Change i3status separator character

answered Mar 12 '13

virtualeyes
13 ●2 ●3 ●5

updated Mar 12 '13

If by switching to i3 status you mean pipe conky through i3status, then you can hide i3's default "|" separator by setting bar statusline color to the same as the background (i.e. make all bar text invisible).

bar {
  status_command ~/.i3/conky.sh
  colors {
    statusline #000000 // hide all text
  }
}

Not very useful at this point ;-)

Then, using i3 bar JSON protocol in your conkyrc, set default color for each line item (e.g. white for black bar background) or custom color, and provide whatever separator character (or no separator at all) you want along with cpu, loadavg, etc.

TEXT
[
  {"full_text": "${loadavg 1} |", "color":"\#ffffff"},
  {"full_text": "WIFI |", "color": ${if_up wlan0}"\#ff80ff"${else}"\#00ffff"${endif}},
  {"full_text": "VPN", "color": ${if_up tun0}"\#ff00ff"${else}"\#00ffff"${endif}}
],

JSON protocol gives you full control regardless of service (conky, dzen, etc.) used.