A tweak to show a language indicator in i3wm's i3status

switch_lang.sh

#!/bin/bash

# You'll need to set a keybind to run this script
# It will change the keyboard layout and create a file in `/tmp`
# indicating the current layout lang.
# Use the module `path_exists` of i3status to check 
# if the file (named here `currlang_ar`) is created

layout=$(setxkbmap -query | grep layout | cut -d: -f2 | sed -e 's/^[[:space:]]*//')
if [ $layout == 'us' ] ; then
        setxkbmap ar
        touch /tmp/currlang_ar
else
        setxkbmap us
        rm -f /tmp/currlang_ar
fi

exit 0

I have output us,ru,it for any of the languages set as the current one.

I have output us,ru,it for any of the languages set as the current one.

I get current lang xkb-switch -p

@bos-s-man, Debian 10:

$ setxkbmap -query | grep layout
layout:     us,ru

Dmitry the https://github.com/nonpop/xkblayout-state variant working well. xkblayout-state print "%s" will show you current layout

I ended up using this damn simple code: https://github.com/DmitryMyadzelets/xlayout
Though it's not a script. Seems one can't get the desired result with builtin tools.