polybar-msg - Man Page

• Quit the bar: polybar-msg cmd quit
• Restart the bar in-place: polybar-msg cmd restart
• Hide the bar (does nothing if the bar is already hidden): polybar-msg cmd hide
• Show the bar again (does nothing if the bar is not hidden): polybar-msg cmd show
• Toggle between hidden/visible: polybar-msg cmd toggle
• Execute a module action (the data string is optional): polybar-msg action "#module_name.action_name.data_string"
• Only send messages to a specific Polybar instance (all instances by default): polybar-msg -p pid cmd|action payload

tldr.sh

polybar-msg [OPTIONS] action action-string
polybar-msg [OPTIONS] action module action [data]
polybar-msg [OPTIONS] cmd command

Polybar allows external control through actions and commands. Actions control individual modules and commands control the bar itself.

The full IPC documentation is linked at the end of this document.

The available actions depend on the target module. For actions, the payload is either a single action string or the module name, the action name, and the optional data string specified separately.

In order for polybar-msg being able to send a message to a running polybar process, the bar must have IPC enabled and both polybar-msg and polybar must run under the same user.

-h,  --help

Display help text and exit

-p PID

Send message only to polybar process running under the given process ID. If not specified, the message is sent to all running polybar processes.

polybar-msg cmd quit

Terminate all running polybar instances.

polybar-msg action mymodule module_hide

polybar-msg action "#mymodule.module_hide"

Hide the module named mymodule. The first variant specifies the module and action names separately, the second uses an action string.

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(1), polybar(5)

IPC documentation: <https://polybar.rtfd.org/en/stable/user/ipc.html>

2016-2024, Michael Carlberg & contributors

polybar(1), polybar(5).