polybar - Man Page

• Start Polybar (the bar name is optional if only one bar is defined in the config): polybar bar_name
• Start Polybar with the specified config: polybar --config=path/to/config.ini bar_name
• Start Polybar and reload the bar when the configuration file is modified: polybar --reload bar_name

tldr.sh

polybar [Options]... [BAR]

Polybar aims to help users build beautiful and highly customizable status bars for their desktop environment, without the need of having a black belt in shell scripting. If the BAR argument is not provided and the configuration file only contains one bar definition, polybar will display this bar.

-h,  --help

Display help text and exit

-v,  --version

Display build details and exit

-l,  --log=LEVEL

Set the logging verbosity (default: notice)
LEVEL is one of: error, warning, notice, info, trace

-q,  --quiet

Be quiet (will override -l)

-c,  --config=FILE

Specify the path to the configuration file. By default, the configuration file is loaded from:

• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/polybar/config
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/polybar/config.ini
• $HOME/.config/polybar/config
• $HOME/.config/polybar/config.ini
• $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/polybar/config.ini
• /etc/xdg/polybar/config.ini (only if XDG_CONFIG_DIRS is not set)
• /etc/polybar/config.ini

-r,  --reload

Reload the application when the config file has been modified

-d,  --dump=PARAM

Print the value of the specified parameter PARAM in bar section and exit

-m,  --list-monitors

Print list of available monitors and exit.
If some monitors are cloned, this will exclude all but one of them.
If polybar was compiled with RandR monitor support, only monitors are listed and not physical outputs.

-M,  --list-all-monitors

Print list of all available monitors and exit.
This includes cloned monitors as well as both physical outputs and RandR monitors (if supported).
Only the names listed here can be used as monitor names in polybar.

-w,  --print-wmname

Print the generated WM_NAME and exit

-s,  --stdout

Output the data to stdout instead of drawing it to the X window

-p,  --png=FILE

Save png snapshot to FILE after running for 3 seconds

Polybar was created by Michael Carlberg and is currently maintained by Patrick Ziegler.
Contributors can be listed on GitHub.

Report issues on GitHub <https://github.com/polybar/polybar>

polybar-msg(1), polybar(5)

Full documentation at: <https://github.com/polybar/polybar>
Project wiki: <https://github.com/polybar/polybar/wiki>

2016-2025, Michael Carlberg & contributors

cinfo(1), polybar(5), polybar-msg(1).