You are mixing two different ways to send information to xmobar.
Here :
main = xmonad =<< xmobar myConfig
You are using the xmobar convenience function. You can click on the source link on the documentation to see how it is defined. It uses the statusBar function to launch xmobar with the default xmobarPP. The statusBar function uses spawnPipe to launch the status bar application, and modifies the PP to output to that pipe.
This is the bar you are seeing, with the default pretty printer and logger that only prints the workspaces tags. The XMonad.Actions.WorkspaceNames module you are using associates names with workspaces tags. It provides the workspaceNamesPP function that combines with a PP to retrieve the names.
And here :
myLogHook = workspaceNamesPP xmobarPP >>= dynamicLogString >>= xmonadPropLog
You are using the workspaceNamesPP function with xmobarPP, you pass the result to dynamicLogString that returns the status as a string, and you pass that string to xmonadPropLog that writes it as a _XMONAD_LOG property on the root window. This is a different way to communicate the information to xmobar, which can be configured to read that property. In that case, you don't have to launch xmobar from xmonad.
So you should decide which way you want to use.
You can for example keep launching xmobar from XMonad using spawnPipe, and have myLogHook write the status to a pipe that you pass to it :
import XMonad.Util.Run -- spawnPipe and associated functions
main = xmonad . myConfig =<< spawnPipe "xmobar"
myConfig pipe = defaultConfig { startupHook = setWMName "LG3D" ,
logHook = myLogHook pipe}
`additionalKeys`
[((mod4Mask, xK_r), renameWorkspace defaultXPConfig)]
myLogHook pipe = workspaceNamesPP xmobarPP {ppOutput = hPutStrLn pipe}
>>= dynamicLogWithPP
The statusBar function also modifies the manageHook and layoutHook to add the manageDocks and avoidStruts from the XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks module to them. You should use this module so that the bar and windows don't step on each other. The manageDocks makes XMonad ignore the windows of type dock or desktop. The avoidStruts layout modifier changes the layouts to reserve space for the bars, according to their _NET_WM_STRUT_PARTIAL property.
manageHook layoutHook and handleEventHook are part of XConfig, so to add the function provided by the XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks module :
myConfig pipe = defaultConfig
{
startupHook = setWMName "LG3D" ,
logHook = myLogHook pipe,
manageHook = manageDocks <+> manageHook defaultConfig,
layoutHook = avoidStruts $ layoutHook defaultConfig,
handleEventHook = docksEventHook <+> handleEventHook defaultConfig
} `additionalKeys` [((mod4Mask, xK_r), renameWorkspace defaultXPConfig) ]
The xmobar function you were using also binds the mod + B key shortcut to sendMessage ToggleStruts to toggle the bar gaps, so if you want that keybinding you should add it too.
Also :
import XMonad.Util.EZConfig(additionalKeys)
import XMonad.Util.EZConfig
You are importing additionalKeys from the XMonad.Util.EZConfig module, and then you are importing all of the XMonad.Util.EZConfig module.
