Arch News Waybar Module

A custom Waybar module that displays recent Arch Linux news from the official RSS feed with customizable styling and colors.

Features

• 📰 Fetches latest Arch Linux news from official RSS feed
• ⏰ Configurable time period (default: 7 days)
• 🎨 Customizable colors via command line arguments
• 🖱️ Click to open Arch Linux news page
• 📊 Shows count of recent news items
• 💡 Detailed tooltip with news headlines and dates
• 🔄 Auto-refresh every hour
• ⚡ Lightweight and efficient, written in Bash

Dependencies

• curl
• xmlstarlet
• jq

Installation

1. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/SherLock707/arch-news-waybar.git
   cd arch-news-waybar

2. Make sure you have the required dependencies installed. On Arch Linux, you can install them with:

   sudo pacman -S curl xmlstarlet jq

3. Copy the module to your Waybar config directory:

   mkdir -p ~/.config/waybar/custom_modules
   cp arch_news ~/.config/waybar/custom_modules/
   chmod +x ~/.config/waybar/custom_modules/arch_news

Configuration

Waybar Config

Add this to your ~/.config/waybar/config.json:

{
  "custom/arch_news": {
    "format": "{}",
    "return-type": "json",
    "exec": "~/.config/waybar/custom_modules/arch_news 14",
    "tooltip": true,
    "interval": 3600,
    "on-click": "xdg-open https://archlinux.org/news/"
  }
}

Add "custom/arch_news" to your modules list:

{
  "modules-left": [
    "custom/arch_news"
  ]
}

Waybar Styling

Add this to your ~/.config/waybar/style.css:

#custom-arch_news {
    color: @main-fg;
    background: alpha(@main-bg, 0.7);
    opacity: 1;
    padding-top: 2px;
    padding-bottom: 2px;
    padding-left: 6px;
    padding-right: 6px;
    border: 0.5px solid @main-fg;
    border-bottom: 3px;
    border-style: solid;
    border-color: @main-fg;
    border-radius: 4px;
}

#custom-arch_news.arch_news_active {
    color: #ff6b6b;
    border-color: #ff6b6b;
}

#custom-arch_news.arch_news_inactive {
    color: #4ecdc4;
    border-color: #4ecdc4;
}

#custom-arch_news.arch-news-error {
    color: #ff5555;
    border-color: #ff5555;
}

Usage

Basic Usage

# Show news from last 7 days (default)
./arch_news

# Show news from last 14 days
./arch_news 14

# Show news from last 30 days
./arch_news 30

With Custom Colors

# Custom colors for active and inactive states
./arch_news 14 --active-color "#ff6b6b" --inactive-color "#4ecdc4"

# Using hex colors without quotes
./arch_news 7 --active-color ff6b6b --inactive-color 4ec4

Command Line Arguments

• days (positional): Number of days to look back for news (default: 7)
• --active-color: Color when there are recent news items (default: #a6e3a1)
• --inactive-color: Color when there are no recent news items (default: system theme)
• --help: Show help message

Example Outputs

JSON Output Format

{
  "text": " 3",
  "tooltip": " <span color=\"#a6e3a1\">linux-firmware &gt;= 20250613.12fe085f-5 upgrade requires manual intervention (2025-06-21 23:09)<\/span>\n\n <span color=\"#a6e3a1\">Plasma 6.4.0 will need manual intervention if you are on X11 (2025-06-20 07:08)<\/span>\n\n <span color=\"#a6e3a1\">Transition to the new WoW64 wine and wine-staging (2025-06-16 16:22)<\/span>",
  "class": "arch_news_active",
  "percentage": 30,
  "color": "#a6e3a1"
}

Customization

Changing the Icon

Edit the arch_news script and change the icon in the tooltip variable:

# Change the icon in the following line
tooltip=$(echo "$news_items_json" | jq -r --arg color "$active_color" '
    map("\uf061 <span color=\"\($color)\">\(.title) (\(.pubDate | parse_rfc822_date))</span>") | .[0:3] | join("\n\n")
')

Adjusting Refresh Interval

Modify the interval in your Waybar config:

"interval": 1800  // 30 minutes
"interval": 7200  // 2 hours

Custom RSS Feed

You can modify the RSS URL in the script:

rss_url="https://archlinux.org/feeds/news/"

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Module not showing: Check if the script path is correct and the script is executable.
2. No news displayed: Verify internet connection and RSS feed accessibility. Also check if curl, xmlstarlet, and jq are installed.
3. Styling not applied: Ensure CSS classes match between the script and your stylesheet.

Debug Mode

Run the script directly to see output:

~/.config/waybar/custom_modules/arch_news 7

Logs

Check Waybar logs for errors:

waybar -l debug

Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature-name
3. Make your changes and test them
4. Commit your changes: git commit -am 'Add new feature'
5. Push to the branch: git push origin feature-name
6. Submit a pull request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Author

SherLock707 (@SherLock707)

Acknowledgments

• Arch Linux team for maintaining the news RSS feed
• Waybar developers for the excellent status bar
• Community contributors

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