margin of the layout (int or list of ints [N E S W])’
`property_big`	`'1.0'`	‘Property value to set on normal window’
`property_name`	`'ZOOM'`	‘Property to set on zoomed window’
`property_small`	`'0.1'`	‘Property value to set on zoomed window’

Built-in Widgets¶

AGroupBox¶

class libqtile.widget.AGroupBox(**config)[source]¶

A widget that graphically displays the current group

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`border`	`'000000'`	‘group box border color’
`borderwidth`	`3`	‘Current group border width’
`center_aligned`	`True`	‘center-aligned group box’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`margin`	`3`	‘Margin inside the box’
`margin_x`	`None`	“X Margin. Overrides ‘margin’ if set”
`margin_y`	`None`	“Y Margin. Overrides ‘margin’ if set”
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`padding_x`	`None`	“X Padding. Overrides ‘padding’ if set”
`padding_y`	`None`	“Y Padding. Overrides ‘padding’ if set”

Backlight¶

class libqtile.widget.Backlight(**config)[source]¶

A simple widget to show the current brightness of a monitor.

If the change_command parameter is set to None, the widget will attempt to use the interface at /sys/class to change brightness. Depending on the setup, the user may need to be added to the video group to have permission to write to this interface. This depends on having the correct udev rules the brightness file; these are typically installed alongside brightness tools such as brightnessctl (which changes the group to ‘video’) so installing that is an easy way to get it working.

You can also bind keyboard shortcuts to the backlight widget with:

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`backlight_name`	`'acpi_video0'`	‘ACPI name of a backlight device’
`brightness_file`	`'brightness'`	‘Name of file with the current brightness in /sys/class/backlight/backlight_name’
`change_command`	`'xbacklight -set {0}'`	‘Execute command to change value’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'{percent:2.0%}'`	‘Display format’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_brightness_file`	`'max_brightness'`	‘Name of file with the maximum brightness in /sys/class/backlight/backlight_name’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`step`	`10`	‘Percent of backlight every scroll changed’
`update_interval`	`0.2`	‘The delay in seconds between updates’

Battery¶

class libqtile.widget.Battery(**config)[source]¶

A text-based battery monitoring widget currently supporting FreeBSD

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`battery`	`0`	‘Which battery should be monitored (battery number or name)’
`charge_char`	`'^'`	‘Character to indicate the battery is charging’
`discharge_char`	`'V'`	‘Character to indicate the battery is discharging’
`empty_char`	`'x'`	‘Character to indicate the battery is empty’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'{char} {percent:2.0%} {hour:d}:{min:02d} {watt:.2f} W'`	‘Display format’
`full_char`	`'='`	‘Character to indicate the battery is full’
`hide_threshold`	`None`	‘Hide the text when there is enough energy 0 <= x < 1’
`low_foreground`	`'FF0000'`	‘Font color on low battery’
`low_percentage`	`0.1`	‘Indicates when to use the low_foreground color 0 < x < 1’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`notify_below`	`None`	‘Send a notification below this battery level.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`show_short_text`	`True`	‘Show “Full” or “Empty” rather than formated text’
`unknown_char`	`'?'`	‘Character to indicate the battery status is unknown’
`update_interval`	`60`	‘Seconds between status updates’

BatteryIcon¶

class libqtile.widget.BatteryIcon(**config)[source]¶

Battery life indicator widget.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`battery`	`0`	‘Which battery should be monitored’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`theme_path`	`'/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/qtile/checkouts/v0.18.0/libqtile/resources/battery-icons'`	‘Path of the icons’
`update_interval`	`60`	‘Seconds between status updates’

BitcoinTicker¶

class libqtile.widget.BitcoinTicker(**config)[source]¶

A bitcoin ticker widget, data provided by the coinbase.com API. Defaults to displaying currency in whatever the current locale is. Examples:

# display the average price of bitcoin in local currency
widget.BitcoinTicker()

# display it in Euros:
widget.BitcoinTicker(currency="EUR")

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`currency`	`''`	‘The currency the value that bitcoin is displayed in’
`data`	`None`	‘Post Data’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`headers`	`{}`	‘Extra Headers’
`json`	`True`	‘Is Json?’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`parse`	`None`	‘Parse Function’
`update_interval`	`600`	“Update interval in seconds, if none, the widget updates whenever it’s done’.”
`url`	`None`	‘Url’
`user_agent`	`'Qtile'`	‘Set the user agent’
`xml`	`False`	‘Is XML?’

Bluetooth¶

class libqtile.widget.Bluetooth(**config)[source]¶

Displays bluetooth status or connected device.

Uses dbus to communicate with the system bus.

Widget requirements: dbus-next.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`hci`	`'/dev_XX_XX_XX_XX_XX_XX'`	‘hci0 device path, can be found with d-feet or similar dbus explorer.’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’

CPU¶

class libqtile.widget.CPU(**config)[source]¶

A simple widget to display CPU load and frequency.

Widget requirements: psutil.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'CPU {freq_current}GHz {load_percent}%'`	‘CPU display format’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`update_interval`	`1.0`	‘Update interval for the CPU widget’

CPUGraph¶

class libqtile.widget.CPUGraph(**config)[source]¶

Display CPU usage graph.

Widget requirements: psutil.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`border_color`	`'215578'`	‘Widget border color’
`border_width`	`2`	‘Widget border width’
`core`	`'all'`	‘Which core to show (all/0/1/2/…)’
`fill_color`	`'1667EB.3'`	‘Fill color for linefill graph’
`frequency`	`1`	‘Update frequency in seconds’
`graph_color`	`'18BAEB'`	‘Graph color’
`line_width`	`3`	‘Line width’
`margin_x`	`3`	‘Margin X’
`margin_y`	`3`	‘Margin Y’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`samples`	`100`	‘Count of graph samples.’
`start_pos`	`'bottom'`	“Drawer starting position (‘bottom’/’top’)”
`type`	`'linefill'`	“‘box’, ‘line’, ‘linefill’”

Canto¶

class libqtile.widget.Canto(**config)[source]¶

Display RSS feeds updates using the canto console reader

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`all_format`	`'{number}'`	‘All feeds display format’
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`feeds`	`[]`	‘List of feeds to display, empty for all’
`fetch`	`False`	‘Whether to fetch new items on update’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`one_format`	`'{name}: {number}'`	‘One feed display format’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`update_interval`	`600`	“Update interval in seconds, if none, the widget updates whenever it’s done’.”

CapsNumLockIndicator¶

class libqtile.widget.CapsNumLockIndicator(**config)[source]¶

Really simple widget to show the current Caps/Num Lock state.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`update_interval`	`0.5`	‘Update Time in seconds.’

CheckUpdates¶

class libqtile.widget.CheckUpdates(**config)[source]¶

Shows number of pending updates in different unix systems

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`colour_have_updates`	`'ffffff'`	‘Colour when there are updates.’
`colour_no_updates`	`'ffffff'`	“Colour when there’s no updates.”
`custom_command`	`None`	‘Custom shell command for checking updates (counts the lines of the output)’
`custom_command_modify`	`<function CheckUpdates.<lambda> at 0x7f47af975a70>`	‘Lambda function to modify line count from custom_command’
`display_format`	`'Updates: {updates}'`	‘Display format if updates available’
`distro`	`'Arch'`	‘Name of your distribution’
`execute`	`None`	‘Command to execute on click’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`no_update_string`	`''`	‘String to display if no updates available’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`restart_indicator`	`''`	‘Indicator to represent reboot is required. (Ubuntu only)’
`update_interval`	`60`	‘Update interval in seconds.’

Chord¶

class libqtile.widget.Chord(width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

Display current key chord

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`chords_colors`	`{}`	“colors per chord in form of tuple (‘bg’, ‘fg’).”
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`name_transform`	`<function Chord.<lambda> at 0x7f47af9930e0>`	‘preprocessor for chord name it is pure function string -> string’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’

Clipboard¶

class libqtile.widget.Clipboard(width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

Display current clipboard contents

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`blacklist`	`['keepassx']`	‘list with blacklisted wm_class, sadly not every clipboard window sets them, keepassx does.Clipboard contents from blacklisted wm_classes will be replaced by the value of `blacklist_text`.’
`blacklist_text`	`'***********'`	‘text to display when the wm_class is blacklisted’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`max_width`	`10`	‘maximum number of characters to display (None for all, useful when width is bar.STRETCH)’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`selection`	`'CLIPBOARD'`	‘the selection to display(CLIPBOARD or PRIMARY)’
`timeout`	`10`	‘Default timeout (seconds) for display text, None to keep forever’

Clock¶

class libqtile.widget.Clock(**config)[source]¶

A simple but flexible text-based clock

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'%H:%M'`	‘A Python datetime format string’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`timezone`	`None`	‘The timezone to use for this clock, either as string if pytz or dateutil is installed (e.g. “US/Central” or anything in /usr/share/zoneinfo), or as tzinfo (e.g. datetime.timezone.utc). None means the system local timezone and is the default.’
`update_interval`	`1.0`	‘Update interval for the clock’

Cmus¶

class libqtile.widget.Cmus(**config)[source]¶

A simple Cmus widget.

Show the artist and album of now listening song and allow basic mouse control from the bar:

toggle pause (or play if stopped) on left click;

skip forward in playlist on scroll up;

skip backward in playlist on scroll down.

Cmus (https://cmus.github.io) should be installed.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`noplay_color`	`'cecece'`	‘Text colour when not playing.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`play_color`	`'00ff00'`	‘Text colour when playing.’
`update_interval`	`0.5`	‘Update Time in seconds.’

Countdown¶

class libqtile.widget.Countdown(**config)[source]¶

A simple countdown timer text widget

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`date`	`datetime.datetime(2021, 7, 4, 16, 1, 18, 551479)`	‘The datetime for the endo of the countdown’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'{D}d {H}h {M}m {S}s'`	‘Format of the displayed text. Available variables:{D} == days, {H} == hours, {M} == minutes, {S} seconds.’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`update_interval`	`1.0`	‘Update interval in seconds for the clock’

CurrentLayout¶

class libqtile.widget.CurrentLayout(width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

Display the name of the current layout of the current group of the screen, the bar containing the widget, is on.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’

CurrentLayoutIcon¶

class libqtile.widget.CurrentLayoutIcon(**config)[source]¶

Display the icon representing the current layout of the current group of the screen on which the bar containing the widget is.

If you are using custom layouts, a default icon with question mark will be displayed for them. If you want to use custom icon for your own layout, for example, FooGrid, then create a file named “layout-foogrid.png” and place it in ~/.icons directory. You can as well use other directories, but then you need to specify those directories in custom_icon_paths argument for this plugin.

The order of icon search is:

dirs in custom_icon_paths config argument
~/.icons
built-in qtile icons

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`custom_icon_paths`	`[]`	‘List of folders where to search icons beforeusing built-in icons or icons in ~/.icons dir. This can also be used to providemissing icons for custom layouts. Defaults to empty list.’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`scale`	`1`	‘Scale factor relative to the bar height. Defaults to 1’

CurrentScreen¶

class libqtile.widget.CurrentScreen(width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

Indicates whether the screen this widget is on is currently active or not

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`active_color`	`'00ff00'`	‘Color when screen is active’
`active_text`	`'A'`	‘Text displayed when the screen is active’
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`inactive_color`	`'ff0000'`	‘Color when screen is inactive’
`inactive_text`	`'I'`	‘Text displayed when the screen is inactive’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’

DF¶

class libqtile.widget.DF(**config)[source]¶

Disk Free Widget

By default the widget only displays if the space is less than warn_space.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'{p} ({uf}{m}\|{r:.0f}%)'`	‘String format (p: partition, s: size, f: free space, uf: user free space, m: measure, r: ratio (uf/s))’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`measure`	`'G'`	‘Measurement (G, M, B)’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`partition`	`'/'`	‘the partition to check space’
`update_interval`	`60`	‘The update interval.’
`visible_on_warn`	`True`	‘Only display if warning’
`warn_color`	`'ff0000'`	‘Warning color’
`warn_space`	`2`	‘Warning space in scale defined by the `measure` option.’

GenPollText¶

class libqtile.widget.GenPollText(**config)[source]¶

A generic text widget that polls using poll function to get the text

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`func`	`None`	‘Poll Function’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`update_interval`	`600`	“Update interval in seconds, if none, the widget updates whenever it’s done’.”

GenPollUrl¶

class libqtile.widget.GenPollUrl(**config)[source]¶

A generic text widget that polls an url and parses it using parse function

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`data`	`None`	‘Post Data’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`headers`	`{}`	‘Extra Headers’
`json`	`True`	‘Is Json?’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`parse`	`None`	‘Parse Function’
`update_interval`	`600`	“Update interval in seconds, if none, the widget updates whenever it’s done’.”
`url`	`None`	‘Url’
`user_agent`	`'Qtile'`	‘Set the user agent’
`xml`	`False`	‘Is XML?’

GmailChecker¶

class libqtile.widget.GmailChecker(**config)[source]¶

A simple gmail checker. If ‘status_only_unseen’ is True - set ‘fmt’ for one argument, ex. ‘unseen: {0}’

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`display_fmt`	`'inbox[{0}],unseen[{1}]'`	‘Display format’
`email_path`	`'INBOX'`	‘email_path’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`password`	`None`	‘password’
`status_only_unseen`	`False`	‘Only show unseen messages’
`update_interval`	`30`	‘Update time in seconds.’
`username`	`None`	‘username’

GroupBox¶

class libqtile.widget.GroupBox(**config)[source]¶

A widget that graphically displays the current group. All groups are displayed by their label. If the label of a group is the empty string that group will not be displayed.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`active`	`'FFFFFF'`	‘Active group font colour’
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`block_highlight_text_color`	`None`	‘Selected group font colour’
`borderwidth`	`3`	‘Current group border width’
`center_aligned`	`True`	‘center-aligned group box’
`disable_drag`	`False`	‘Disable dragging and dropping of group names on widget’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`hide_unused`	`False`	‘Hide groups that have no windows and that are not displayed on any screen.’
`highlight_color`	`['000000', '282828']`	“Active group highlight color when using ‘line’ highlight method.”
`highlight_method`	`'border'`	“Method of highlighting (‘border’, ‘block’, ‘text’, or ‘line’)Uses *_border color settings”
`inactive`	`'404040'`	‘Inactive group font colour’
`invert_mouse_wheel`	`False`	‘Whether to invert mouse wheel group movement’
`margin`	`3`	‘Margin inside the box’
`margin_x`	`None`	“X Margin. Overrides ‘margin’ if set”
`margin_y`	`None`	“Y Margin. Overrides ‘margin’ if set”
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`other_current_screen_border`	`'404040'`	‘Border or line colour for group on other screen when focused.’
`other_screen_border`	`'404040'`	‘Border or line colour for group on other screen when unfocused.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`padding_x`	`None`	“X Padding. Overrides ‘padding’ if set”
`padding_y`	`None`	“Y Padding. Overrides ‘padding’ if set”
`rounded`	`True`	‘To round or not to round box borders’
`spacing`	`None`	‘Spacing between groups(if set to None, will be equal to margin_x)’
`this_current_screen_border`	`'215578'`	‘Border or line colour for group on this screen when focused.’
`this_screen_border`	`'215578'`	‘Border or line colour for group on this screen when unfocused.’
`urgent_alert_method`	`'border'`	“Method for alerting you of WM urgent hints (one of ‘border’, ‘text’, ‘block’, or ‘line’)”
`urgent_border`	`'FF0000'`	‘Urgent border or line color’
`urgent_text`	`'FF0000'`	‘Urgent group font color’
`use_mouse_wheel`	`True`	‘Whether to use mouse wheel events’
`visible_groups`	`None`	‘Groups that will be visible. If set to None or [], all groups will be visible.Visible groups are identified by name not by their displayed label.’

HDDBusyGraph¶

class libqtile.widget.HDDBusyGraph(**config)[source]¶

Display HDD busy time graph

Parses /sys/block/<dev>/stat file and extracts overall device IO usage, based on io_ticks’s value. See https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/block/stat.txt

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`border_color`	`'215578'`	‘Widget border color’
`border_width`	`2`	‘Widget border width’
`device`	`'sda'`	‘Block device to display info for’
`fill_color`	`'1667EB.3'`	‘Fill color for linefill graph’
`frequency`	`1`	‘Update frequency in seconds’
`graph_color`	`'18BAEB'`	‘Graph color’
`line_width`	`3`	‘Line width’
`margin_x`	`3`	‘Margin X’
`margin_y`	`3`	‘Margin Y’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`samples`	`100`	‘Count of graph samples.’
`start_pos`	`'bottom'`	“Drawer starting position (‘bottom’/’top’)”
`type`	`'linefill'`	“‘box’, ‘line’, ‘linefill’”

HDDGraph¶

class libqtile.widget.HDDGraph(**config)[source]¶

Display HDD free or used space graph

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`border_color`	`'215578'`	‘Widget border color’
`border_width`	`2`	‘Widget border width’
`fill_color`	`'1667EB.3'`	‘Fill color for linefill graph’
`frequency`	`1`	‘Update frequency in seconds’
`graph_color`	`'18BAEB'`	‘Graph color’
`line_width`	`3`	‘Line width’
`margin_x`	`3`	‘Margin X’
`margin_y`	`3`	‘Margin Y’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`path`	`'/'`	‘Partition mount point.’
`samples`	`100`	‘Count of graph samples.’
`space_type`	`'used'`	‘free/used’
`start_pos`	`'bottom'`	“Drawer starting position (‘bottom’/’top’)”
`type`	`'linefill'`	“‘box’, ‘line’, ‘linefill’”

IdleRPG¶

class libqtile.widget.IdleRPG(**config)[source]¶

A widget for monitoring and displaying IdleRPG stats.

# display idlerpg stats for the player 'pants' on freenode's #idlerpg
widget.IdleRPG(url="http://xethron.lolhosting.net/xml.php?player=pants")

Widget requirements: xmltodict.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`data`	`None`	‘Post Data’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'IdleRPG: {online} TTL: {ttl}'`	‘Display format’
`headers`	`{}`	‘Extra Headers’
`json`	`False`	‘Not json :)’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`parse`	`None`	‘Parse Function’
`update_interval`	`600`	“Update interval in seconds, if none, the widget updates whenever it’s done’.”
`url`	`None`	‘Url’
`user_agent`	`'Qtile'`	‘Set the user agent’
`xml`	`True`	‘Is XML :)’

Image¶

class libqtile.widget.Image(length=CALCULATED, width=None, **config)[source]¶

Display a PNG image on the bar

Supported bar orientations: horizontal and vertical

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`filename`	`None`	“Image filename. Can contain ‘~’”
`margin`	`3`	‘Margin inside the box’
`margin_x`	`None`	“X Margin. Overrides ‘margin’ if set”
`margin_y`	`None`	“Y Margin. Overrides ‘margin’ if set”
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`rotate`	`0.0`	‘rotate the image in degrees counter-clockwise’
`scale`	`True`	‘Enable/Disable image scaling’

ImapWidget¶

class libqtile.widget.ImapWidget(**config)[source]¶

Email IMAP widget

This widget will scan one of your imap email boxes and report the number of unseen messages present. I’ve configured it to only work with imap with ssl. Your password is obtained from the Gnome Keyring.

Writing your password to the keyring initially is as simple as (changing out <userid> and <password> for your userid and password):

create the file ~/.local/share/python_keyring/keyringrc.cfg with the following contents:

[backend]
default-keyring=keyring.backends.Gnome.Keyring
keyring-path=/home/<userid>/.local/share/keyring/

Execute the following python shell script once:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import keyring
user = <userid>
password = <password>
keyring.set_password('imapwidget', user, password)

mbox names must include the path to the mbox (except for the default INBOX). So, for example if your mailroot is ~/Maildir, and you want to look at the mailbox at HomeMail/fred, the mbox setting would be: mbox="~/Maildir/HomeMail/fred". Note the nested sets of quotes! Labels can be whatever you choose, of course.

Widget requirements: keyring.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`label`	`'INBOX'`	‘label for display’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mbox`	`'"INBOX"'`	‘mailbox to fetch’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`server`	`None`	‘email server name’
`update_interval`	`600`	“Update interval in seconds, if none, the widget updates whenever it’s done’.”
`user`	`None`	‘email username’

KeyboardKbdd¶

class libqtile.widget.KeyboardKbdd(**config)[source]¶

Widget for changing keyboard layouts per window, using kbdd

kbdd should be installed and running, you can get it from: https://github.com/qnikst/kbdd

The widget also requires dbus-next.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`colours`	`None`	“foreground colour for each layouteither ‘None’ or a list of colours.example: [‘ffffff’, ‘E6F0AF’]. “
`configured_keyboards`	`['us', 'ir']`	“your predefined list of keyboard layouts.example: [‘us’, ‘ir’, ‘es’]”
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`update_interval`	`1`	‘Update interval in seconds.’

KeyboardLayout¶

class libqtile.widget.KeyboardLayout(**config)[source]¶

Widget for changing and displaying the current keyboard layout

To use this widget effectively you need to specify keyboard layouts you want to use (using “configured_keyboards”) and bind function “next_keyboard” to specific keys in order to change layouts.

For example:

Key([mod], “space”, lazy.widget[“keyboardlayout”].next_keyboard(), desc=”Next keyboard layout.”),

When running Qtile with the X11 backend, this widget requires setxkbmap to be available.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`configured_keyboards`	`['us']`	“A list of predefined keyboard layouts represented as strings. For example: [‘us’, ‘us colemak’, ‘es’, ‘fr’].”
`display_map`	`{}`	“Custom display of layout. Key should be in format ‘layout variant’. For example: {‘us’: ‘us ‘, ‘lt sgs’: ‘sgs’, ‘ru phonetic’: ‘ru ‘}”
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`option`	`None`	“string of setxkbmap option. Ex., ‘compose:menu,grp_led:scroll’”
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`update_interval`	`1`	‘Update time in seconds.’

KhalCalendar¶

class libqtile.widget.KhalCalendar(**config)[source]¶

Khal calendar widget

This widget will display the next appointment on your Khal calendar in the qtile status bar. Appointments within the “reminder” time will be highlighted.

Widget requirements: dateutil.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'FFFF33'`	‘default foreground color’
`lookahead`	`7`	‘days to look ahead in the calendar’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`reminder_color`	`'FF0000'`	‘color of calendar entries during reminder time’
`remindertime`	`10`	‘reminder time in minutes’
`update_interval`	`600`	“Update interval in seconds, if none, the widget updates whenever it’s done’.”

LaunchBar¶

class libqtile.widget.LaunchBar(progs=None, width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

A widget that display icons to launch the associated command

Widget requirements: pyxdg.

Parameters

progs :

a list of tuples (software_name, command_to_execute, comment), for example:

('thunderbird', 'thunderbird -safe-mode', 'launch thunderbird in safe mode')
('logout', 'qshell:self.qtile.cmd_shutdown()', 'logout from qtile')

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`default_icon`	`'/usr/share/icons/oxygen/256x256/mimetypes/application-x-executable.png'`	‘Default icon not found’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`2`	‘Padding between icons’

Maildir¶

class libqtile.widget.Maildir(**config)[source]¶

A simple widget showing the number of new mails in maildir mailboxes

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`empty_color`	`None`	‘Display color when no new mail is available’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`hide_when_empty`	`False`	‘Whether not to display anything if the subfolder has no new mail’
`maildir_path`	`'~/Mail'`	‘path to the Maildir folder’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`nonempty_color`	`None`	‘Display color when new mail is available’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`separator`	`' '`	‘the string to put between the subfolder strings.’
`sub_folders`	`[{'label': 'Home mail', 'path': 'INBOX'}, {'label': 'Home junk', 'path': 'spam'}]`	‘List of subfolders to scan. Each subfolder is a dict of path and label.’
`subfolder_fmt`	`'{label}: {value}'`	‘Display format for one subfolder’
`total`	`False`	‘Whether or not to sum subfolders into a grand total. The first label will be used.’
`update_interval`	`600`	“Update interval in seconds, if none, the widget updates whenever it’s done’.”

Memory¶

class libqtile.widget.Memory(**config)[source]¶

Displays memory/swap usage

MemUsed: Returns memory in use MemTotal: Returns total amount of memory MemFree: Returns amount of memory free MemPercent: Returns memory in use as a percentage Buffers: Returns buffer amount Active: Returns active memory Inactive: Returns inactive memory Shmem: Returns shared memory SwapTotal: Returns total amount of swap SwapFree: Returns amount of swap free SwapUsed: Returns amount of swap in use SwapPercent: Returns swap in use as a percentage

Widget requirements: psutil.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'{MemUsed: .0f}{mm}/{MemTotal: .0f}{mm}'`	‘Formatting for field names.’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`measure_mem`	`'M'`	‘Measurement for Memory (G, M, K, B)’
`measure_swap`	`'M'`	‘Measurement for Swap (G, M, K, B)’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`update_interval`	`1.0`	‘Update interval for the Memory’

MemoryGraph¶

class libqtile.widget.MemoryGraph(**config)[source]¶

Displays a memory usage graph.

Widget requirements: psutil.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`border_color`	`'215578'`	‘Widget border color’
`border_width`	`2`	‘Widget border width’
`fill_color`	`'1667EB.3'`	‘Fill color for linefill graph’
`frequency`	`1`	‘Update frequency in seconds’
`graph_color`	`'18BAEB'`	‘Graph color’
`line_width`	`3`	‘Line width’
`margin_x`	`3`	‘Margin X’
`margin_y`	`3`	‘Margin Y’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`samples`	`100`	‘Count of graph samples.’
`start_pos`	`'bottom'`	“Drawer starting position (‘bottom’/’top’)”
`type`	`'linefill'`	“‘box’, ‘line’, ‘linefill’”

Mirror¶

class libqtile.widget.Mirror(reflection, **config)[source]¶

A widget for showing the same widget content in more than one place, for instance, on bars across multiple screens.

You don’t need to use it directly; instead, just instantiate your widget once and hand it in to multiple bars. For instance:

cpu = widget.CPUGraph()
clock = widget.Clock()

screens = [
    Screen(top=bar.Bar([widget.GroupBox(), cpu, clock])),
    Screen(top=bar.Bar([widget.GroupBox(), cpu, clock])),
]

Widgets can be passed to more than one bar, so that there don’t need to be any duplicates executing the same code all the time, and they’ll always be visually identical.

This works for all widgets that use drawers (and nothing else) to display their contents. Currently, this is all widgets except for Systray.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal and vertical

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’

Moc¶

class libqtile.widget.Moc(**config)[source]¶

A simple MOC widget.

Show the artist and album of now listening song and allow basic mouse control from the bar:

toggle pause (or play if stopped) on left click;
skip forward in playlist on scroll up;
skip backward in playlist on scroll down.

MOC (http://moc.daper.net) should be installed.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`noplay_color`	`'cecece'`	‘Text colour when not playing.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`play_color`	`'00ff00'`	‘Text colour when playing.’
`update_interval`	`0.5`	‘Update Time in seconds.’

Mpd2¶

class libqtile.widget.Mpd2(**config)[source]¶

Mpd2 Object.

Parameters

status_format :

format string to display status

For a full list of values, see:: MPDClient.status() and MPDClient.currentsong()

https://musicpd.org/doc/protocol/command_reference.html#command_status https://musicpd.org/doc/protocol/tags.html

Default:

'{play_status} {artist}/{title} \
    [{repeat}{random}{single}{consume}{updating_db}]'

``play_status`` is a string from ``play_states`` dict

Note that the ``time`` property of the song renamed to ``fulltime``
to prevent conflicts with status information during formating.

idle_format :

format string to display status when no song is in queue.

Default:

'{play_status} {idle_message} \
    [{repeat}{random}{single}{consume}{updating_db}]'

idle_message :

text to display instead of song information when MPD is idle. (i.e. no song in queue)

Default:: “MPD IDLE”

prepare_status :

dict of functions to replace values in status with custom characters.

f(status, key, space_element) => str

New functionality allows use of a dictionary of plain strings.

Default:

status_dict = {
    'repeat': 'r',
    'random': 'z',
    'single': '1',
    'consume': 'c',
    'updating_db': 'U'
}

format_fns :

A dict of functions to format the various elements.

‘Tag’ : f(str) => str

Default:: { ‘all’: lambda s: cgi.escape(s) }

N.B. if ‘all’ is present, it is processed on every element of song_info: before any other formatting is done.

mouse_buttons :

A dict of mouse button numbers to actions

Widget requirements: python-mpd2_.

.. _python-mpd2: https://pypi.org/project/python-mpd2/

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`color_progress`	`None`	‘Text color to indicate track progress.’
`command`	`<function default_cmd at 0x7f47af9c35f0>`	‘command to be executed by mapped mouse button.’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format_fns`	`{'all': <function escape at 0x7f47b47bb3b0>}`	‘Dictionary of format methods’
`host`	`'localhost'`	‘Host of mpd server’
`idle_format`	`'{play_status} {idle_message}[{repeat}{random}{single}{consume}{updating_db}]'`	‘format for status when mpd has no playlist.’
`idle_message`	`'MPD IDLE'`	‘text to display when mpd is idle.’
`idletimeout`	`5`	‘MPDClient idle command timeout’
`keys`	`{'command': None, 'next': 5, 'previous': 4, 'stop': 3, 'toggle': 1}`	‘mouse button mapping. action -> b_num. deprecated.’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_buttons`	`{}`	‘b_num -> action. replaces keys.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`no_connection`	`'No connection'`	‘Text when mpd is disconnected’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`password`	`None`	‘Password for auth on mpd server’
`play_states`	`{'pause': '⏸', 'play': '▶', 'stop': '■'}`	‘Play state mapping’
`port`	`6600`	‘Port of mpd server’
`prepare_status`	`{'consume': 'c', 'random': 'z', 'repeat': 'r', 'single': '1', 'updating_db': 'U'}`	‘characters to show the status of MPD’
`space`	`'-'`	‘Space keeper’
`status_format`	`'{play_status} {artist}/{title} [{repeat}{random}{single}{consume}{updating_db}]'`	‘format for displayed song info.’
`timeout`	`30`	‘MPDClient timeout’
`update_interval`	`1`	‘Interval of update widget’

Mpris2¶

class libqtile.widget.Mpris2(**config)[source]¶

An MPRIS 2 widget

A widget which displays the current track/artist of your favorite MPRIS player. This widget scrolls the text if neccessary and information that is displayed is configurable.

Widget requirements: dbus-next.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`display_metadata`	`['xesam:title', 'xesam:album', 'xesam:artist']`	‘Which metadata identifiers to display. See http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/mpris-spec/metadata/#index5h3 for available values’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`name`	`'audacious'`	‘Name of the MPRIS widget.’
`objname`	`'org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.audacious'`	‘DBUS MPRIS 2 compatible player identifier- Find it out with dbus-monitor - Also see: http://specifications.freedesktop.org/mpris-spec/latest/#Bus-Name-Policy’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`scroll_chars`	`30`	‘How many chars at once to display.’
`scroll_interval`	`0.5`	‘Scroll delay interval.’
`scroll_wait_intervals`	`8`	‘Wait x scroll_interval beforescrolling/removing text’
`stop_pause_text`	`None`	‘Optional text to display when in the stopped/paused state’

Net¶

class libqtile.widget.Net(**config)[source]¶

Displays interface down and up speed

Widget requirements: psutil.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'{interface}: {down} ↓↑ {up}'`	‘Display format of down-/upload speed of given interfaces’
`interface`	`None`	‘List of interfaces or single NIC as string to monitor, None to displays all active NICs combined’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`update_interval`	`1`	‘The update interval.’
`use_bits`	`False`	‘Use bits instead of bytes per second?’

NetGraph¶

class libqtile.widget.NetGraph(**config)[source]¶

Display a network usage graph.

Widget requirements: psutil.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`bandwidth_type`	`'down'`	‘down(load)/up(load)’
`border_color`	`'215578'`	‘Widget border color’
`border_width`	`2`	‘Widget border width’
`fill_color`	`'1667EB.3'`	‘Fill color for linefill graph’
`frequency`	`1`	‘Update frequency in seconds’
`graph_color`	`'18BAEB'`	‘Graph color’
`interface`	`'auto'`	“Interface to display info for (‘auto’ for detection)”
`line_width`	`3`	‘Line width’
`margin_x`	`3`	‘Margin X’
`margin_y`	`3`	‘Margin Y’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`samples`	`100`	‘Count of graph samples.’
`start_pos`	`'bottom'`	“Drawer starting position (‘bottom’/’top’)”
`type`	`'linefill'`	“‘box’, ‘line’, ‘linefill’”

Notify¶

class libqtile.widget.Notify(width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

A notify widget

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`audiofile`	`None`	‘Audiofile played during notifications’
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`default_timeout`	`None`	‘Default timeout (seconds) for notifications’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`foreground_low`	`'dddddd'`	‘Foreground low priority colour’
`foreground_urgent`	`'ff0000'`	‘Foreground urgent priority colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’

NvidiaSensors¶

class libqtile.widget.NvidiaSensors(**config)[source]¶

Displays temperature, fan speed and performance level Nvidia GPU.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`foreground_alert`	`'ff0000'`	‘Foreground colour alert’
`format`	`'{temp}°C'`	‘Display string format. Three options available: `{temp}` - temperature, `{fan_speed}` and `{perf}` - performance level’
`gpu_bus_id`	`''`	“GPU’s Bus ID, ex: `01:00.0`. If leave empty will display all available GPU’s”
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`threshold`	`70`	‘If the current temperature value is above, then change to foreground_alert colour’
`update_interval`	`2`	‘Update interval in seconds.’

OpenWeather¶

class libqtile.widget.OpenWeather(**config)[source]¶

A weather widget, data provided by the OpenWeather API.

Some format options:

location_city
location_cityid
location_country
location_lat
location_long
weather
weather_details
units_temperature
units_wind_speed
isotime
humidity
pressure
sunrise
sunset
temp
visibility
wind_speed
wind_deg
wind_direction
weather_0_icon # See: https://openweathermap.org/weather-conditions; TODO: Use icons.
main_feels_like
main_temp_min
main_temp_max
clouds_all

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`app_key`	`'7834197c2338888258f8cb94ae14ef49'`	‘Open Weather access key. A default is provided, butn for prolonged use obtaining your own is suggested:n https://home.openweathermap.org/users/sign_up’
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`cityid`	`None`	‘City ID. Can be looked up on e.g.:n https://openweathermap.org/findn Takes precedence over location and coordinates.n Note that this is not equal to a WOEID.’
`coordinates`	`None`	‘Dictionary containing latitude and longituden Example: coordinates={“longitude”: “77.22”,n “latitude”: “28.67”}’
`data`	`None`	‘Post Data’
`dateformat`	`'%Y-%m-%d '`	‘Format for dates, defaults to ISO.n For details see: https://docs.python.org/3/library/time.html#time.strftime’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'{location_city}: {main_temp} °{units_temperature} {humidity}% {weather_details}'`	‘Display format’
`headers`	`{}`	‘Extra Headers’
`json`	`True`	‘Is Json?’
`language`	`'en'`	‘Language of response. List of languages supported cann be seen at: https://openweathermap.org/current undern Multilingual support’
`location`	`None`	‘Name of the city. Country name can be appendedn like cambridge,NZ. Takes precedence over zip-code.’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`metric`	`True`	‘True to use metric/C, False to use imperial/F’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`parse`	`None`	‘Parse Function’
`timeformat`	`'%H:%M'`	‘Format for times, defaults to ISO.n For details see: https://docs.python.org/3/library/time.html#time.strftime’
`update_interval`	`600`	“Update interval in seconds, if none, the widget updates whenever it’s done’.”
`url`	`None`	‘Url’
`user_agent`	`'Qtile'`	‘Set the user agent’
`xml`	`False`	‘Is XML?’
`zip`	`None`	‘Zip code (USA) or “zip code,country code” forn other countries. E.g. 12345,NZ. Takes precedence overn coordinates.’

Pomodoro¶

class libqtile.widget.Pomodoro(**config)[source]¶

Pomodoro technique widget

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`color_active`	`'00ff00'`	‘Colour then pomodoro is running’
`color_break`	`'ffff00'`	‘Colour then it is break time’
`color_inactive`	`'ff0000'`	‘Colour then pomodoro is inactive’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘fmt’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`length_long_break`	`15`	‘Length of a long break in minutes’
`length_pomodori`	`25`	‘Length of one pomodori in minutes’
`length_short_break`	`5`	‘Length of a short break in minutes’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`notification_on`	`True`	‘Turn notifications on’
`num_pomodori`	`4`	‘Number of pomodori to do in a cycle’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`prefix_active`	`''`	‘Prefix then app is active’
`prefix_break`	`'B '`	‘Prefix during short break’
`prefix_inactive`	`'POMODORO'`	‘Prefix when app is inactive’
`prefix_long_break`	`'LB '`	‘Prefix during long break’
`prefix_paused`	`'PAUSE'`	‘Prefix during pause’
`update_interval`	`1`	‘Update interval in seconds, if none, the widget updates whenever the event loop is idle.’

Prompt¶

class libqtile.widget.Prompt(name='prompt', **config)[source]¶

A widget that prompts for user input

Input should be started using the .start_input() method on this class.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`bell_style`	`'audible'`	“Alert at the begin/end of the command history. Possible values: ‘audible’ (X11 only), ‘visual’ and None.”
`cursor`	`True`	‘Show a cursor’
`cursor_color`	`'bef098'`	‘Color for the cursor and text over it.’
`cursorblink`	`0.5`	‘Cursor blink rate. 0 to disable.’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`ignore_dups_history`	`False`	“Don’t store duplicates in history”
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`max_history`	`100`	‘Commands to keep in history. 0 for no limit.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`prompt`	`'{prompt}: '`	‘Text displayed at the prompt’
`record_history`	`True`	‘Keep a record of executed commands’
`visual_bell_color`	`'ff0000'`	‘Color for the visual bell (changes prompt background).’
`visual_bell_time`	`0.2`	‘Visual bell duration (in seconds).’

QuickExit¶

class libqtile.widget.QuickExit(widget=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

A button of exiting the running qtile easily. When clicked this button, a countdown start. If the button pushed with in the countdown again, the qtile shutdown.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`countdown_format`	`'[ {} seconds ]'`	‘This text is showed when counting down.’
`countdown_start`	`5`	‘Time to accept the second pushing.’
`default_text`	`'[ shutdown ]'`	‘A text displayed as a button’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`timer_interval`	`1`	‘A countdown interval.’

Sep¶

class libqtile.widget.Sep(height_percent=None, **config)[source]¶

A visible widget separator

Supported bar orientations: horizontal and vertical

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`foreground`	`'888888'`	‘Separator line colour.’
`linewidth`	`1`	‘Width of separator line.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`2`	‘Padding on either side of separator.’
`size_percent`	`80`	‘Size as a percentage of bar size (0-100).’

She¶

class libqtile.widget.She(**config)[source]¶

Widget to display the Super Hybrid Engine status

Can display either the mode or CPU speed on eeepc computers.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`device`	`'/sys/devices/platform/eeepc/cpufv'`	‘sys path to cpufv’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'speed'`	‘Type of info to display “speed” or “name”’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`update_interval`	`0.5`	‘Update Time in seconds.’

Spacer¶

class libqtile.widget.Spacer(length=STRETCH, width=None, **config)[source]¶

Just an empty space on the bar

Often used with length equal to bar.STRETCH to push bar widgets to the right or bottom edge of the screen.

Parameters

length :: Length of the widget. Can be either bar.STRETCH or a length in pixels.
width :: DEPRECATED, same as length.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal and vertical

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’

StockTicker¶

class libqtile.widget.StockTicker(**config)[source]¶

A stock ticker widget, based on the alphavantage API. Users must acquire an API key from https://www.alphavantage.co/support/#api-key

The widget defaults to the TIME_SERIES_INTRADAY API function (i.e. stock symbols), but arbitrary Alpha Vantage API queries can be made by passing extra arguments to the constructor.

# Display AMZN
widget.StockTicker(apikey=..., symbol="AMZN")

# Display BTC
widget.StockTicker(apikey=..., function="DIGITAL_CURRENCY_INTRADAY", symbol="BTC", market="USD")

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`data`	`None`	‘Post Data’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`function`	`'TIME_SERIES_INTRADAY'`	‘The default API function to query’
`headers`	`{}`	‘Extra Headers’
`interval`	`'1min'`	‘The default latency to query’
`json`	`True`	‘Is Json?’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`parse`	`None`	‘Parse Function’
`update_interval`	`600`	“Update interval in seconds, if none, the widget updates whenever it’s done’.”
`url`	`None`	‘Url’
`user_agent`	`'Qtile'`	‘Set the user agent’
`xml`	`False`	‘Is XML?’

SwapGraph¶

class libqtile.widget.SwapGraph(**config)[source]¶

Display a swap info graph.

Widget requirements: psutil.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`border_color`	`'215578'`	‘Widget border color’
`border_width`	`2`	‘Widget border width’
`fill_color`	`'1667EB.3'`	‘Fill color for linefill graph’
`frequency`	`1`	‘Update frequency in seconds’
`graph_color`	`'18BAEB'`	‘Graph color’
`line_width`	`3`	‘Line width’
`margin_x`	`3`	‘Margin X’
`margin_y`	`3`	‘Margin Y’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`samples`	`100`	‘Count of graph samples.’
`start_pos`	`'bottom'`	“Drawer starting position (‘bottom’/’top’)”
`type`	`'linefill'`	“‘box’, ‘line’, ‘linefill’”

Systray¶

class libqtile.widget.Systray(**config)[source]¶

A widget that manages system tray.

Note

Icons will not render correctly where the bar/widget is drawn with a semi-transparent background. Instead, icons will be drawn with a transparent background.

If using this widget it is therefore recommended to use a fully opaque background colour or a fully transparent one.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`icon_size`	`20`	‘Icon width’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`5`	‘Padding between icons’

TaskList¶

class libqtile.widget.TaskList(**config)[source]¶

Displays the icon and name of each window in the current group

Contrary to WindowTabs this is an interactive widget. The window that currently has focus is highlighted.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`border`	`'215578'`	‘Border colour’
`borderwidth`	`2`	‘Current group border width’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`highlight_method`	`'border'`	“Method of highlighting (one of ‘border’ or ‘block’) Uses *_border color settings”
`icon_size`	`None`	‘Icon size. (Calculated if set to None. Icons are hidden if set to 0.)’
`margin`	`3`	‘Margin inside the box’
`margin_x`	`None`	“X Margin. Overrides ‘margin’ if set”
`margin_y`	`None`	“Y Margin. Overrides ‘margin’ if set”
`markup_floating`	`None`	‘Text markup of the floating window state. Supports pangomarkup with markup=True.e.g., “{}” or “<span underline=”low”>{}</span>”’
`markup_focused`	`None`	‘Text markup of the focused window state. Supports pangomarkup with markup=True.e.g., “{}” or “<span underline=”low”>{}</span>”’
`markup_maximized`	`None`	‘Text markup of the maximized window state. Supports pangomarkup with markup=True.e.g., “{}” or “<span underline=”low”>{}</span>”’
`markup_minimized`	`None`	‘Text markup of the minimized window state. Supports pangomarkup with markup=True.e.g., “{}” or “<span underline=”low”>{}</span>”’
`markup_normal`	`None`	‘Text markup of the normal window state. Supports pangomarkup with markup=True.e.g., “{}” or “<span underline=”low”>{}</span>”’
`max_title_width`	`None`	‘Max size in pixels of task title.(if set to None, as much as available.)’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`3`	‘Padding inside the box’
`padding_x`	`None`	“X Padding. Overrides ‘padding’ if set”
`padding_y`	`None`	“Y Padding. Overrides ‘padding’ if set”
`parse_text`	`None`	‘Function to parse and modify window names. e.g. function in config that removes excess strings from window name: def my_func(text) for string in [” - Chromium”, ” - Firefox”]: text = text.replace(string, “”) return textthen set option parse_text=my_func’
`rounded`	`True`	‘To round or not to round borders’
`spacing`	`None`	‘Spacing between tasks.(if set to None, will be equal to margin_x)’
`title_width_method`	`None`	“Method to compute the width of task title. (None, ‘uniform’.)Defaults to None, the normal behaviour.”
`txt_floating`	`'V '`	‘Text representation of the floating window state. e.g., “V ” or “🗗 “’
`txt_maximized`	`'[] '`	‘Text representation of the maximized window state. e.g., “[] ” or “🗖 “’
`txt_minimized`	`'_ '`	‘Text representation of the minimized window state. e.g., “_ ” or “🗕 “’
`unfocused_border`	`None`	“Border color for unfocused windows. Affects only hightlight_method ‘border’ and ‘block’. Defaults to None, which means no special color.”
`urgent_alert_method`	`'border'`	“Method for alerting you of WM urgent hints (one of ‘border’ or ‘text’)”
`urgent_border`	`'FF0000'`	‘Urgent border color’

TextBox¶

class libqtile.widget.TextBox(text=' ', width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

A flexible textbox that can be updated from bound keys, scripts, and qshell.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Text font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font pixel size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'#ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour.’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding left and right. Calculated if None.’

ThermalSensor¶

class libqtile.widget.ThermalSensor(**config)[source]¶

Widget to display temperature sensor information

For using the thermal sensor widget you need to have lm-sensors installed. You can get a list of the tag_sensors executing “sensors” in your terminal. Then you can choose which you want, otherwise it will display the first available.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`foreground_alert`	`'ff0000'`	‘Foreground colour alert’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`metric`	`True`	‘True to use metric/C, False to use imperial/F’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`show_tag`	`False`	‘Show tag sensor’
`tag_sensor`	`None`	‘Tag of the temperature sensor. For example: “temp1” or “Core 0”’
`threshold`	`70`	‘If the current temperature value is above, then change to foreground_alert colour’
`update_interval`	`2`	‘Update interval in seconds’

Volume¶

class libqtile.widget.Volume(**config)[source]¶

Widget that display and change volume

By default, this widget uses amixer to get and set the volume so users will need to make sure this is installed. Alternatively, users may set the relevant parameters for the widget to use a different application.

If theme_path is set it draw widget as icons.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`cardid`	`None`	‘Card Id’
`channel`	`'Master'`	‘Channel’
`device`	`'default'`	‘Device Name’
`emoji`	`False`	‘Use emoji to display volume states, only if `theme_path` is not set.The specified font needs to contain the correct unicode characters.’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`get_volume_command`	`None`	‘Command to get the current volume’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`mute_command`	`None`	‘Mute command’
`padding`	`3`	‘Padding left and right. Calculated if None.’
`step`	`2`	‘Volume change for up an down commands in percentage.Only used if `volume_up_command` and `volume_down_command` are not set.’
`theme_path`	`None`	‘Path of the icons’
`update_interval`	`0.2`	‘Update time in seconds.’
`volume_app`	`None`	‘App to control volume’
`volume_down_command`	`None`	‘Volume down command’
`volume_up_command`	`None`	‘Volume up command’

Wallpaper¶

class libqtile.widget.Wallpaper(**config)[source]¶

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`directory`	`'~/Pictures/wallpapers/'`	‘Wallpaper Directory’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`label`	`None`	‘Use a fixed label instead of image name.’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`option`	`'fill'`	“How to fit the wallpaper when wallpaper_command isNone. None, ‘fill’ or ‘stretch’.”
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`random_selection`	`False`	‘If set, use random initial wallpaper and randomly cycle through the wallpapers.’
`wallpaper`	`None`	‘Wallpaper’
`wallpaper_command`	`['feh', '--bg-fill']`	‘Wallpaper command. If None, thewallpaper will be painted without the use of a helper.’

WidgetBox¶

class libqtile.widget.WidgetBox(widgets: Optional[list] = None, **config)[source]¶

A widget to declutter your bar.

WidgetBox is a widget that hides widgets by default but shows them when the box is opened.

Widgets that are hidden will still update etc. as if they were on the main bar.

Button clicks are passed to widgets when they are visible so callbacks will work.

Widgets in the box also remain accessible via command interfaces.

Widgets can only be added to the box via the configuration file. The widget is configured by adding widgets to the “widgets” parameter as follows:

widget.WidgetBox(widgets=[
    widget.TextBox(text="This widget is in the box"),
    widget.Memory()
    ]
),

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`close_button_location`	`'left'`	“Location of close button when box open (‘left’ or ‘right’)”
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Text font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font pixel size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'#ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`text_closed`	`'[<]'`	‘Text when box is closed’
`text_open`	`'[>]'`	‘Text when box is open’

WindowCount¶

class libqtile.widget.WindowCount(text=' ', width=CALCULATED, **config)[source]¶

A simple widget to show the number of windows in the current group.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Text font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font pixel size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'#ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour.’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding left and right. Calculated if None.’
`show_zero`	`False`	‘Show window count when no windows’
`text_format`	`'{num}'`	‘Format for message’

WindowName¶

class libqtile.widget.WindowName(width=STRETCH, **config)[source]¶

Displays the name of the window that currently has focus

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`empty_group_string`	`' '`	‘string to display when no windows are focused on current group’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`for_current_screen`	`False`	‘instead of this bars screen use currently active screen’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'{state}{name}'`	‘format of the text’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`parse_text`	`None`	‘Function to parse and modify window names. e.g. function in config that removes excess strings from window name: def my_func(text) for string in [” - Chromium”, ” - Firefox”]: text = text.replace(string, “”) return textthen set option parse_text=my_func’

WindowTabs¶

class libqtile.widget.WindowTabs(**config)[source]¶

Displays the name of each window in the current group. Contrary to TaskList this is not an interactive widget. The window that currently has focus is highlighted.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`parse_text`	`None`	‘Function to parse and modify window names. e.g. function in config that removes excess strings from window name: def my_func(text) for string in [” - Chromium”, ” - Firefox”]: text = text.replace(string, “”) return textthen set option parse_text=my_func’
`selected`	`('<b>', '</b>')`	‘Selected task indicator’
`separator`	`' \| '`	‘Task separator text.’

Wlan¶

class libqtile.widget.Wlan(**config)[source]¶

Displays Wifi SSID and quality.

Widget requirements: iwlib.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`disconnected_message`	`'Disconnected'`	‘String to show when the wlan is diconnected.’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'{essid} {quality}/70'`	‘Display format. For percents you can use “{essid} {percent:2.0%}”’
`interface`	`'wlan0'`	‘The interface to monitor’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`update_interval`	`1`	‘The update interval.’

Wttr¶

class libqtile.widget.Wttr(**config)[source]¶

Display weather widget provided by wttr.in.

To specify your own custom output format, use the special %-notation (example: ‘My_city: %t(%f), wind: %w’):

%c Weather condition,

%C Weather condition textual name,

%h Humidity,

%t Temperature (Actual),

%f Temperature (Feels Like),

%w Wind,

%l Location,

%m Moonphase 🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘,

%M Moonday,

%p precipitation (mm),

%P pressure (hPa),

%D Dawn !,

%S Sunrise !,

%z Zenith !,

%s Sunset !,

%d Dusk !. (!times are shown in the local timezone)

Add the character ~ at the beginning to get weather for some special location: ~Vostok Station or ~Eiffel Tower.

Also can use IP-addresses (direct) or domain names (prefixed with @) to specify a location: @github.com, 123.456.678.123

Specify multiple locations as dictionary

location={
    'Minsk': 'Minsk',
    '64.127146,-21.873472': 'Reykjavik',
}

Cities will change randomly every update.

Supported bar orientations: horizontal only

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘Widget background color’
`data`	`None`	‘Post Data’
`fmt`	`'{}'`	‘How to format the text’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘Default font’
`fontshadow`	`None`	‘font shadow color, default is None(no shadow)’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘Font size. Calculated if None.’
`foreground`	`'ffffff'`	‘Foreground colour’
`format`	`'3'`	‘Display text format. Choose presets in range 1-4 (Ex. `"1"`) or build your own custom output format, use the special %-notation. See https://github.com/chubin/wttr.in#one-line-output’
`headers`	`{}`	‘Extra Headers’
`json`	`False`	‘Is Json?’
`lang`	`'en'`	‘Display text language. List of supported languages https://wttr.in/:translation’
`location`	`None`	‘Dictionary. Key is a city or place name, or GPS coordinates. Value is a display name.’
`markup`	`True`	‘Whether or not to use pango markup’
`max_chars`	`0`	‘Maximum number of characters to display in widget.’
`mouse_callbacks`	`{}`	‘Dict of mouse button press callback functions.’
`padding`	`None`	‘Padding. Calculated if None.’
`parse`	`None`	‘Parse Function’
`units`	`'m'`	“`'m'` - metric, `'M'` - show wind speed in m/s, `'s'` - imperial”
`update_interval`	`600`	‘Update interval in seconds. Recommendation: if you want to display multiple locations alternately, maybe set a smaller interval, ex. `30`.’
`url`	`None`	‘Url’
`user_agent`	`'Qtile'`	‘Set the user agent’
`xml`	`False`	‘Is XML?’

Built-in Extensions¶

CommandSet¶

class libqtile.extension.CommandSet(**config)[source]¶

Give list of commands to be executed in dmenu style.

ex. manage mocp deamon:

Key([mod], 'm', lazy.run_extension(extension.CommandSet(
    commands={
        'play/pause': '[ $(mocp -i | wc -l) -lt 2 ] && mocp -p || mocp -G',
        'next': 'mocp -f',
        'previous': 'mocp -r',
        'quit': 'mocp -x',
        'open': 'urxvt -e mocp',
        'shuffle': 'mocp -t shuffle',
        'repeat': 'mocp -t repeat',
        },
    pre_commands=['[ $(mocp -i | wc -l) -lt 1 ] && mocp -S'],
    **Theme.dmenu))),

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘defines the normal background color’
`command`	`None`	‘the command to be launched (string or list with arguments)’
`commands`	`None`	‘dictionary of commands where key is runable command’
`dmenu_bottom`	`False`	‘dmenu appears at the bottom of the screen’
`dmenu_command`	`'dmenu'`	‘the dmenu command to be launched’
`dmenu_font`	`None`	“override the default ‘font’ and ‘fontsize’ options for dmenu”
`dmenu_height`	`None`	‘defines the height (only supported by some dmenu forks)’
`dmenu_ignorecase`	`False`	‘dmenu matches menu items case insensitively’
`dmenu_lines`	`None`	‘dmenu lists items vertically, with the given number of lines’
`dmenu_prompt`	`None`	‘defines the prompt to be displayed to the left of the input field’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘defines the font name to be used’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘defines the font size to be used’
`foreground`	`None`	‘defines the normal foreground color’
`pre_commands`	`None`	‘list of commands to be executed before getting dmenu answer’
`selected_background`	`None`	‘defines the selected background color’
`selected_foreground`	`None`	‘defines the selected foreground color’

Dmenu¶

class libqtile.extension.Dmenu(**config)[source]¶

Python wrapper for dmenu http://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘defines the normal background color’
`command`	`None`	‘the command to be launched (string or list with arguments)’
`dmenu_bottom`	`False`	‘dmenu appears at the bottom of the screen’
`dmenu_command`	`'dmenu'`	‘the dmenu command to be launched’
`dmenu_font`	`None`	“override the default ‘font’ and ‘fontsize’ options for dmenu”
`dmenu_height`	`None`	‘defines the height (only supported by some dmenu forks)’
`dmenu_ignorecase`	`False`	‘dmenu matches menu items case insensitively’
`dmenu_lines`	`None`	‘dmenu lists items vertically, with the given number of lines’
`dmenu_prompt`	`None`	‘defines the prompt to be displayed to the left of the input field’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘defines the font name to be used’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘defines the font size to be used’
`foreground`	`None`	‘defines the normal foreground color’
`selected_background`	`None`	‘defines the selected background color’
`selected_foreground`	`None`	‘defines the selected foreground color’

DmenuRun¶

class libqtile.extension.DmenuRun(**config)[source]¶

Special case to run applications.

config.py should have something like:

from libqtile import extension
keys = [
    Key(['mod4'], 'r', lazy.run_extension(extension.DmenuRun(
        dmenu_prompt=">",
        dmenu_font="Andika-8",
        background="#15181a",
        foreground="#00ff00",
        selected_background="#079822",
        selected_foreground="#fff",
        dmenu_height=24,  # Only supported by some dmenu forks
    ))),
]

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘defines the normal background color’
`command`	`None`	‘the command to be launched (string or list with arguments)’
`dmenu_bottom`	`False`	‘dmenu appears at the bottom of the screen’
`dmenu_command`	`'dmenu_run'`	‘the dmenu command to be launched’
`dmenu_font`	`None`	“override the default ‘font’ and ‘fontsize’ options for dmenu”
`dmenu_height`	`None`	‘defines the height (only supported by some dmenu forks)’
`dmenu_ignorecase`	`False`	‘dmenu matches menu items case insensitively’
`dmenu_lines`	`None`	‘dmenu lists items vertically, with the given number of lines’
`dmenu_prompt`	`None`	‘defines the prompt to be displayed to the left of the input field’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘defines the font name to be used’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘defines the font size to be used’
`foreground`	`None`	‘defines the normal foreground color’
`selected_background`	`None`	‘defines the selected background color’
`selected_foreground`	`None`	‘defines the selected foreground color’

J4DmenuDesktop¶

class libqtile.extension.J4DmenuDesktop(**config)[source]¶

Python wrapper for j4-dmenu-desktop https://github.com/enkore/j4-dmenu-desktop

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘defines the normal background color’
`command`	`None`	‘the command to be launched (string or list with arguments)’
`dmenu_bottom`	`False`	‘dmenu appears at the bottom of the screen’
`dmenu_command`	`'dmenu'`	‘the dmenu command to be launched’
`dmenu_font`	`None`	“override the default ‘font’ and ‘fontsize’ options for dmenu”
`dmenu_height`	`None`	‘defines the height (only supported by some dmenu forks)’
`dmenu_ignorecase`	`False`	‘dmenu matches menu items case insensitively’
`dmenu_lines`	`None`	‘dmenu lists items vertically, with the given number of lines’
`dmenu_prompt`	`None`	‘defines the prompt to be displayed to the left of the input field’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘defines the font name to be used’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘defines the font size to be used’
`foreground`	`None`	‘defines the normal foreground color’
`j4dmenu_command`	`'j4-dmenu-desktop'`	‘the dmenu command to be launched’
`j4dmenu_display_binary`	`False`	‘display binary name after each entry’
`j4dmenu_generic`	`True`	‘include the generic name of desktop entries’
`j4dmenu_terminal`	`None`	‘terminal emulator used to start terminal apps’
`j4dmenu_usage_log`	`None`	‘file used to sort items by usage frequency’
`j4dmenu_use_xdg_de`	`False`	‘read $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP to determine the desktop environment’
`selected_background`	`None`	‘defines the selected background color’
`selected_foreground`	`None`	‘defines the selected foreground color’

RunCommand¶

class libqtile.extension.RunCommand(**config)[source]¶

Run an arbitrary command.

Mostly useful as a superclass for more specific extensions that need to interact with the qtile object.

Also consider simply using lazy.spawn() or writing a client.

key	default	description
`background`	`None`	‘defines the normal background color’
`command`	`None`	‘the command to be launched (string or list with arguments)’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘defines the font name to be used’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘defines the font size to be used’
`foreground`	`None`	‘defines the normal foreground color’
`selected_background`	`None`	‘defines the selected background color’
`selected_foreground`	`None`	‘defines the selected foreground color’

WindowList¶

class libqtile.extension.WindowList(**config)[source]¶

Give vertical list of all open windows in dmenu. Switch to selected.

key	default	description
`all_groups`	`True`	‘If True, list windows from all groups; otherwise only from the current group’
`background`	`None`	‘defines the normal background color’
`command`	`None`	‘the command to be launched (string or list with arguments)’
`dmenu_bottom`	`False`	‘dmenu appears at the bottom of the screen’
`dmenu_command`	`'dmenu'`	‘the dmenu command to be launched’
`dmenu_font`	`None`	“override the default ‘font’ and ‘fontsize’ options for dmenu”
`dmenu_height`	`None`	‘defines the height (only supported by some dmenu forks)’
`dmenu_ignorecase`	`False`	‘dmenu matches menu items case insensitively’
`dmenu_lines`	`'80'`	‘Give lines vertically. Set to None get inline’
`dmenu_prompt`	`None`	‘defines the prompt to be displayed to the left of the input field’
`font`	`'sans'`	‘defines the font name to be used’
`fontsize`	`None`	‘defines the font size to be used’
`foreground`	`None`	‘defines the normal foreground color’
`item_format`	`'{group}.{id}: {window}'`	‘the format for the menu items’
`selected_background`	`None`	‘defines the selected background color’
`selected_foreground`	`None`	‘defines the selected foreground color’

Advanced scripting¶

Scripting¶

Client-Server Scripting Model¶

Qtile has a client-server control model - the main Qtile instance listens on a named pipe, over which marshalled command calls and response data is passed. This allows Qtile to be controlled fully from external scripts. Remote interaction occurs through an instance of the libqtile.command.interface.IPCCommandInterface class. This class establishes a connection to the currently running instance of Qtile. A libqtile.command.client.CommandClient can use this connection to dispatch commands to the running instance. Commands then appear as methods with the appropriate signature on the CommandClient object. The object hierarchy is described in the Commands API section of this manual. Full command documentation is available through the Qtile Shell.

Example¶

Below is a very minimal example script that inspects the current Qtile instance, and returns the integer offset of the current screen.

from libqtile.command.client import CommandClient
c = CommandClient()
print(c.screen.info()["index"])

Commands API¶

Qtile’s command API is based on a graph of objects, where each object has a set of associated commands. The graph and object commands are used in a number of different places:

Commands can be bound to keys in the Qtile configuration file.
Commands can be called through qtile shell, the Qtile shell.
The qsh can also be hooked into a Jupyter kernel called iqshell.
Commands can be called from a script to interact with Qtile from Python.

If the explanation below seems a bit complex, please take a moment to explore the API using the qtile shell command shell. Command lists and detailed documentation can be accessed from its built-in help command.

Introduction: Object Graph¶

The objects in Qtile’s object graph come in seven flavours, matching the seven basic components of the window manager: layouts, windows, groups, bars, widgets, screens, and a special root node. Objects are addressed by a path specification that starts at the root, and follows the edges of the graph. This is what the graph looks like:

digraph G {
layout = circo;
root = "root";
splines = true;

node [style="filled", color=DarkGray, fillcolor=Gray, label="root"];
root;

node [style="filled", color=Red, fillcolor=Tomato, label="bar"];
bar;

node [style="filled", color=OrangeRed, fillcolor=Orange, label="group"];
group;

node [style="filled", color=Goldenrod, fillcolor=Gold, label="layout"]
layout;

node [style="filled", color=DarkGreen, fillcolor=LimeGreen, label="screen"];
screen;

node [style="filled", color=Blue, fillcolor=LightBlue, label="widget"];
widget;

node [style="filled", color=Purple, fillcolor=Violet, label="window"];
window;

root -> bar;
root -> group;
root -> layout;
root -> screen;
root -> widget;
root -> window;

bar -> screen;

group -> layout;
group -> screen;
group -> window;

layout -> group;
layout -> screen;
layout -> window;

screen -> bar;
screen -> layout;
screen -> window;

widget -> bar;
widget -> group;
widget -> screen;

window -> group;
window -> screen;
window -> layout;
}

Each arrow can be read as “holds a reference to”. So, we can see that a widget object holds a reference to objects of type bar, screen and group. Lets start with some simple examples of how the addressing works. Which particular objects we hold reference to depends on the context - for instance, widgets hold a reference to the screen that they appear on, and the bar they are attached to.

Lets look at an example, starting at the root node. The following script runs the status command on the root node, which, in this case, is represented by the InteractiveCommandClient object:

from libqtile.command.client import InteractiveCommandClient
c = InteractiveCommandClient()
print(c.status())

The InteractiveCommandClient is a class that allows us to traverse the command graph using attributes to select child nodes or commands. In this example, we have resolved the status() command on the root object. The interactive command client will automatically find and connect to a running Qtile instance, and which it will use to dispatch the call and print out the return.

An alternative is to use the CommandClient, which allows for a more precise resolution of command graph objects, but is not as easy to interact with from a REPL:

from libqtile.command.client import CommandClient
c = CommandClient()
print(c.call("status")())

Like the interactive client, the command client will automatically connect to a running Qtile instance. Here, we first resolve the status() command with the .call("status"), which simply located the function, then we can invoke the call with no arguments.

For the rest of this example, we will use the interactive command client. From the graph, we can see that the root node holds a reference to group nodes. We can access the “info” command on the current group like so:

c.group.info()

To access a specific group, regardless of whether or not it is current, we use the Python mapping lookup syntax. This command sends group “b” to screen 1 (by the libqtile.config.Group.to_screen() method):

c.group["b"].to_screen(1)

In different contexts, it is possible to access a default object, where in other contexts a key is required. From the root of the graph, the current group, layout, screen and window can be accessed by simply leaving the key specifier out. The key specifier is mandatory for widget and bar nodes.

With this context, we can now drill down deeper in the graph, following the edges in the graphic above. To access the screen currently displaying group “b”, we can do this:

c.group["b"].screen.info()

Be aware, however, that group “b” might not currently be displayed. In that case, it has no associated screen, the path resolves to a non-existent node, and we get an exception:

libqtile.command.CommandError: No object screen in path 'group['b'].screen'

The graph is not a tree, since it can contain cycles. This path (redundantly) specifies the group belonging to the screen that belongs to group “b”:

c.group["b"].screen.group

This amout of connectivity makes it easy to reach out from a given object when callbacks and events fire on that object to related objects.

Keys¶

The key specifier for the various object types are as follows:

Object	Key	Optional?	Example
bar	“top”, “bottom”	No	c.screen.bar[“bottom”]
group	Name string	Yes	c.group[“one”] c.group
layout	Integer index	Yes	c.layout[2] c.layout
screen	Integer index	Yes	c.screen[1] c.screen
widget	Widget name	No	c.widget[“textbox”]
window	Integer window ID	Yes	c.window[123456] c.window

Digging Deeper: Command Objects¶

If you just want to script your Qtile window manager the above information, in addition to the documentation on the various scripting commands should be enough to get started. To develop the Qtile manager itself, we can dig into how Qtile represents these objects, which will lead to the way the commands are dispatched.

All of the configured objects setup by Qtile are CommandObject subclasses. These objects are so named because we can issue commands against them using the command scripting API. Looking through the code, the commands that are exposed are commands named cmd_*. When writing custom layouts, widgets, or any other object, you can add your own custom cmd_ functions and they will be callable using the standard command infrastructure. An available command can be extracted by calling .command() with the name of the command.

In addition to having a set of associated commands, each command object also has a collection of items associated with it. This is what forms the graph that is shown above. For a given object type, the items() method returns all of the names of the associated objects of that type and whether or not there is a defaultable value. For example, from the root, .items("group") returns the name of all of the groups and that there is a default value, the currently focused group.

To navigate from one command object to the next, the .select() method is used. This method resolves a requested object from the command graph by iteratively selecting objects. A selector like [("group", "b"), ("screen", None)] would be to first resolve group “b”, then the screen associated to the group.

The Command Graph¶

In order to help in specifying command objects, there is the abstract command graph structure. The command graph structure allows us to address any valid command object and issue any command against it without needing to have any Qtile instance running or have anything to resolve the objects to. This is particularly useful when constructing lazy calls, where the Qtile instance does not exist to specify the path that will be resolved when the command is executed. The only limitation of traversing the command graph is that it must follow the allowed edges specified in the first section above.

Every object in the command graph is represented by a CommandGraphNode. Any call can be resolved from a given node. In addition, each node knows about all of the children objects that can be reached from it and have the ability to .navigate() to the other nodes in the command graph. Each of the object types are represented as CommandGraphObject types and the root node of the graph, the CommandGraphRoot reresents the Qtile instance. When a call is performed on an object, it returns a CommandGraphCall. Each call will know its own name as well as be able to resolve the path through the command graph to be able to find itself.

Note that the command graph itself can standalone, there is no other functionality within Qtile that it relies on. While we could have started here and built up, it is helpful to understand the objects that the graph is meant to represent, as the graph is just a representation of a traversal of the real objects in a running Qtile window manager. In order to tie the running Qtile instance to the abstract command graph, we move on to the command interface.

Executing graph commands: Command Interface¶

The CommandInterface is what lets us take an abstract call on the command graph and resolve it against a running command object. Put another way, this is what takes the graph traversal .group["b"].screen.info() and executes the info() command against the addressed screen object. Additional functionality can be used to check that a given traversal resolves to actual objcets and that the requested command actually exists. Note that by construction of the command graph, the traversals here must be feasible, even if they cannot be resolved for a given configuration state. For example, it is possible to check the screen assoctiated to a group, even though the group may not be on a screen, but it is not possible to check the widget associated to a group.

The simplest form of the command interface is the QtileCommandInterface, which can take an in-process Qtile instance as the root CommandObject and execute requested commands. This is typically how we run the unit tests for Qtile.

The other primary example of this is the IPCCommandInterface which is able to then route all calls through an IPC client connected to a running Qtile instance. In this case, the command graph call can be constructed on the client side without having to dispatch to Qtile and once the call is constructed and deemed valid, the call can be executed.

In both of these cases, executing a command on a command interface will return the result of executing the command on a running Qtile instance. To support lazy execution, the LazyCommandInterface instead returns a LazyCall which is able to be resolved later by the running Qtile instance when it is configured to fire.

Tying it together: Command Client¶

So far, we have our running Command Objects and the Command Interface to dispatch commands against these objects as well as the Command Graph structure itself which encodes how to traverse the connections between the objects. The final component which ties everything together is the Command Client, which allows us to navigate through the graph to resolve objects, find their associated commands, and execute the commands against the held command interface.

The idea of the command client is that it is created with a reference into the command graph and a command interface. All navigation can be done against the command graph, and traversal is done by creating a new command client starting from the new node. When a command is executed against a node, that command is dispatched to the held command interface. The key decision here is how to perform the traversal. The command client exists in two different flavors: the standard ComandClient which is useful for handling more programatic traversal of the graph, calling methods to traverse the graph, and the InteractiveCommandClient which behaves more like a standard Python object, traversing by accessing properties and performing key lookups.

Returning to our examples above, we now have the full context to see what is going on when we call:

from libqtile.command.client import CommandClient
c = CommandClient()
print(c.call("status")())
from libqtile.command.client import InteractiveCommandClient
c = InteractiveCommandClient()
print(c.status())

In both cases, the command clients are constructed with the default command interface, which sets up an IPC connection to the running Qtile instance, and starts the client at the graph root. When we call c.call("status") or c.status, we navigate the command client to the status command on the root graph object. When these are invoked, the commands graph calls are dispatched via the IPC command interface and the results then sent back and printed on the local command line.

The power that can be realized by separating out the traversal and resolution of objects in the command graph from actually invoking or looking up any objects within the graph can be seen in the lazy module. By creating a lazy evaluated command client, we can expose the graph traversal and object resolution functionality via the same InteractiveCommandClient that is used to perform live command execution in the Qtile prompt.

Scripting Commands¶

Here is documented some of the commands available on objects in the command tree when running qshell or scripting commands to qtile. Note that this is an incomplete list, some objects, such as layouts and widgets, may implement their own set of commands beyond those given here.

Qtile¶

class libqtile.core.manager.Qtile(kore: base.Core, config, no_spawn: bool = False, state: Optional[str] = None, socket_path: Optional[str] = None)[source]¶

This object is the root of the command graph

cmd_add_rule(match_args: Dict[str, Any], rule_args: Dict[str, Any], min_priorty: bool = False)[source]¶

Add a dgroup rule, returns rule_id needed to remove it

Parameters

match_args :: config.Match arguments
rule_args :: config.Rule arguments
min_priorty :: If the rule is added with minimum priority (last) (default: False)

cmd_addgroup(group: str, label: Optional[str] = None, layout: Optional[str] = None, layouts: Optional[List[Layout]] = None) → bool[source]¶: Add a group with the given name

cmd_change_vt(vt: int) → bool[source]¶: Change virtual terminal, returning success.

cmd_commands() → List[str]¶

Returns a list of possible commands for this object

Used by __qsh__ for command completion and online help

cmd_critical() → None[source]¶: Set log level to CRITICAL

cmd_debug() → None[source]¶: Set log level to DEBUG

cmd_delgroup(group: str) → None[source]¶: Delete a group with the given name

cmd_display_kb(*args) → str[source]¶: Display table of key bindings

cmd_doc(name) → str¶

Returns the documentation for a specified command name

Used by __qsh__ to provide online help.

cmd_error() → None[source]¶: Set log level to ERROR

cmd_eval(code: str) → Tuple[bool, Optional[str]]¶

Evaluates code in the same context as this function

Return value is tuple (success, result), success being a boolean and result being a string representing the return value of eval, or None if exec was used instead.

cmd_findwindow(prompt: str = 'window', widget: str = 'prompt') → None[source]¶

Launch prompt widget to find a window of the given name

Parameters

prompt :: Text with which to prompt user (default: “window”)
widget :: Name of the prompt widget (default: “prompt”)

cmd_function(function, *args, **kwargs) → None¶: Call a function with current object as argument

cmd_get_state() → str[source]¶: Get pickled state for restarting qtile

cmd_get_test_data() → Any[source]¶: Returns any content arbitrarily set in the self.test_data attribute. Useful in tests.

cmd_groups() → Dict[str, Dict[str, Any]][source]¶

Return a dictionary containing information for all groups

Examples

groups()

cmd_hide_show_bar(position: Literal[‘top’, ‘bottom’, ‘left’, ‘right’, ‘all’] = 'all') → None[source]¶

Toggle visibility of a given bar

Parameters

position :: one of: “top”, “bottom”, “left”, “right”, or “all” (default: “all”)

cmd_info() → None[source]¶: Set log level to INFO

cmd_internal_windows() → List[Dict[str, Any]][source]¶: Return info for each internal window (bars, for example)

cmd_items(name) → Tuple[bool, Optional[List[Union[str, int]]]]¶

Returns a list of contained items for the specified name

Used by __qsh__ to allow navigation of the object graph.

cmd_labelgroup(prompt: str = 'label', widget: str = 'prompt') → None[source]¶

Launch prompt widget to label the current group

Parameters

prompt :: Text with which to prompt user (default: “label”)
widget :: Name of the prompt widget (default: “prompt”)

cmd_list_widgets() → List[str][source]¶: List of all addressible widget names

cmd_loglevel() → int[source]¶

cmd_loglevelname() → str[source]¶

cmd_next_layout(name: Optional[str] = None) → None[source]¶

Switch to the next layout.

Parameters

name :: Group name. If not specified, the current group is assumed

cmd_next_screen() → None[source]¶: Move to next screen

cmd_next_urgent() → None[source]¶: Focus next window with urgent hint

cmd_pause() → None[source]¶: Drops into pdb

cmd_prev_layout(name: Optional[str] = None) → None[source]¶

Switch to the previous layout.

Parameters

name :: Group name. If not specified, the current group is assumed

cmd_prev_screen() → None[source]¶: Move to the previous screen

cmd_qtile_info() → Dict[source]¶: Returns a dictionary of info on the Qtile instance

cmd_qtilecmd(prompt: str = 'command', widget: str = 'prompt', messenger: str = 'xmessage') → None[source]¶

Execute a Qtile command using the client syntax

Tab completion aids navigation of the command tree

Parameters

prompt :: Text to display at the prompt (default: “command: “)
widget :: Name of the prompt widget (default: “prompt”)
messenger :: Command to display output, set this to None to disable (default: “xmessage”)

cmd_reconfigure_screens(ev: Any = None) → None[source]¶: This can be used to set up screens again during run time. Intended usage is to be called when the screen_change hook is fired, responding to changes in physical monitor setup by configuring qtile.screens accordingly. The ev kwarg is ignored; it is here in case this function is hooked directly to screen_change.

cmd_remove_rule(rule_id: int) → None[source]¶: Remove a dgroup rule by rule_id

cmd_restart() → None[source]¶: Restart qtile

cmd_run_extension(extension: libqtile.extension.base._Extension) → None[source]¶: Run extensions

cmd_screens() → List[Dict[str, Any]][source]¶: Return a list of dictionaries providing information on all screens

cmd_shutdown() → None[source]¶: Quit Qtile

cmd_simulate_keypress(modifiers, key) → None[source]¶

Simulates a keypress on the focused window.

Parameters

modifiers :: A list of modifier specification strings. Modifiers can be one of “shift”, “lock”, “control” and “mod1” - “mod5”.
key :: Key specification.

Examples

simulate_keypress([“control”, “mod2”], “k”)

cmd_spawn(cmd: Union[str, List[str]], shell: bool = False) → int[source]¶

Run cmd, in a shell or not (default).

cmd may be a string or a list (similar to subprocess.Popen).

Examples

spawn(“firefox”)

spawn([“xterm”, “-T”, “Temporary terminal”])

cmd_spawncmd(prompt: str = 'spawn', widget: str = 'prompt', command: str = '%s', complete: str = 'cmd', shell: bool = True) → None[source]¶

Spawn a command using a prompt widget, with tab-completion.

Parameters

prompt :: Text with which to prompt user (default: “spawn: “).
widget :: Name of the prompt widget (default: “prompt”).
command :: command template (default: “%s”).
complete :: Tab completion function (default: “cmd”)

cmd_status() → Literal[‘OK’][source]¶: Return “OK” if Qtile is running

cmd_switch_groups(namea: str, nameb: str) → None[source]¶: Switch position of two groups by name

cmd_switchgroup(prompt: str = 'group', widget: str = 'prompt') → None[source]¶

Launch prompt widget to switch to a given group to the current screen

Parameters

prompt :: Text with which to prompt user (default: “group”)
widget :: Name of the prompt widget (default: “prompt”)

cmd_sync() → None[source]¶: Sync the backend’s event queue. Should only be used for development.

cmd_to_layout_index(index: str, name: Optional[str] = None) → None[source]¶

Switch to the layout with the given index in self.layouts.

Parameters

index :: Index of the layout in the list of layouts.
name :: Group name. If not specified, the current group is assumed.

cmd_to_screen(n: int) → None[source]¶

Warp focus to screen n, where n is a 0-based screen number

Examples

to_screen(0)

cmd_togroup(prompt: str = 'group', widget: str = 'prompt') → None[source]¶

Launch prompt widget to move current window to a given group

Parameters

prompt :: Text with which to prompt user (default: “group”)
widget :: Name of the prompt widget (default: “prompt”)

cmd_tracemalloc_dump() → Tuple[bool, str][source]¶: Dump tracemalloc snapshot

cmd_tracemalloc_toggle() → None[source]¶

Toggle tracemalloc status

Running tracemalloc is required for qtile top

cmd_ungrab_all_chords() → None[source]¶: Leave all chord modes and grab the root bindings

cmd_ungrab_chord() → None[source]¶: Leave a chord mode

cmd_validate_config() → None[source]¶

cmd_warning() → None[source]¶: Set log level to WARNING

cmd_windows() → List[Dict[str, Any]][source]¶: Return info for each client window

Bar¶

class libqtile.bar.Bar(widgets, size, **config)[source]

A bar, which can contain widgets

Parameters

widgets :: A list of widget objects.
size :: The “thickness” of the bar, i.e. the height of a horizontal bar, or the width of a vertical bar.

key	default	description
`background`	`'#000000'`	‘Background colour.’
`margin`	`0`	‘Space around bar as int or list of ints [N E S W].’
`opacity`	`1`	‘Bar window opacity.’

cmd_commands() → List[str]¶

Returns a list of possible commands for this object

Used by __qsh__ for command completion and online help

cmd_doc(name) → str¶

Returns the documentation for a specified command name

Used by __qsh__ to provide online help.

cmd_eval(code: str) → Tuple[bool, Optional[str]]¶

Evaluates code in the same context as this function

Return value is tuple (success, result), success being a boolean and result being a string representing the return value of eval, or None if exec was used instead.

cmd_fake_button_press(screen, position, x, y, button=1)[source]¶

Fake a mouse-button-press on the bar. Co-ordinates are relative to the top-left corner of the bar.

:screen The integer screen offset :position One of “top”, “bottom”, “left”, or “right”

cmd_function(function, *args, **kwargs) → None¶: Call a function with current object as argument

cmd_info()¶: Info for this object.

cmd_items(name) → Tuple[bool, Optional[List[Union[str, int]]]]¶

Returns a list of contained items for the specified name

Used by __qsh__ to allow navigation of the object graph.

Group¶

class libqtile.config.Group(name: str, matches: Optional[List[libqtile.config.Match]] = None, exclusive=False, spawn: Optional[Union[str, List[str]]] = None, layout: Optional[str] = None, layouts: Optional[List] = None, persist=True, init=True, layout_opts=None, screen_affinity=None, position=9223372036854775807, label: Optional[str] = None)[source]

Represents a “dynamic” group

These groups can spawn apps, only allow certain Matched windows to be on them, hide when they’re not in use, etc. Groups are identified by their name.

Parameters

name: string: the name of this group
matches: default ``None``: list of Match objects whose windows will be assigned to this group
exclusive: boolean: when other apps are started in this group, should we allow them here or not?
spawn: string or list of strings: this will be exec() d when the group is created, you can pass either a program name or a list of programs to exec()
layout: string: the name of default layout for this group (e.g. ‘max’ or ‘stack’). This is the name specified for a particular layout in config.py or if not defined it defaults in general the class name in all lower case.
layouts: list: the group layouts list overriding global layouts. Use this to define a separate list of layouts for this particular group.
persist: boolean: should this group stay alive with no member windows?
init: boolean: is this group alive when qtile starts?
position int: group position
label: string: the display name of the group. Use this to define a display name other than name of the group. If set to None, the display name is set to the name.

Screen¶

class libqtile.config.Screen(top: Optional[Union[libqtile.bar.Bar, libqtile.bar.Gap]] = None, bottom: Optional[Union[libqtile.bar.Bar, libqtile.bar.Gap]] = None, left: Optional[Union[libqtile.bar.Bar, libqtile.bar.Gap]] = None, right: Optional[Union[libqtile.bar.Bar, libqtile.bar.Gap]] = None, wallpaper: Optional[str] = None, wallpaper_mode: Optional[str] = None, x: Optional[int] = None, y: Optional[int] = None, width: Optional[int] = None, height: Optional[int] = None)[source]

A physical screen, and its associated paraphernalia.

Define a screen with a given set of Bars of a specific geometry. Note that bar.Bar objects can only be placed at the top or the bottom of the screen (bar.Gap objects can be placed anywhere). Also, x, y, width, and height aren’t specified usually unless you are using ‘fake screens’.

The wallpaper parameter, if given, should be a path to an image file. How this image is painted to the screen is specified by the wallpaper_mode parameter. By default, the image will be placed at the screens origin and retain its own dimensions. If the mode is ‘fill’, the image will be centred on the screen and resized to fill it. If the mode is ‘stretch’, the image is stretched to fit all of it into the screen.

cmd_commands() → List[str]¶

Returns a list of possible commands for this object

Used by __qsh__ for command completion and online help

cmd_doc(name) → str¶

Returns the documentation for a specified command name

Used by __qsh__ to provide online help.

cmd_eval(code: str) → Tuple[bool, Optional[str]]¶

Evaluates code in the same context as this function

Return value is tuple (success, result), success being a boolean and result being a string representing the return value of eval, or None if exec was used instead.

cmd_function(function, *args, **kwargs) → None¶: Call a function with current object as argument

cmd_info()[source]¶: Returns a dictionary of info for this screen.

cmd_items(name) → Tuple[bool, Optional[List[Union[str, int]]]]¶

Returns a list of contained items for the specified name

Used by __qsh__ to allow navigation of the object graph.

cmd_next_group(skip_empty=False, skip_managed=False)[source]¶: Switch to the next group

cmd_prev_group(skip_empty=False, skip_managed=False, warp=True)[source]¶: Switch to the previous group

cmd_resize(x=None, y=None, w=None, h=None)[source]¶: Resize the screen

cmd_toggle_group(group_name=None, warp=True)[source]¶: Switch to the selected group or to the previously active one

cmd_togglegroup(groupName=None)[source]¶

Switch to the selected group or to the previously active one

Deprecated: use toggle_group()

Window¶

class libqtile.backend.x11.window.Window(window, qtile)[source]¶

cmd_bring_to_front()[source]¶: Bring the window to the front

cmd_commands() → List[str]¶

Returns a list of possible commands for this object

Used by __qsh__ for command completion and online help

cmd_disable_floating()[source]¶: Tile the window.

cmd_disable_fullscreen()[source]¶: Un-fullscreen the window

cmd_doc(name) → str¶

Returns the documentation for a specified command name

Used by __qsh__ to provide online help.

cmd_down_opacity()[source]¶: Decrease the window’s opacity

cmd_enable_floating()[source]¶: Float the window.

cmd_enable_fullscreen()[source]¶: Fullscreen the window

cmd_eval(code: str) → Tuple[bool, Optional[str]]¶

Evaluates code in the same context as this function

Return value is tuple (success, result), success being a boolean and result being a string representing the return value of eval, or None if exec was used instead.

cmd_focus(warp: bool = True) → None¶: Focuses the window.

cmd_function(function, *args, **kwargs) → None¶: Call a function with current object as argument

cmd_get_position()[source]¶: Get the (x, y) of the window

cmd_get_size()[source]¶: Get the (width, height) of the window

cmd_hints()¶: Returns the X11 hints (WM_HINTS and WM_SIZE_HINTS) for this window.

cmd_info()¶: Returns a dictionary of info for this object

cmd_inspect()¶: Tells you more than you ever wanted to know about a window

cmd_items(name) → Tuple[bool, Optional[List[Union[str, int]]]]¶

Returns a list of contained items for the specified name

Used by __qsh__ to allow navigation of the object graph.

cmd_kill()[source]¶

Kill this window

Try to do this politely if the client support this, otherwise be brutal.

cmd_match(*args, **kwargs)[source]¶

cmd_move_floating(dx, dy)[source]¶: Move window by dx and dy

cmd_opacity(opacity)[source]¶: Set the window’s opacity

cmd_place(x, y, width, height, borderwidth, bordercolor, above=False, margin=None)[source]¶: Place the window with the given position and geometry.

cmd_resize_floating(dw, dh)[source]¶: Add dw and dh to size of window

cmd_set_position(x, y)[source]¶

cmd_set_position_floating(x, y)[source]¶: Move window to x and y

cmd_set_size_floating(w, h)[source]¶: Set window dimensions to w and h

cmd_static(screen=None, x=None, y=None, width=None, height=None)[source]¶

Makes this window a static window, attached to a Screen

If any of the arguments are left unspecified, the values given by the window itself are used instead. So, for a window that’s aware of its appropriate size and location (like dzen), you don’t have to specify anything.

cmd_toggle_floating()[source]¶: Toggle the floating state of the window.

cmd_toggle_fullscreen()[source]¶: Toggle the fullscreen state of the window.

cmd_toggle_maximize()[source]¶: Toggle the fullscreen state of the window.

cmd_toggle_minimize()[source]¶

cmd_togroup(groupName=None, *, switch_group=False)[source]¶

Move window to a specified group.

If groupName is not specified, we assume the current group. If switch_group is True, also switch to that group.

Examples

Move window to current group:

togroup()

Move window to group “a”:

togroup("a")

Move window to group “a”, and switch to group “a”:

togroup("a", switch_group=True)

cmd_toscreen(index=None)[source]¶

Move window to a specified screen.

If index is not specified, we assume the current screen

Examples

Move window to current screen:

toscreen()

Move window to screen 0:

toscreen(0)

cmd_up_opacity()[source]¶: Increase the window’s opacity

Keybindings in images¶

Default configuration¶

Generate your own images¶

Qtile provides a tiny helper script to generate keybindings images from a config file. In the repository, the script is located under scripts/gen-keybinding-img.

This script accepts a configuration file and an output directory. If no argument is given, the default configuration will be used and files will be placed in same directory where the command has been run.

usage: gen-keybinding-img [-h] [-c CONFIGFILE] [-o OUTPUT_DIR]

Qtile keybindings image generator

optional arguments:
    -h, --help          show this help message and exit
    -c CONFIGFILE, --config CONFIGFILE
                        use specified configuration file. If no presented
                        default will be used
    -o OUTPUT_DIR, --output-dir OUTPUT_DIR
                        set directory to export all images to

Getting involved¶

Contributing¶

Reporting bugs¶

Perhaps the easiest way to contribute to Qtile is to report any bugs you run into on the GitHub issue tracker.

Useful bug reports are ones that get bugs fixed. A useful bug report normally has two qualities:

Reproducible. If your bug is not reproducible it will never get fixed. You should clearly mention the steps to reproduce the bug. Do not assume or skip any reproducing step. Described the issue, step-by-step, so that it is easy to reproduce and fix.
Specific. Do not write a essay about the problem. Be Specific and to the point. Try to summarize the problem in minimum words yet in effective way. Do not combine multiple problems even they seem to be similar. Write different reports for each problem.

Ensure to include any appropriate log entries from ~/.local/share/qtile/qtile.log and/or ~/.xsession-errors!

Writing code¶

To get started writing code for Qtile, check out our guide to Hacking on Qtile.

A more detailed page on creating widgets is available here.

Submit a pull request¶

You’ve done your hacking and are ready to submit your patch to Qtile. Great! Now it’s time to submit a pull request to our issue tracker on GitHub.

Important

Pull requests are not considered complete until they include all of the following:

Code that conforms to PEP8.
Unit tests that pass locally and in our CI environment (More below).
Documentation updates on an as needed basis.

Feel free to add your contribution (no matter how small) to the appropriate place in the CHANGELOG as well!

Unit testing¶

We must test each unit of code to ensure that new changes to the code do not break existing functionality. The framework we use to test Qtile is pytest. How pytest works is outside of the scope of this documentation, but there are tutorials online that explain how it is used.

Our tests are written inside the test folder at the top level of the repository. Reading through these, you can get a feel for the approach we take to test a given unit. Most of the tests involve an object called manager. This is the test manager (defined in test/conftest.py), which exposes a command client at manager.c that we use to test a Qtile instance running in a separate thread as if we were using a command client from within a running Qtile session.

For any Qtile-specific question on testing, feel free to ask on our issue tracker or on IRC (#qtile on irc.oftc.net).

Running tests locally¶

This section gives an overview about tox so that you don’t have to search its documentation just to get started. Checks are grouped in so-called environments. Some of them are configured to check that the code works (the usual unit test, e.g. py39, pypy3), others make sure that your code conforms to the style guide (pep8, codestyle, mypy). A third kind of test verifies that the documentation and packaging processes work (docs, docstyle, packaging).

The following examples show how to run tests locally:

To run the functional tests, use tox -e py39 (or a different environment). You can specify to only run a specific test file or even a specific test within that file with the following commands:

tox -e py39 # Run all tests with python 3.9 as the interpreter
tox -e py39 -- -x test/widgets/test_widgetbox.py  # run a single file
tox -e py39 -- -x test/widgets/test_widgetbox.py::test_widgetbox_widget

To run style and building checks, use tox -e docs,packaging,pep8,.... You can use -p auto to run the environments in parallel.

Important

The CI is configured to run all the environments. Hence it can be time- consuming to make all the tests pass. As stated above, pull requests that don’t pass the tests are considered incomplete. Don’t forget that this does not only include the functionality, but the style, typing annotations (if necessary) and documentation as well!

Hacking on Qtile¶

Requirements¶

Any reasonably recent version of these should work, so you can probably just install them from your package manager.

pytest
Xephyr
xrandr, xcalc, xeyes and xclock (x11-apps on Ubuntu)

On Ubuntu, if testing on Python 3, this can be done with:

sudo apt-get install python3-pytest xserver-xephyr x11-apps

On ArchLinux, the X11 requirements are installed with:

sudo pacman -S xorg-xrandr xorg-xcalc xorg-xeyes xorg-xclock

To build the documentation, you will also need to install graphviz. On ArchLinux, you can install it with sudo pacman -S graphviz.

Building cffi module¶

Qtile ships with a small in-tree pangocairo binding built using cffi, pangocffi.py, and also binds to xcursor with cffi. The bindings are not built at run time and will have to be generated manually when the code is downloaded or when any changes are made to the cffi library. This can be done by calling:

./scripts/ffibuild

Setting up the environment¶

In the root of the project, run ./dev.sh. It will create a virtualenv called venv.

Activate this virtualenv with . venv/bin/activate. Deactivate it with the deactivate command.

Building the documentation¶

Go into the docs/ directory and run pip install -r requirements.txt.

Build the documentation with make html.

Check the result by opening _build/html/index.html in your browser.

Development and testing¶

In practice, the development cycle looks something like this:

make minor code change
run appropriate test: pytest tests/test_module.py or pytest -k PATTERN
GOTO 1, until hackage is complete
run entire test suite: pytest
commit

Of course, your patches should also pass the unit tests as well (i.e. make check). These will be run by ci on every pull request so you can see whether or not your contribution passes.

Coding style¶

While not all of our code follows PEP8, we do try to adhere to it where possible. All new code should be PEP8 compliant.

The make lint command will run a linter with our configuration over libqtile to ensure your patch complies with reasonable formatting constraints. We also request that git commit messages follow the standard format.

Deprecation policy¶

When a widget API is changed, you should deprecate the change using libqtile.widget.base.deprecated to warn users, in addition to adding it to the appropriate place in the changelog. We will typically remove deprecated APIs one tag after they are deprecated.

Using Xephyr¶

Qtile has a very extensive test suite, using the Xephyr nested X server. When tests are run, a nested X server with a nested instance of Qtile is fired up, and then tests interact with the Qtile instance through the client API. The fact that we can do this is a great demonstration of just how completely scriptable Qtile is. In fact, Qtile is designed expressly to be scriptable enough to allow unit testing in a nested environment.

The Qtile repo includes a tiny helper script to let you quickly pull up a nested instance of Qtile in Xephyr, using your current configuration. Run it from the top-level of the repository, like this:

./scripts/xephyr

Change the screen size by setting the SCREEN_SIZE environment variable. Default: 800x600. Example:

SCREEN_SIZE=1920x1080 ./scripts/xephyr

Change the log level by setting the LOG_LEVEL environment variable. Default: INFO. Example:

LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG ./scripts/xephyr

The script will also pass any additional options to Qtile. For example, you can use a specific configuration file like this:

./scripts/xephyr -c ~/.config/qtile/other_config.py

Once the Xephyr window is running and focused, you can enable capturing the keyboard shortcuts by hitting Control+Shift. Hitting them again will disable the capture and let you use your personal keyboard shortcuts again.

You can close the Xephyr window by enabling the capture of keyboard shortcuts and hit Mod4+Control+Q. Mod4 (or Mod) is usually the Super key (or Windows key). You can also close the Xephyr window by running qtile cmd-obj -o cmd -f shutdown in a terminal (from inside the Xephyr window of course).

You don’t need to run the Xephyr script in order to run the tests as the test runner will launch its own Xephyr instances.

Second X Session¶

Some users prefer to test Qtile in a second, completely separate X session: Just switch to a new tty and run startx normally to use the ~/.xinitrc X startup script.

It’s likely though that you want to use a different, customized startup script for testing purposes, for example ~/.config/qtile/xinitrc. You can do so by launching X with:

startx ~/.config/qtile/xinitrc

startx deals with multiple X sessions automatically. If you want to use xinit instead, you need to first copy /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc to ~/.xserverrc; when launching it, you have to specify a new session number:

xinit ~/.config/qtile/xinitrc -- :1

Examples of custom X startup scripts are available in qtile-examples.

Debugging in PyCharm¶

Make sure to have all the requirements installed and your development environment setup.

PyCharm should automatically detect the venv virtualenv when opening the project. If you are using another viirtualenv, just instruct PyCharm to use it in Settings -> Project: qtile -> Project interpreter.

In the project tree, on the left, right-click on the libqtile folder, and click on Mark Directory as -> Sources Root.

Next, add a Configuration using a Python template with these fields:

Script path: bin/qtile, or the absolute path to it
Parameters: -c libqtile/resources/default_config.py, or nothing if you want to use your own config file in ~/.config/qtile/config.py
Environment variables: PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1;DISPLAY=:1
Working directory: the root of the project
Add contents root to PYTHONPATH: yes
Add source root to PYTHONPATH: yes

Then, in a terminal, run:

Xephyr +extension RANDR -screen 1920x1040 :1 -ac &

Note that we used the same display, :1, in both the terminal command and the PyCharm configuration environment variables. Feel free to change the screen size to fit your own screen.

Finally, place your breakpoints in the code and click on Debug!

Once you finished debugging, you can close the Xephyr window with kill PID (use the jobs builtin to get its PID).

Debugging in VSCode¶

Make sure to have all the requirements installed and your development environment setup.

Open the root of the repo in VSCode. If you have created it, VSCode should detect the venv virtualenv, if not, select it.

Create a launch.json file with the following lines.

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
      {
          "name": "Python: Qtile",
          "type": "python",
          "request": "launch",
          "program": "${workspaceFolder}/bin/qtile",
          "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
          "args": ["-c", "libqtile/resources/default_config.py"],
          "console": "integratedTerminal",
          "env": {"PYTHONUNBUFFERED":"1", "DISPLAY":":1"}
      }
  ]
}

Then, in a terminal, run:

Xephyr +extension RANDR -screen 1920x1040 :1 -ac &

Note that we used the same display, :1, in both the terminal command and the VSCode configuration environment variables. Then debug usually in VSCode. Feel free to change the screen size to fit your own screen.

Resources¶

Here are a number of resources that may come in handy:

Troubleshoot¶

Cairo errors¶

When running the Xephyr script (./scripts/xephyr), you might see tracebacks with attribute errors like the following or similar:

AttributeError: cffi library 'libcairo.so.2' has no function, constant or global variable named 'cairo_xcb_surface_create'

If it happens, it might be because the cairocffi and xcffib dependencies were installed in the wrong order.

To fix this:

uninstall them from your environment: with pip uninstall cairocffi xcffib if using a virtualenv, or with your system package-manager if you installed the development version of Qtile system-wide.
re-install them sequentially (again, with pip or with your package-manager):
```
pip install xcffib
pip install --no-cache-dir cairocffi
```

See this issue comment for more information.

If you are using your system package-manager and the issue still happens, the packaging of cairocffi might be broken for your distribution. Try to contact the persons responsible for cairocffi’s packaging on your distribution, or to install it from the sources with xcffib available.

Fonts errors¶

When running the test suite or the Xephyr script (./scripts/xephyr), you might see errors in the output like the following or similar:

Xephyr script:

xterm: cannot load font "-Misc-Fixed-medium-R-*-*-13-120-75-75-C-120-ISO10646-1"
xterm: cannot load font "-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso10646-1"

pytest:

---------- Captured stderr call ----------
Warning: Cannot convert string "8x13" to type FontStruct
Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
Warning: Unable to load any usable ISO8859 font
Error: Aborting: no font found

-------- Captured stderr teardown --------
Qtile exited with exitcode: -9

If it happens, it might be because you’re missing fonts on your system.

On ArchLinux, you can fix this by installing xorg-fonts-misc:

sudo pacman -S xorg-fonts-misc

Try to search for “xorg fonts misc” with your distribution name on the internet to find how to install them.

Miscellaneous¶

Frequently Asked Questions¶

Why the name Qtile?¶

Users often wonder, why the Q? Does it have something to do with Qt? No. Below is an IRC excerpt where cortesi explains the great trial that ultimately brought Qtile into existence, thanks to the benevolence of the Open Source Gods. Praise be to the OSG!

ramnes:  what does Qtile mean?
ramnes:  what's the Q?
@tych0:  ramnes: it doesn't :)
@tych0:  cortesi was just looking for the first letter that wasn't registered
         in a domain name with "tile" as a suffix
@tych0:  qtile it was :)
cortesi: tych0, dx: we really should have something more compelling to
         explain the name. one day i was swimming at manly beach in sydney,
         where i lived at the time. suddenly, i saw an enormous great white
         right beside me. it went for my leg with massive, gaping jaws, but
         quick as a flash, i thumb-punched it in both eyes. when it reared
         back in agony, i saw that it had a jagged, gnarly scar on its
         stomach... a scar shaped like the letter "Q".
cortesi: while it was distracted, i surfed a wave to shore. i knew that i
         had to dedicate my next open source project to the ocean gods, in
         thanks for my lucky escape. and thus, qtile got its name...

When I first start xterm/urxvt/rxvt containing an instance of Vim, I see text and layout corruption. What gives?¶

Vim is not handling terminal resizes correctly. You can fix the problem by starting your xterm with the “-wf” option, like so:

xterm -wf -e vim

Alternatively, you can just cycle through your layouts a few times, which usually seems to fix it.

How do I know which modifier specification maps to which key?¶

To see a list of modifier names and their matching keys, use the xmodmap command. On my system, the output looks like this:

$ xmodmap
xmodmap:  up to 3 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
lock        Caps_Lock (0x9)
control     Control_L (0x25),  Control_R (0x69)
mod1        Alt_L (0x40),  Alt_R (0x6c),  Meta_L (0xcd)
mod2        Num_Lock (0x4d)
mod3
mod4        Super_L (0xce),  Hyper_L (0xcf)
mod5        ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c),  Mode_switch (0xcb)

My “pointer mouse cursor” isn’t the one I expect it to be!¶

Qtile should set the default cursor to left_ptr, you must install xcb-util-cursor if you want support for themed cursors.

LibreOffice menus don’t appear or don’t stay visible¶

A workaround for problem with the mouse in libreoffice is setting the environment variable »SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=gen«. It is dependet on your system configuration where to do this. e.g. ArchLinux with libreoffice-fresh in /etc/profile.d/libreoffice-fresh.sh.

License¶

This project is distributed under the MIT license.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the “Software”), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

How To¶

How to create a widget¶

The aim of this page is to explain the main components of qtile widgets, how they work, and how you can use them to create your own widgets.

Note

This page is not meant to be an exhaustive summary of everything needed to make a widget.

It is highly recommended that users wishing to create their own widget refer to the source documentation of existing widgets to familiarise themselves with the code.

However, the detail below may prove helpful when read in conjunction with the source code.

Widget base classes¶

Qtile provides a number of base classes for widgets than can be used to implement commonly required features (e.g. display text).

Your widget should inherit one of these classes. Whichever base class you inherit for your widget, if you override either the __init__ and/or _configure methods, you should make sure that your widget calls the equivalent method from the superclass.

class MyCustomWidget(base._TextBox):

    def __init__(self, **config):
        super().__init__("", **config)
        # My widget's initialisation code here

The functions of the various base classes are explained further below.

_TextBox¶

The base._TextBox class builds on the bare widget and adds a drawer.TextLayout which is accessible via the self.layout property. The widget will adjust its size to fit the amount of text to be displayed.

Text can be updated via the self.text property but note that this does not trigger a redrawing of the widget.

Parameters including font, fontsize, fontshadow, padding and foreground (font colour) can be configured. It is recommended not to hard-code these parameters as users may wish to have consistency across units.

InLoopPollText¶

The base.InLoopPollText class builds on the base._TextBox by adding a timer to periodically refresh the displayed text.

Widgets using this class should override the poll method to include a function that returns the required text.

Note

This loop runs in the event loop so it is important that the poll method does not call some blocking function. If this is required, widgets should inherit the base.ThreadPoolText class (see below).

ThreadPoolText¶

The base.ThreadPoolText class is very similar to the base.InLoopPollText class. The key difference is that the poll method is run asynchronously and triggers a callback once the function completes. This allows widgets to get text from long-running functions without blocking Qtile.

Mixins¶

As well as inheriting from one of the base classes above, widgets can also inherit one or more mixins to provide some additional functionality to the widget.

PaddingMixin¶

This provides the padding(_x|_y|) attributes which can be used to change the appearance of the widget.

If you use this mixin in your widget, you need to add the following line to your __init__ method:

self.add_defaults(base.PaddingMixin.defaults)

MarginMixin¶

The MarginMixin is essentially effectively exactly the same as the PaddingMixin but, instead, it provides the margin(_x|_y|) attributes.

As above, if you use this mixin in your widget, you need to add the following line to your __init__ method:

self.add_defaults(base.MarginMixin.defaults)

Configuration¶

Now you know which class to base your widget on, you need to know how the widget gets configured.

Defining Parameters¶

Each widget will likely have a number of parameters that users can change to customise the look and feel and/or behaviour of the widget for their own needs.

The widget should therefore provide the default values of these parameters as a class attribute called defaults. The format of this attribute is a list of tuples.

defaults = [
    ("parameter_name",
     default_parameter_value,
     "Short text explaining what parameter does")
]

Users can override the default value when creating their config.py file.

MyCustomWidget(parameter_name=updated_value)

Once the widget is initialised, these parameters are available at self.parameter_name.

The init method¶

Parameters that should not be changed by users can be defined in the __init__ method.

This method is run when the widgets are initially created. This happens before the qtile object is available.

The _configure method¶

The _configure method is called by the bar object and sets the self.bar and self.qtile attributes of the widget. It also creates the self.drawer attribute which is necessary for displaying any content.

Once this method has been run, your widget should be ready to display content as the bar will draw once it has finished its configuration.

Calls to methods required to prepare the content for your widget should therefore be made from this method rather than __init__.

Displaying output¶

A Qtile widget is just a drawing that is displayed at a certain location the user’s bar. The widget’s job is therefore to create a small drawing surface that can be placed in the appropriate location on the bar.

The “draw” method¶

The draw method is called when the widget needs to update its appearance. This can be triggered by the widget itself (e.g. if the content has changed) or by the bar (e.g. if the bar needs to redraw its entire contents).

This method therefore needs to contain all the relevant code to draw the various components that make up the widget. Examples of displaying text, icons and drawings are set out below.

It is important to note that the bar controls the placing of the widget by assigning the offsetx value (for horizontal orientations) and offsety value (for vertical orientations). Widgets should use this at the end of the draw method.

self.drawer.draw(offsetx=self.offsetx, width=self.width)

Note

If you need to trigger a redrawing of your widget, you should call self.draw() if the width of your widget is unchanged. Otherwise you need to call self.bar.draw() as this method means the bar recalculates the position of all widgets.

Displaying text¶

Text is displayed by using a drawer.TextLayout object. If all you are doing is displaying text then it’s highly recommended that you use the `base._TextBox superclass as this simplifies adding and updating text.

If you wish to implement this manually then you can create a your own drawer.TextLayout by using the self.drawer.textlayout method of the widget (only available after the _configure method has been run). object to include in your widget.

Some additional formatting of Text can be displayed using pango markup and ensuring the markup parameter is set to True.

self.textlayout = self.drawer.textlayout(
                     "Text",
                     "fffff",       # Font colour
                     "sans",        # Font family
                     12,            # Font size
                     None,          # Font shadow
                     markup=False,  # Pango markup (False by default)
                     wrap=True      # Wrap long lines (True by default)
                     )

Displaying icons and images¶

Qtile provides a helper library to convert images to a surface that can be drawn by the widget. If the images are static then you should only load them once when the widget is configured. Given the small size of the bar, this is most commonly used to draw icons but the same method applies to other images.

from libqtile import images

def setup_images(self):

    self.surfaces = {}

    # File names to load (will become keys to the `surfaces` dictionary)
    names = (
        "audio-volume-muted",
        "audio-volume-low",
        "audio-volume-medium",
        "audio-volume-high"
    )

    d_images = images.Loader(self.imagefolder)(*names)  # images.Loader can take more than one folder as an argument

    for name, img in d_images.items():
        new_height = self.bar.height - 1
        img.resize(height=new_height)   # Resize images to fit widget
        self.surfaces[name] = img.pattern  # Images added to the `surfaces` dictionary

Drawing the image is then just a matter of painting it to the relevant surface:

def draw(self):
    self.drawer.ctx.set_source(self.surfaces[img_name])  # Use correct key here for your image
    self.drawer.ctx.paint()
    self.drawer.draw(offsetx=self.offset, width=self.length)

Drawing shapes¶

It is possible to draw shapes directly to the widget. The Drawer class (available in your widget after configuration as self.drawer) provides some basic functions rounded_rectangle, rounded_fillrect, rectangle and fillrect.

In addition, you can access the Cairo context drawing functions via self.drawer.ctx.

For example, the following code can draw a wifi icon showing signal strength:

import math

...

def to_rads(self, degrees):
    return degrees * math.pi / 180.0

def draw_wifi(self, percentage):

    WIFI_HEIGHT = 12
    WIFI_ARC_DEGREES = 90

    y_margin = (self.bar.height - WIFI_HEIGHT) / 2
    half_arc = WIFI_ARC_DEGREES / 2

    # Draw grey background
    self.drawer.ctx.new_sub_path()
    self.drawer.ctx.move_to(WIFI_HEIGHT, y_margin + WIFI_HEIGHT)
    self.drawer.ctx.arc(WIFI_HEIGHT,
                        y_margin + WIFI_HEIGHT,
                        WIFI_HEIGHT,
                        self.to_rads(270 - half_arc),
                        self.to_rads(270 + half_arc))
    self.drawer.set_source_rgb("666666")
    self.drawer.ctx.fill()

    # Draw white section to represent signal strength
    self.drawer.ctx.new_sub_path()
    self.drawer.ctx.move_to(WIFI_HEIGHT, y_margin + WIFI_HEIGHT)
    self.drawer.ctx.arc(WIFI_HEIGHT
                        y_margin + WIFI_HEIGHT,
                        WIFI_HEIGHT * percentage,
                        self.to_rads(270 - half_arc),
                        self.to_rads(270 + half_arc))
    self.drawer.set_source_rgb("ffffff")
    self.drawer.ctx.fill()

This creates something looking like this: .

Background¶

At the start of the draw method, the widget should clear the drawer by drawing the background. Usually this is done by including the following line at the start of the method:

self.drawer.clear(self.background or self.bar.background)

The background can be a single colour or a list of colours which will result in a linear gradient from top to bottom.

Updating the widget¶

Widgets will usually need to update their content periodically. There are numerous ways that this can be done. Some of the most common are summarised below.

Timers¶

A non-blocking timer can be called by using the self.timeout_add method.

self.timeout_add(delay_in_seconds, method_to_call, (method_args))

Note

Consider using the ThreadPoolText superclass where you are calling a function repeatedly and displaying its output as text.

Hooks¶

Qtile has a number of hooks built in which are triggered on certain events.

The WindowCount widget is a good example of using hooks to trigger updates. It includes the following method which is run when the widget is configured:

from libqtile import hook

...

def _setup_hooks(self):
    hook.subscribe.client_killed(self._win_killed)
    hook.subscribe.client_managed(self._wincount)
    hook.subscribe.current_screen_change(self._wincount)
    hook.subscribe.setgroup(self._wincount)

Read the Built-in Hooks page for details of which hooks are available and which arguments are passed to the callback function.

Using dbus¶

Qtile uses dbus-next for interacting with dbus.

If you just want to listen for signals then Qtile provides a helper method called add_signal_receiver which can subscribe to a signal and trigegr a callback whenever that signal is broadcast.

Note

Qtile uses the asyncio based functions of dbus-next so your widget must make sure, where necessary, calls to dbus are made via coroutines.

There is a _config_async coroutine in the base widget class which can be overriden to provide an entry point for asyncio calls in your widget.

For example, the Mpris2 widget uses the following code:

from libqtile.utils import add_signal_receiver

...

async def _config_async(self):
    subscribe = await add_signal_receiver(
                    self.message,  # Callback function
                    session_bus=True,
                    signal_name="PropertiesChanged",
                    bus_name=self.objname,
                    path="/org/mpris/MediaPlayer2",
                    dbus_interface="org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties")

dbus-next can also be used to query properties, call methods etc. on dbus interfaces. Refer to the dbus-next documentation for more information on how to use the module.

Debugging¶

You can use the logger object to record messages in the Qtile log file to help debug your development.

from libqtile.log_utils import logger

...

logger.debug("Callback function triggered")

Note

The default log level for the Qtile log is INFO so you may either want to change this when debugging or use logger.info instead.

Debugging messages should be removed from your code before submitting pull requests.

Testing¶

Any new widgets should include an accompanying unit test.

Basic initialisation and configurations (using defaults) will automatically be tested by test/widgets/test_widget_init_configure.py if the widget has been included in libqtile.widget.__init__.py (see above).

However, where possible, it is strongly encouraged that widgets include additional unit tests that test specific functionality of the widget (e.g. reaction to hooks).

See Unit testing for more.

Getting help¶

If you still need help with developing your widget then please submit a question in the qtile-dev group or submit an issue on the github page if you believe there’s an error in the codebase.

Index

Everything you need to know about Qtile¶

Getting started¶

Installing Qtile¶

Distro Guides¶

Installing on Arch Linux¶

Installing on Fedora¶

Installing on Funtoo¶

Customize¶

Installing on Debian or Ubuntu¶

Installing on Slackware¶

Using slpkg (third party package manager)¶

Manual installation¶

Installing on FreeBSD¶

Installing From Source¶

xcffib¶

cairocffi¶

pangocairo¶

dbus-next¶

Qtile¶

Wayland¶

Configuration¶

Configuration lookup order¶

Default Configuration¶

Key Bindings¶

Mouse Bindings¶

Configuration variables¶

Lazy objects¶

Example¶

General functions¶

Group functions¶

Window functions¶

ScratchPad DropDown functions¶

User-defined functions¶

Groups¶

Example¶

Reference¶

Example¶

Reference¶

Keys¶

KeyChords¶

Modifiers¶

Special keys¶

Reference¶

Layouts¶

Example¶

Mouse¶

Example¶

Reference¶

Screens¶

Example¶

Fake Screens¶

Third-party bars¶

Reference¶

Hooks¶

Examples¶

Testing your configuration¶

Starting Qtile¶

Running from systemd¶

Automatic login to virtual console¶

Autostart X session¶

Running Inside Gnome¶

Troubleshooting¶

So something has gone wrong… what do you do?¶

Capturing an xtrace¶

Shell commands¶

qtile start¶

qtile shell¶

Navigating the Object Graph¶

Live Documentation¶

qtile cmd-obj¶

Examples:¶

Output of qtile cmd-obj -h¶

Output of qtile cmd-obj -o group 3¶

Output of qtile cmd-obj -o cmd¶

qtile run-cmd¶

qtile top¶

dqtile-cmd¶

Examples:¶

Output of dqtile-cmd -o cmd¶

Output of dqtile-cmd -h¶

Capturing an `xtrace`¶

Output of `qtile cmd-obj -h`¶

Output of `qtile cmd-obj -o group 3`¶

Output of `qtile cmd-obj -o cmd`¶

Output of `dqtile-cmd -o cmd`¶

Output of `dqtile-cmd -h`¶