(pronounced Mer-gneh), which comes from two Proto-Indo-European words: *merǵ- (meaning border) and *ǵneh₃- (meaning knowing).
A really simple program which creates running text in the terminal.
Mergneh reads text from various sources and then outputs it like a running banner.
Let's start with simple examples. Here's a static running text with 300ms delay:
Note
Go here to see what time suffixes are supported.
Neat, aint it? Mergneh can also save state between runs in a file:
❯ mg "I am a running text" -s " | " iter iter_file.txt
I am a running text | I am a run
❯ mg "I am a running text" -s " | " iter iter_file.txt
am a running text | I am a runn
❯ mg "I am a running text" -s " | " iter iter_file.txt
am a running text | I am a runni
❯ mg "I am a running text" -s " | " iter iter_file.txt
m a running text | I am a runnin
❯ mg "I am a running text" -s " | " iter iter_file.txt
a running text | I am a running
❯ mg "I am a running text" -s " | " iter iter_file.txt
a running text | I am a running
If you want to, you can use a command to make running text dynamic:
You can compile it with mpd support, then it would be able to connect to mpd daemon and read its status:
Note
Format placeholders are fully compatible with Waybar's ones.
Fortunately, the program also supports streaming running text continuously in waybar's custom module (also under a feature flag).
Suppose we defined a module custom/mpd, now we only need to configure the module like this:
"custom/mpd": {
"on-click": "mpc toggle > /dev/null",
"on-scroll-up": "mpc volume +5",
"on-scroll-down": "mpc volume -5",
"exec": "mg --mpd -l \" \" -R \" [{elapsedTime}/{totalTime}] {stateIcon}\" -w 30 --separator \" \" --dont-repeat waybar -d 100ms -t",
"return-type": "json"
}And that's everything you need, really. Here's a demo:
As mentioned earlier, the --format and subsequenly --prefix-format, --suffix-format, --tooltip-format are compatible with waybar's format designators.
Here's an exhaustive list of them:
{albumArtist}{album}{artist}{consumeIcon}{date}{elapsedTime}{filename}{queueLength}{randomIcon}{repeatIcon}{singleIcon}{songPosition}{stateIcon}{title}{totalTime}{volume}
Important
The {*Icon} placeholders take icons from respective options.
The --status-icons option must be a 3-character long string, icons are specified in this order: play, pause, stop.
Other sets of icons are 1 or 2-characters long: for enabled state and other one is optional for disabled state.
Note
Icon placeholders can have a padding (specified like this: {stateIcon:1}), this is useful when icon glyphs are too big for one character.
Note
{*Time} placeholders can have additional formatting specified after the ':' like this: {elapsedTime:%M min %S sec}. (the default one is %M:%S)
For a more detailed overview of supported time specifiers go here.
Keep in mind that you can only use a limited subset of specifiers.
mg -h should give you enough information. Anyway, here's available options:
Commands:
run Run text in a terminal
iter Print just one iteration
waybar Run text with custom module in waybar (JSON output)
help Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)
Options:
-w, --window <WINDOW> Window size [default: 32]
-s, --separator <SEP> String to print between content [default: ]
-n, --newline <NL> String to replace newlines with [default: ]
-l, --prefix <PREFIX> String to print before running text [default: ]
-r, --suffix <SUFFIX> String to print after running text [default: ]
-1, --dont-repeat Do not repeat contents if it fits in the window size
--reset-on-change Reset text window on content change
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print version
Sources:
-f, --file <FILE> Pull contents from a file (BEWARE: it loads whole file into memory!)
-S, --string <STRING> Use a string as contents
--stdin Pull contents from stdin (BEWARE: it loads whole input into memory just like --file)
--cmd <ARGS>... Execute a command and use its output as contents (use a ';' as a terminator)
--mpd [<SERVER_ADDR>] Display MPD status as running text [default server address is 127.0.0.0:6600]
<SOURCE> Same as --file, if file with this name does not exist or is a directory, it will behave as --string
MPD Options:
--status-icons <ICONS>
Status icons to use [default: ]
--repeat-icons <ICONS>
Repeat icons to use [default: 凌稜]
--consume-icons <ICONS>
Consume icons to use [default: ]
--random-icons <ICONS>
Random icons to use [default: ]
--single-icons <ICONS>
Single icons to use [default: ]
--format <FORMAT>
Format string to use in running text [default: "{artist} - {title}"]
-L, --prefix-format <FORMAT>
Format string to use in prefix
-R, --suffix-format <FORMAT>
Format string to use in suffix
-D, --default-placeholder <PLACEHOLDER>
Default placeholder for missing values [default: N/A]
Options for a run subcommand:
Run text in a terminal
Usage: mg <SOURCE|--file <FILE>|--string <STRING>|--stdin|--cmd <ARGS>...|--mpd [<SERVER_ADDR>]> run [OPTIONS]
Options:
-d, --duration <DURATION> Tick duration [default: 1s]
-h, --help Print help
Options for an iter subcommand:
Print just one iteration
Usage: mg <SOURCE|--file <FILE>|--string <STRING>|--stdin|--cmd <ARGS>...|--mpd [<SERVER_ADDR>]> iter <ITER_FILE>
Arguments:
<ITER_FILE> File containing data for next iteration
Options:
-h, --help Print help
Options for a waybar subcommand:
Run text with custom module in waybar (JSON output)
Usage: mg <SOURCE|--file <FILE>|--string <STRING>|--stdin|--cmd <ARGS>...|--mpd [<SERVER_ADDR>]> waybar [OPTIONS] [TOOLTIP]
Arguments:
[TOOLTIP] Tooltip to show on hover
Options:
-d, --duration <DURATION> Tick duration [default: 1s]
--tooltip-cmd <ARGS>... Use output of a command for tooltip
-t, --tooltip-format [<FORMAT>] Tooltip format with MPD placeholder support [default: {artist} - {title}]
-h, --help Print help