ShellGlance

A GNOME Shell 49 extension that displays terminal command outputs in the top bar.

Features

• Multiple Commands: Configure multiple shell commands with individual refresh intervals
• Top Bar Display: Combined output display with configurable separator (e.g., CPU: 45% | RAM: 2.1G)
• Dropdown Menu: Click to view full command outputs
• Per-Command Settings: Individual refresh intervals, timeouts, and enable/disable toggles
• Error Handling: Visual error indicator when commands fail
• Configurable Timeout: Default 10 seconds per command to prevent hanging

Requirements

• GNOME Shell 49

Installation

Manual Installation

1. Clone or download this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/ShellGlance.git
   cd ShellGlance

2. Install the extension:

   make install

3. Restart GNOME Shell (logout/login on Wayland)

4. Enable the extension:

   make enable

Configuration

Open the extension preferences via:

• GNOME Extensions app
• Running gnome-extensions prefs shellglance@dnlvgl.com
• Clicking "Settings" in the extension dropdown menu

Command Settings

Each command has the following options:

Setting	Description	Default
Name	Display name shown in top bar	-
Command	Shell command to execute	-
Refresh Interval	Seconds between refreshes	5
Timeout	Maximum seconds to wait	10
Enabled	Show in top bar	true

General Settings

Setting	Description	Default
Separator	String between command outputs	|
Max Display Length	Characters per command in top bar	30

Example Commands

# CPU usage
top -bn1 | grep "Cpu(s)" | awk '{print $2}' | cut -d'%' -f1

# Memory usage
free -h | awk '/^Mem:/ {print $3}'

# Disk usage
df -h / | awk 'NR==2 {print $5}'

# Network IP
hostname -I | awk '{print $1}'

# Temperature
sensors | awk '/^Core/ {sum+=$3; count++} END {print sum/count "°C"}'

Development

make install   # First-time install
make update    # Update and toggle extension for reload
make enable    # Enable extension
make disable   # Disable extension
make prefs     # Open preferences
make logs      # Follow GNOME Shell logs
make zip       # Create distributable zip
make clean     # Remove build artifacts

To test changes, run make update then disable/enable the extension in the Extensions app.

Troubleshooting

Recompile Schemas

If settings aren't working, recompile and reinstall:

make update

Resources

Official Documentation

• GNOME Shell Extensions Guide - Comprehensive guide for extension development

License

GPL-3.0 - see LICENSE

Todos

• add screenshots
• publish