Variable

• Standalone variables
  • Switch-Case Logic
  • Filters

Variables are at length described in the Command section where they are produced and in the Block section where they are consumed.

If oatbar is running and you have added a few commands, you can see all available variables using oatctl command:

$ oatctl var ls
clock:value=Mon Jul  8 00:40:19
desktop:window_title.full_text=window: Alacritty
desktop:window_title.value=Alacritty
desktop:workspace.active=0
desktop:workspace.full_text=workspace: 1
desktop:workspace.value=1
desktop:workspace.variants=1,2
...

More info on how to get and set variables programmatically:

$ oatctl var help

Standalone variables

You can declare your additional variables that do not come from commands. This is useful to pre-process data with replace and replace_first_match to be used in multiple blocks.

Supported properties:

• name: Unique name of the variable.
• value: The value of the variable, supports placeholders.
• replace: List of regex replacements.
• replace_first_match: Whether to stop after the first replacement (default: false).

[[var]]
name="clock_color_attr"
value = '${clock:color}'
replace = [["(.+)","foreground='$1'"]]

[[block]]
value = "<span ${clock_color_attr}>${clock:value}</span>"

Standalone variables can use each other only in the order they are declared in the file, otherwise the result is undefined.

Switch-Case Logic

replace_first_match=true allows implementing a switch-case logic where you map a set of known values to other values, optionally providing a default at the end. Since processing stops after the first match, order matters.

[[var]]
name="status_icon"
value="${player:status}"
replace_first_match=true
replace=[
    ["^playing$", "▶"],
    ["^paused$", "⏸"],
    ["^stopped$", "⏹"],
    [".*", ""] # Default/Catch-all
]

Filters

Filters are additional functions you can apply to values inside of the ${...} expressions. Example:

value = '${desktop:window_title.value|def:(no selected window)|max:100}'

Supported filters:

• def sets the default value if the input variable is empty
• max limits the length of the input. If it is larger, it is shortened with ellipsis (...)
• align aligns the text to occupy a fixed width.
  • Syntax: align:[filler][alignment][width]
  • alignment must be one of: < (left), ^ (center), or > (right).
  • filler is an optional character (defaults to space).
  • width is the target width.
  • Examples:
    • align:<10 -> Left align, space padding (e.g. hello )
    • align:->10 -> Right align, - padding (e.g. -----hello)
    • align:_^10 -> Center align, _ padding (e.g. __hello___)