runcat module for polybar (or waybar)

• Polycat
• Table of Contents
• Installation
  • Arch-Based Distributions
  • Other Distributions
• Features
  • Configuration
  • Command-line arguments
• Building

Arch-Based users can directly install the AUR package and follow 3-4 installation steps in Other Distributions section.

1. Build polycat (see Building)

2. Install the font

$ cd <cloned-polycat-repo>/res
$ cp polycat.ttf ~/.local/share/fonts/polycat.ttf

3. Add polycat module to your polybar config:

[module/polycat]
type = custom/script
exec = <path-to-polycat-executable>
tail = true

4. Place the module and add the font

[bar/your-bar]
...
; font-0 = ...
font-1 = "polycat"
...
; modules-left = ... polycat ...
modules-right = ... polycat ...
...

Here you go

Polycat is configured with json file placed in $HOME/.config/polycat-config.json (config path is specified using command-line arguments).

If config file doesn't exist, polycat automatically creates a config file with default values.

{
  "frames": "",
  "highRate": 30,
  "lowRate": 2,
  "pollingPeriod": 1000,
  "smoothEnabled": true,
  "smoothValue": 2000,
  "sleepEnabled": true,
  "sleepThreshold": 8,
  "wakeupThreshold": 12,
  "sleepFrames": "",
  "sleepRate": 4,
  "formatEnabled": false,
  "format": "$frame $lcpu"
}

• frames (non-empty string) sets the frames to loop through.
• lowRate (number [1-255] inclusive) sets the FPS minimum.
• highRate (number [1-255] inclusive) sets the FPS maximum.
• pollingPeriod (number >1) sets the period of polling the CPU (stat file).
• smoothEnabled (boolean) enables smooth transition between CPU load values.
• smoothValue (num [1-10000] inclusive) number of milliseconds required to transition from 0% to 100%.
• sleepEnabled (boolean) enables sleeping.
• sleepThreshold (number [1-100] inclusive) sets the maximum CPU load needed to transition from active mode to sleeping mode.
• wakeupThreshold (number [1-100] inclusive, >sleepThreshold) sets the minimum CPU load value needed to transition from sleeping mode to active mode
• sleepFrames (non-empty string) sets the frames to loop through in sleeping mode.
• sleepRate (number [1-255] inclusive) sets the FPS for sleeping animation.
• formatEnabled (boolean) enables output formatting.
• format (string) sets the output format. $frame - animation, $lcpu - left-aligned CPU load value, $rcpu - right-aligned CPU load value. Note: always escape $ characters with $, otherwise an error will be thrown.

format string here: "$rcpu $frame"

By default, polycat uses /proc/stat file for CPU polling and $HOME/.config/polycat-config.json as a configuration file. Command-line arguments allow you to set the location of configuration file as well as the location of stat file

• -c or --config-path sets the path for configuration file
• -s or --stat-path sets the path for stat file

$ ./polycat --config-path ./config-files/config.json --stat-path /proc/stat

In this example, the config file path would be ~/config-files/config.json and stat path would be /proc/stat

$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/2IMT/polycat.git
$ cd polycat
$ cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE .
$ cmake --build .
$ ./polycat # Run polycat