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Luca CPZ edited this page Mar 15, 2022 · 45 revisions

Usage

Read here.

Description

Monitors network interfaces and shows current traffic.

local mynet = lain.widget.net()

Input table

Variable Meaning Type Default
timeout Refresh timeout (in seconds) integer 2
iface Network device(s) string (single interface) or table of strings (multiple interfaces) autodetected
units Units integer 1024 (kilobytes)
notify Display "no carrier" notifications string "on"
wifi_state Get Wi-Fi connection status string "off"
eth_state Get Ethernet connection status string "off"
screen Notifications screen integer 1
format String format for output string "%.1f"
settings User settings function empty function

iface can be a string or an table of the form { "eth0", "eth1", ... } containing a list of the devices to collect data on.

If more than one device is included, net_now.sent and net_now.received will contain cumulative values over all given devices. Use net_now.devices["eth0"] to access sent, received, state or carrier per device.

Possible alternative values for units are 1 (byte) or multiple of 1024: 1024^2 (MB), 1024^3 (GB), and so on.

If notify = "off" is set, the widget won't display a notification when there's no carrier.

settings can use the following iface related strings:

  • net_now.carrier ("0", "1");
  • net_now.state ("up", "down");
  • net_now.sent and net_now.received (numbers) will be the sum across all specified interfaces;
  • net_now.devices["interface"] contains the previous attributes for each detected interface.

If wifi_state = "on" is set, settings can use the following extra strings attached to net_now.devices["wireless interface"]:

  • wifi (true, false) indicates if the interface is connected to a network;
  • signal (number) is the connection signal strength in dBm;

If eth_state = "on" is set, settings can use the following extra string: net_now.devices["ethernet interface"].ethernet, which is a boolean indicating if an Ethernet connection's active.

For compatibility reasons, if multiple devices are given, net_now.carrier and net_now.state correspond to the last interface in the iface table and should not be relied upon (deprecated).

Output table

Variable Meaning Type
widget The widget wibox.widget.textbox
update Update widget function
get_devices Update the iface table function

Notes

Setting iface manually

If the widget spawns a "no carrier" notification and you are sure to have an active network device, then autodetection is probably not working. This may due to your user privileges. In this case you can set iface manually. You can see which device is UP,LOWER_UP with the following command:

ip link show

Usage examples

Two widgets for upload/download rates from the same iface

local mynetdown = wibox.widget.textbox()
local mynetup = lain.widget.net {
    settings = function()
        widget:set_markup(net_now.sent)
        mynetdown:set_markup(net_now.received)
    end
}

Wi-Fi/Ethernet connection and signal strength indicator

local wifi_icon = wibox.widget.imagebox()
local eth_icon = wibox.widget.imagebox()
local net = lain.widget.net {
    notify = "off",
    wifi_state = "on",
    eth_state = "on",
    settings = function()
        local eth0 = net_now.devices.eth0
        if eth0 then
            if eth0.ethernet then
                eth_icon:set_image(ethernet_icon_filename)
            else
                eth_icon:set_image()
            end
        end

        local wlan0 = net_now.devices.wlan0
        if wlan0 then
            if wlan0.wifi then
                local signal = wlan0.signal
                if signal < -83 then
                    wifi_icon:set_image(wifi_weak_filename)
                elseif signal < -70 then
                    wifi_icon:set_image(wifi_mid_filename)
                elseif signal < -53 then
                    wifi_icon:set_image(wifi_good_filename)
                elseif signal >= -53 then
                    wifi_icon:set_image(wifi_great_filename)
                end
            else
                wifi_icon:set_image()
            end
        end
    end
}