temporary (TM) solution to display the number of pending update

.config/i3/bar.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+/usr/local/bin/i3status | while : 
+do
+    read line
+    if echo "${line}" | grep -Pq '^\{"version":\d\}$' ; then
+        echo $line
+    elif echo "${line}" | grep -Pq '^\[$' ; then
+        echo $line
+    else
+        echo -n "["
+        line=`echo "${line}" | sed 's/^,\{0,1\}\[//' | sed 's/\]$//'`
+        NB_UPDATES=`/sbin/checkupdates | /sbin/wc -l`
+        NB_UPDATES_COLOR="#40AA40"
+        if [ $NB_UPDATES -ge 10 ] ; then
+            NB_UPDATES_COLOR="#FF8C00"
+        elif  [ $NB_UPDATES -ge 25 ] ; then
+            NB_UPDATES_COLOR="#FF0000"
+        fi
+        echo -n "{"
+        echo -n "\"name\":\"updates\","
+        echo -n "\"full_text\":\"pending updates: ${NB_UPDATES} \","
+        echo -n "\"color\":\"${NB_UPDATES_COLOR}\","
+        echo -n "\"markup\":\"pango\""
+        echo -n "},"
+        echo "$line]" || exit 1
+        echo -n ","
+    fi
+done

.config/i3/config

@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"
 # finds out, if available)
 bar {
     tray_output primary
-    status_command /usr/local/bin/i3status
+    status_command "sh ~/.config/i3/bar.sh"
     position top
     separator_symbol " | "
     colors {

.config/i3status/config

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 # If the above line is not correctly displayed, fix your editor first!
 
 general {
+        output_format = "i3bar"
         colors = true
         interval = 5
         color_good = "#40AA40"