6 conky - A system monitor for X originally based on the torsmo code, but
7 more kickass. It just keeps on given’er. Yeah.
10 1mconky 22m[4moptions24m]
13 Conky is a system monitor for X originally based on torsmo. Since its
14 inception, Conky has changed significantly from its predecessor, while
15 maintaining simplicity and configurability. Conky can display just
16 about anything, either on your root desktop or in its own window. Not
17 only does Conky have many built-in objects, it can also display just
18 about any piece of information by using scripts and other external pro‐
21 Conky has more than 250 built in objects, including support for a
22 plethora of OS stats (uname, uptime, CPU usage, mem usage, disk usage,
23 "top" like process stats, and network monitoring, just to name a few),
24 built in IMAP and POP3 support, built in support for many popular music
25 players (MPD, XMMS2, BMPx, Audacious), and much much more. Conky can
26 display this info either as text, or using simple progress bars and
27 graph widgets, with different fonts and colours.
29 We are always looking for help, whether its reporting bugs, writing
30 patches, or writing docs. Please use the facilities at SourceForge to
31 make bug reports, feature requests, and submit patches, or stop by
32 #conky on irc.freenode.net if you have questions or want to contribute.
34 Thanks for your interest in Conky.
37 For users compiling from source on a binary distro, make sure you have
38 the X development libraries installed. This should be a package along
39 the lines of "libx11-dev" or "xorg-x11-dev" for X11 libs, and similar
40 "-dev" format for the other libs required (depending on your configure
43 Conky has (for some time) been available in the repositories of most
44 popular distributions. Here are some installation instructions for a
47 Gentoo users -- Conky is in Gentoo’s Portage... simply use "emerge app-
48 admin/conky" for installation. There is also usually an up-to-date
49 ebuild within Conky’s package or in the git repo.
51 Debian, etc. users -- Conky should be in your repositories, and can be
52 installed by doing "aptitude install conky".
54 Example to compile and run Conky with all optional components (note
55 that some configure options may differ for your system):
57 1msh autogen.sh # Only required if building from the git repo0m
59 1m./configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --in‐0m
60 1mfodir=/usr/share/info --datadir=/usr/share --sysconfdir=/etc --local‐0m
61 1mstatedir=/var/lib --disable-own-window --enable-audacious[=yes|no|lega‐0m
62 1mcy] --enable-bmpx --disable-hddtemp --disable-mpd --enable-xmms2 --dis‐0m
63 1mable-portmon --disable-network --enable-debug --disable-x11 --dis‐0m
64 1mable-double-buffer --disable-xdamage --disable-xft0m
68 1mmake install # Optional0m
72 Conky has been tested to be compatible with C99 C, however it has not
73 been tested with anything other than gcc, and is not guaranteed to work
78 Conky is generally very good on resources. That said, the more you try
79 to make Conky do, the more resources it is going to consume.
81 An easy way to force Conky to reload your ~/.conkyrc: "killall -SIGUSR1
82 conky". Saves you the trouble of having to kill and then restart. You
83 can now also do the same with SIGHUP.
86 Command line options override configurations defined in configuration
89 1m-v | -V | --version0m
90 Prints version and exits
94 Run Conky in ’quiet mode’ (ie. no output)
97 1m-a | --alignment=ALIGNMENT0m
98 Text alignment on screen, {top,bottom,middle}_{left,right,mid‐
102 1m-b | --double-buffer0m
103 Use double buffering (eliminates "flicker")
106 1m-c | --config=FILE0m
107 Config file to load instead of $HOME/.conkyrc
111 Daemonize Conky, aka fork to background
119 Prints command line help and exits
122 1m-o | --own-window0m
123 Create own window to draw
127 Text to render, remember single quotes, like -t ’ $uptime ’
130 1m-u | --interval=SECONDS0m
134 1m-w | --window-id=WIN_ID0m
147 Number of times to update Conky (and quit)
150 1mCONFIGURATION SETTINGS0m
151 Default configuration file location is $HOME/.conkyrc or
152 ${sysconfdir}/conky/conky.conf. On most systems, sysconfdir is /etc,
153 and you can find the sample config file there (/etc/conky/conky.conf).
155 You might want to copy it to $HOME/.conkyrc and then start modifying
156 it. Other configs can be found at http://conky.sf.net/
159 Aligned position on screen, may be top_left, top_right, top_mid‐
160 dle, bottom_left, bottom_right, bottom_middle, middle_left, mid‐
161 dle_right, or none (also can be abreviated as tl, tr, tm, bl,
166 Boolean value, if true, Conky will be forked to background when
171 Border margin in pixels
175 Border width in pixels
178 1mcolorN 22mPredefine a color for use inside TEXT segments. Substitute N by
179 a digit between 0 and 9, inclusively. When specifying the color
180 value in hex, omit the leading hash (#).
184 The number of samples to average for CPU monitoring
188 If true, cpu in top will show usage of one processor’s power. If
189 false, cpu in top will show the usage of all processors’ power
194 Default color and border color
197 1mdefault_outline_color0m
198 Default outline color
201 1mdefault_shade_color0m
202 Default shading color and border’s shading color
206 Use the Xdbe extension? (eliminates flicker) It is highly recom‐
207 mended to use own window with this one so double buffer won’t be
212 Draw borders around text?
215 1mdraw_graph_borders0m
216 Draw borders around graphs?
227 1mfont 22mFont name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font
230 1mgap_x 22mGap, in pixels, between right or left border of screen, same as
231 passing -x at command line, e.g. gap_x 10
234 1mgap_y 22mGap, in pixels, between top or bottom border of screen, same as
235 passing -y at command line, e.g. gap_y 10.
239 How strict should if_up be when testing an interface for being
240 up? The value is one of up, link or address, to check for the
241 interface being solely up, being up and having link or being up,
242 having link and an assigned IP address.
245 1mimap 22mDefault global IMAP server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i
246 interval] [-f folder] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". De‐
247 fault port is 143, default folder is ’INBOX’, default interval
248 is 5 minutes, and default number of retries before giving up is
249 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’, you will be prompted to
250 enter the password when Conky starts.
254 Mail spool for mail checking
257 1mmax_port_monitor_connections0m
258 Allow each port monitor to track at most this many connections
259 (if 0 or not set, default is 256)
263 Maximum number of special things, e.g. fonts, offsets, aligns,
264 etc. (default is 512)
267 1mmax_user_text bytes0m
268 Maximum size of user text buffer, i.e. layout below TEXT line in
269 config file (default is 16384 bytes)
272 1mtext_buffer_size bytes0m
273 Size of the standard text buffer (default is 256 bytes). This
274 buffer is used for intermediary text, such as individual lines,
275 output from $exec vars, and various other variables. Increasing
276 the size of this buffer can drastically reduce Conky’s perfor‐
277 mance, but will allow for more text display per variable. The
278 size of this buffer cannot be smaller than the default value of
282 1mmaximum_width pixels0m
283 Maximum width of window
286 1mminimum_size width (height)0m
287 Minimum size of window
302 1mmusic_player_interval0m
303 Music player thread update interval (defaults to Conky’s update
308 The number of samples to average for net data
312 Substract (file system) buffers from used memory?
315 1moverride_utf8_locale0m
316 Force UTF8? requires XFT
320 Boolean, create own window to draw?
324 Manually set the WM_CLASS name. Defaults to "Conky".
327 1mown_window_colour colour0m
328 If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour
329 (defaults to black). Takes either a hex value (#ffffff) or a
330 valid RGB name (see /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt)
333 1mown_window_hints undecorated,below,above,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager0m
334 If own_window is yes, you may use these window manager hints to
335 affect the way Conky displays. Notes: Use own_window_type desk‐
336 top as another way to implement many of these hints implicitly.
337 If you use own_window_type override, window manager hints have
338 no meaning and are ignored.
342 Manually set the window name. Defaults to "<hostname> - conky".
345 1mown_window_transparent0m
346 Boolean, set pseudo-transparency?
350 if own_window is yes, you may specify type normal, desktop, dock
351 or override (default: normal). Desktop windows are special win‐
352 dows that have no window decorations; are always visible on your
353 desktop; do not appear in your pager or taskbar; and are sticky
354 across all workspaces. Override windows are not under the con‐
355 trol of the window manager. Hints are ignored. This type of win‐
356 dow can be useful for certain situations.
360 Print text to stdout.
364 Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding)
367 1mpop3 22mDefault global POP3 server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i
368 interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port is
369 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
370 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
371 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
375 Shortens units to a single character (kiB->k, GiB->G, etc.). De‐
380 Shows the maximum value in scaled graphs.
384 Shows the time range covered by a graph.
388 Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
392 Desired output unit of all objects displaying a temperature.
393 Parameters are either "fahrenheit" or "celsius". The default
394 unit is degree Celsius.
398 Define a template for later use inside TEXT segments. Substitute
399 N by a digit between 0 and 9, inclusively. The value of the
400 variable is being inserted into the stuff below TEXT at the cor‐
401 responding position, but before some substitutions are applied:
406 ’\N’ -> template argument N
410 Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero
411 makes Conky run forever
415 Update interval in seconds
419 Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
423 Adds spaces around certain objects to stop them from moving oth‐
424 er things around. Arguments are left, right, and none (default).
425 The old true/false values are deprecated and default to
426 right/none respectively. Note that this only helps if you are
427 using a mono font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
431 Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
435 Alpha of Xft font. Must be a value at or between 1 and 0.
442 1mTEXT 22mAfter this begins text to be formatted on screen. Backslash (\)
443 escapes newlines in the text section. This can be useful for
444 cleaning up config files where conky is used to pipe input to
449 Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
450 /usr/share/X11/rgb.txt. Also, ⟨http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html⟩.
451 Color can be also in #rrggbb format (hex).
454 IP address for an interface, or "No Address" if no address is
459 IP addresses for an interface (if one - works like addr). Linux
464 ACPI ac adapter state.
472 ACPI temperature in C.
476 CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
480 Fan speed from therm_adt746x
484 Right-justify text, with space of N
492 Display APM AC adapter status (FreeBSD only)
496 Display APM battery life in percent (FreeBSD only)
500 Display remaining APM battery life in hh:mm:ss or "unknown" if
501 AC adapterstatus is on-line or charging (FreeBSD only)
504 1maudacious_bar (height),(width)0m
508 1maudacious_bitrate0m
509 Bitrate of current tune
512 1maudacious_channels0m
513 Number of audio channels of current tune
516 1maudacious_filename0m
517 Full path and filename of current tune
520 1maudacious_frequency0m
521 Sampling frequency of current tune
525 Total length of current tune as MM:SS
528 1maudacious_length_seconds0m
529 Total length of current tune in seconds
532 1maudacious_playlist_position0m
533 Playlist position of current tune
536 1maudacious_playlist_length0m
537 Number of tunes in playlist
540 1maudacious_position0m
541 Position of current tune (MM:SS)
544 1maudacious_position_seconds0m
545 Position of current tune in seconds
549 Player status (Playing/Paused/Stopped/Not running)
552 1maudacious_title (max length)0m
553 Title of current tune with optional maximum length specifier
556 1maudacious_main_volume0m
557 The current volume fetched from Audacious
561 Battery status and remaining percentage capacity of ACPI or APM
562 battery. ACPI battery number can be given as argument (default
566 1mbattery_bar (height),(width) (num)0m
567 Battery percentage remaining of ACPI battery in a bar. ACPI bat‐
568 tery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
571 1mbattery_percent (num)0m
572 Battery percentage remaining for ACPI battery. ACPI battery num‐
573 ber can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
576 1mbattery_time (num)0m
577 Battery charge/discharge time remaining of ACPI battery. ACPI
578 battery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
582 Artist in current BMPx track
586 Album in current BMPx track
590 Title of the current BMPx track
594 Track number of the current BMPx track
598 Bitrate of the current BMPx track
602 URI of the current BMPx track
606 Amount of memory buffered
609 1mcached 22mAmount of memory cached
613 Change drawing color to color
616 1mcolorN 22mChange drawing color to colorN configuration option, where N is
617 a digit between 0 and 9, inclusively.
629 CPU architecture Conky was built for
633 CPU usage in percents. For SMP machines, the CPU number can be
634 provided as an argument. ${cpu cpu0} is the total usage, and
635 ${cpu cpuX} (X >= 1) are individual CPUs.
638 1mcpubar (cpu number) (height),(width)0m
639 Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bar’s height in pixels. See
640 $cpu for more info on SMP.
643 1mcpugraph normal|log (cpu number) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
644 1m(gradient colour 2)0m
645 CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. See
646 $cpu for more info on SMP. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see
647 small numbers) when you use "log" instead of "normal".
651 Displays current disk IO. Device is optional, and takes the form
652 of sda for /dev/sda. Individual partitions are allowed.
655 1mdiskiograph normal|log (device) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
656 1m(gradient colour 2) (scale)0m
657 Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is
658 non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a logarithmic
659 scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" instead of "nor‐
663 1mdiskio_read (device)0m
664 Displays current disk IO for reads. Device as in diskio.
667 1mdiskiograph_read normal|log (device) (height),(width) (gradient colour0m
668 1m1) (gradient colour 2) (scale)0m
669 Disk IO graph for reads, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
670 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Device as
671 in diskio. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when
672 you use "log" instead of "normal".
675 1mdiskio_write (device)0m
676 Displays current disk IO for writes. Device as in diskio.
679 1mdiskiograph_write normal|log (device) (height),(width) (gradient colour0m
680 1m1) (gradient colour 2) (scale)0m
681 Disk IO graph for writes, colours defined in hex, minus the #.
682 If scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Device
683 as in diskio. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers)
684 when you use "log" instead of "normal".
687 1mdisk_protect device0m
688 Disk protection status, if supported (needs kernel-patch).
689 Prints either "frozen" or "free " (note the padding).
693 Download speed in KiB
697 Download speed in KiB with one decimal
700 1mdownspeedgraph normal|log net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
701 1m(gradient colour 2) (scale)0m
702 Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
703 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a
704 logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" in‐
708 1melse 22mText to show if any of the above are not true
712 Current entropy available for crypto freaks
715 1mentropy_bar (height),(width)0m
716 Normalized bar of available entropy for crypto freaks
720 Total size of system entropy pool for crypto freaks
724 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn‐
725 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I’d
726 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch.
730 Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value be‐
731 tween 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for the
732 bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future.
735 1mexecgraph (normal|log) command0m
736 Same as execbar, but graphs values. Uses a logaritmic scale when
737 the log option is given (to see small numbers). Values still
738 have to be between 0 and 100.
741 1mexeci interval command0m
742 Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval can’t be less
743 than update_interval in configuration. See also $texeci
746 1mexecibar interval command0m
747 Same as execbar, except with an interval
750 1mexecigraph interval command0m
751 Same as execgraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values
755 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn‐
756 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I’d
757 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch. This
758 differs from $exec in that it parses the output of the command,
759 so you can insert things like ${color red}hi!${color} in your
760 script and have it correctly parsed by Conky. Caveats: Conky
761 parses and evaluates the output of $execp every time Conky
762 loops, and then destroys all the objects. If you try to use any‐
763 thing like $execi within an $execp statement, it will function‐
764 ally run at the same interval that the $execp statement runs, as
765 it is created and destroyed at every interval.
768 1mexecpi interval command0m
769 Same as execp but with specific interval. Interval can’t be less
770 than update_interval in configuration. Note that the output from
771 the $execpi command is still parsed and evaluated at every in‐
776 Specify a different font. This new font will apply to the cur‐
777 rent line and everything following. You can use a $font with no
778 arguments to change back to the default font (much like with
783 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in MHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If
784 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
788 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in GHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If
789 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
793 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in MHz (defaults to 1), but is calcu‐
794 lated by counting to clock cycles to complete an instruction.
795 Only available for x86/amd64.
799 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in GHz (defaults to 1), but is calcu‐
800 lated by counting to clock cycles to complete an instruction.
801 Only available for x86/amd64.
804 1mfs_bar (height),(width) fs0m
805 Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height
806 is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system.
810 Free space on a file system available for users.
813 1mfs_free_perc (fs)0m
814 Free percentage of space on a file system available for users.
826 File system used space
829 1mgoto x 22mThe next element will be printed at position ’x’.
833 Displays the default route’s interface or "multiple"/"none" ac‐
837 1mgw_ip 22mDisplays the default gateway’s IP or "multiple"/"none" accord‐
841 1mhddtemp dev, (host,(port))0m
842 Displays temperature of a selected hard disk drive as reported
843 by the hddtemp daemon running on host:port. Default host is
844 127.0.0.1, default port is 7634.
847 1mhead logfile lines (interval)0m
848 Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval
849 is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky’s interval. Max of 30
850 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
854 Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels
857 1mhwmon (dev) type n0m
858 Hwmon sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be omit‐
859 ted if you have only one hwmon device. Parameter type is either
860 ’in’ or ’vol’ meaning voltage; ’fan’ meaning fan; ’temp’ meaning
861 temperature. Parameter n is number of the sensor. See
862 /sys/class/hwmon/ on your local computer.
865 1miconv_start codeset_from codeset_to0m
866 Convert text from one codeset to another using GNU iconv. Needs
867 to be stopped with iconv_stop.
871 Stop iconv codeset conversion.
875 I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be omitted
876 if you have only one I2C device. Parameter type is either ’in’
877 or ’vol’ meaning voltage; ’fan’ meaning fan; ’temp’ meaning tem‐
878 perature. Parameter n is number of the sensor. See
879 /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer.
883 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
884 whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
885 human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by
890 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
891 the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k.
894 1mi8k_buttons_status0m
895 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
896 the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k.
900 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
901 the cpu temperature in Celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k.
905 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
906 the left fan’s rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
907 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
911 1mi8k_left_fan_status0m
912 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
913 the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-
914 readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in re‐
918 1mi8k_right_fan_rpm0m
919 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
920 the right fan’s rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
921 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
925 1mi8k_right_fan_status0m
926 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
927 the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to hu‐
928 man-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
933 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
934 your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k.
938 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
939 the version formatting of /proc/i8k.
943 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the fan speed.
947 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the temperatures from the IBM
948 temperature sensors (N=0..7) Sensor 0 is on the CPU, 3 is on the
953 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the "master" volume, con‐
954 trolled by the volume keys (0-14).
958 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the brigtness of the laptops’s
963 if conky variable VAR is empty, display everything between
964 $if_empty and the matching $endif
967 1mif_gw 22mif there is at least one default gateway, display everything be‐
968 tween $if_gw and the matching $endif
971 1mif_running (process)0m
972 if PROCESS is running, display everything $if_running and the
976 1mif_existing file (string)0m
977 if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the
978 matching $endif. The optional second paramater checks for FILE
979 containing the specified string and prints everything between
980 $if_existing and the matching $endif.
983 1mif_mounted (mountpoint)0m
984 if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between $if_mounted
985 and the matching $endif
988 1mif_smapi_bat_installed (INDEX)0m
989 when using smapi, if the battery with index INDEX is installed,
990 display everything between $if_smapi_bat_installed and the
994 1mif_up (interface)0m
995 if INTERFACE exists and is up, display everything between $if_up
996 and the matching $endif
999 1mimap_messages (args)0m
1000 Displays the number of messages in your global IMAP inbox by de‐
1001 fault. You can define individual IMAP inboxes seperately by
1002 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
1003 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port
1004 is 143, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
1005 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
1006 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
1009 1mimap_unseen (args)0m
1010 Displays the number of unseen messages in your global IMAP inbox
1011 by default. You can define individual IMAP inboxes seperately by
1012 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
1013 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port
1014 is 143, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
1015 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
1016 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
1019 1mioscheduler disk0m
1020 Prints the current ioscheduler used for the given disk name
1021 (i.e. e.g. "hda" or "sdb")
1024 1mkernel 22mKernel version
1028 The value of /proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode
1032 (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past
1033 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes.
1036 1mloadgraph normal|log (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient0m
1038 Load1 average graph, similar to xload, with optional colours in
1039 hex, minus the #. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small num‐
1040 bers) when you use "log" instead of "normal".
1044 Displays the number of lines in the given file
1048 Machine, i686 for example
1051 1mmails (mailbox) (interval)0m
1052 Mail count in the specified mailbox or your mail spool if not.
1053 Both mbox and maildir type mailboxes are supported. You can use
1054 a program like fetchmail to get mails from some server using
1055 your favourite protocol. See also new_mails.
1058 1mmboxscan (-n number of messages to print) (-fw from width) (-sw subject0m
1060 Print a summary of recent messages in an mbox format mailbox.
1061 mbox parameter is the filename of the mailbox (can be encapsu‐
1062 lated using ’"’, ie. ${mboxscan -n 10 "/home/brenden/some box"}
1065 1mmem 22mAmount of memory in use
1068 1mmembar (height),(width)0m
1069 Bar that shows amount of memory in use
1072 1mmemgraph normal|log (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient0m
1074 Memory usage graph. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small num‐
1075 bers) when you use "log" instead of "normal".
1079 Amount of free memory including the memory that is very easily
1080 freed (buffers/cache)
1084 Amount of free memory
1087 1mmemmax 22mTotal amount of memory
1091 Percentage of memory in use
1095 Prints the mixer value as reported by the OS. Default mixer is
1096 "vol", but you can specify one of the following optional argu‐
1097 ments: "vol", "bass", "treble", "synth", "pcm", "speaker",
1098 "line", "mic", "cd", "mix", "pcm2", "rec", "igain", "ogain",
1099 "line1", "line2", "line3", "dig1", "dig2", "dig3", "phin",
1100 "phout", "video", "radio", "monitor". Refer to the definition of
1101 SOUND_DEVICE_NAMES in <linux/soundcard.h> (on Linux), <sound‐
1102 card.h> (on OpenBSD), or <sys/soundcard.h> to find the exact op‐
1103 tions available on your system.
1106 1mmixerbar (device)0m
1107 Displays mixer value in a bar as reported by the OS. See docs
1108 for $mixer for details on arguments.
1112 Prints the right channel mixer value as reported by the OS. See
1113 docs for $mixer for details on arguments.
1116 1mmixerrbar (device)0m
1117 Displays the right channel mixer value in a bar as reported by
1118 the OS. See docs for $mixer for details on arguments.
1122 Prints the left channel mixer value as reported by the OS. See
1123 docs for $mixer for details on arguments.
1126 1mmixerlbar (device)0m
1127 Displays the left channel mixer value in a bar as reported by
1128 the OS. See docs for $mixer for details on arguments.
1132 Current state of MOC; playing, stopped etc.
1136 File name of the current MOC song
1140 Title of the current MOC song
1144 Artist of the current MOC song
1148 The current song name being played in MOC.
1152 Album of the current MOC song
1156 Total length of the current MOC song
1160 Time left in the current MOC song
1164 Current time of the current MOC song
1168 Bitrate in the current MOC song
1172 Rate of the current MOC song
1176 Number of the monitor on which conky is running
1184 Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile
1188 Album in current MPD song
1191 1mmpd_bar (height),(width)0m
1192 Bar of mpd’s progress
1196 Bitrate of current song
1200 Playing, stopped, et cetera.
1203 1mmpd_title (max length)0m
1204 Title of current MPD song
1220 Percent of song’s progress
1224 Random status (On/Off)
1228 Repeat status (On/Off)
1232 Prints the MPD track field
1236 Prints the MPD name field
1240 Prints the file name of the current MPD song
1243 1mmpd_smart (max length)0m
1244 Prints the song name in either the form "artist - title" or file
1245 name, depending on whats available
1249 if mpd is playing or paused, display everything between
1250 $if_mpd_playing and the matching $endif
1253 1mnameserver (index)0m
1254 Print a nameserver from /etc/resolv.conf. Index starts at and
1258 1mnew_mails (mailbox) (interval)0m
1259 Unread mail count in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not.
1260 Both mbox and maildir type mailboxes are supported.
1267 1mnvidia threshold temp gpufreq memfreq imagequality0m
1268 Nvidia graficcard support for the XNVCtrl library. Each option
1269 can be shortened to the least significant part. Temperatures
1270 are printed as float, all other values as integer.
1272 1mthreshold22m: the thresholdtemperature at which the gpu slows down
1273 1mtemp22m: gives the gpu current temperature
1274 1mgpufreq22m: gives the current gpu frequency
1275 1mmemfreq22m: gives the current mem frequency
1276 1mimagequality22m: which imagequality should be choosen by OpenGL ap‐
1280 1moutlinecolor (color)0m
1281 Change outline color
1285 If running on Apple powerbook/ibook, display information on bat‐
1286 tery status. The item parameter specifies, what information to
1287 display. Exactly one item must be specified. Valid items are:
1289 1mstatus22m: Display if battery is fully charged, charging, discharg‐
1290 ing or absent (running on AC)
1291 1mpercent22m: Display charge of battery in percent, if charging or
1292 discharging. Nothing will be displayed, if battery is fully
1294 1mtime22m: Display the time remaining until the battery will be fully
1295 charged or discharged at current rate. Nothing is displayed, if
1296 battery is absent or if it’s present but fully charged and not
1300 1mplatform (dev) type n0m
1301 Platform sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be
1302 omitted if you have only one platform device. Platform type is
1303 either ’in’ or ’vol’ meaning voltage; ’fan’ meaning fan; ’temp’
1304 meaning temperature. Parameter n is number of the sensor. See
1305 /sys/bus/platform/devices/ on your local computer.
1308 1mpop3_unseen (args)0m
1309 Displays the number of unseen messages in your global POP3 inbox
1310 by default. You can define individual POP3 inboxes seperately by
1311 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
1312 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port
1313 is 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
1314 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
1315 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
1318 1mpop3_used (args)0m
1319 Displays the amount of space (in MiB, 2^20) used in your global
1320 POP3 inbox by default. You can define individual POP3 inboxes
1321 seperately by passing arguments to this object. Arguments are:
1322 "host user pass [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r re‐
1323 tries]". Default port is 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and
1324 default number of retries before giving up is 5. If the password
1325 is supplied as ’*’, you will be prompted to enter the password
1329 1mpre_exec shell command0m
1330 Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything
1331 and puts output as text.
1335 Total processes (sleeping and running)
1338 1mrunning_processes0m
1339 Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6
1342 1mscroll length (step) text0m
1343 Scroll ’text’ by ’step’ characters showing ’length’ number of
1344 characters at the same time. The text may also contain vari‐
1345 ables. ’step’ is optional and defaults to 1 if not set. If a var
1346 creates output on multiple lines then the lines are placed be‐
1347 hind each other separated with a ’|’-sign. Do NOT use vars that
1348 change colors or otherwise affect the design inside a scrolling
1349 text. If you want spaces between the start and the end of
1350 ’text’, place them at the end of ’text’ not at the front ("foo‐
1351 bar" and " foobar" can both generate "barfoo" but "foobar " will
1352 keep the spaces like this "bar foo").
1355 1mshadecolor (color)0m
1356 Change shading color
1360 when using smapi, display contents of the /sys/devices/plat‐
1361 form/smapi directory. ARGS are either ’(FILENAME)’ or ’bat (IN‐
1362 DEX) (FILENAME)’ to display the corresponding files’ content.
1363 This is a very raw method of accessing the smapi values. When
1364 available, better use one of the smapi_* variables instead.
1367 1msmapi_bat_bar (INDEX),(height),(width)0m
1368 when using smapi, display the remaining capacity of the battery
1369 with index INDEX as a bar.
1372 1msmapi_bat_perc (INDEX)0m
1373 when using smapi, display the remaining capacity in percent of
1374 the battery with index INDEX. This is a separate variable be‐
1375 cause it supports the ’use_spacer’ configuration option.
1378 1msmapi_bat_power INDEX0m
1379 when using smapi, display the current power of the battery with
1380 index INDEX in watt. This is a separate variable because the
1381 original read out value is being converted from mW. The sign of
1382 the output reflects charging (positive) or discharging (nega‐
1386 1msmapi_bat_temp INDEX0m
1387 when using smapi, display the current temperature of the battery
1388 with index INDEX in degree Celsius. This is a separate variable
1389 because the original read out value is being converted from mil‐
1393 1mstippled_hr (space)0m
1394 Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
1397 1mswapbar (height),(width)0m
1398 Bar that shows amount of swap in use
1401 1mswap 22mAmount of swap in use
1405 Total amount of swap
1409 Percentage of swap in use
1413 System name, Linux for example
1416 1mtcp_portmon port_begin port_end item (index) 4m22m(ip424m 4monly24m 4mat24m 4mpresent)0m
1417 TCP port monitor for specified local ports. Port numbers must be
1418 in the range 1 to 65535. Valid items are:
1420 1mcount 22m- total number of connections in the range
1421 1mrip 22m- remote ip address
1422 1mrhost 22m- remote host name
1423 1mrport 22m- remote port number
1424 1mrservice 22m- remote service name from /etc/services
1425 1mlip 22m- local ip address
1426 1mlhost 22m- local host name
1427 1mlport 22m- local port number
1428 1mlservice 22m- local service name from /etc/services
1430 The connection index provides you with access to each connection
1431 in the port monitor. The monitor will return information for in‐
1432 dex values from 0 to n-1 connections. Values higher than n-1 are
1433 simply ignored. For the "count" item, the connection index must
1434 be omitted. It is required for all other items.
1437 1m${tcp_portmon 6881 6999 count} 22m- displays the number of connec‐
1438 tions in the bittorrent port range
1439 1m${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 0} 22m- displays the remote host ip of the
1440 first sshd connection
1441 1m${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 9} 22m- displays the remote host ip of the
1442 tenth sshd connection
1443 1m${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rhost 0} 22m- displays the remote host name of
1444 the first connection on a privileged port
1445 1m${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rport 4} 22m- displays the remote host port of
1446 the fifth connection on a privileged port
1447 1m${tcp_portmon 1 65535 lservice 14} 22m- displays the local service
1448 name of the fifteenth connection in the range of all ports
1450 Note that port monitor variables which share the same port range
1451 actually refer to the same monitor, so many references to a sin‐
1452 gle port range for different items and different indexes all use
1453 the same monitor internally. In other words, the program avoids
1454 creating redundant monitors.
1456 1mtexeci interval command0m
1457 Runs a command at an interval inside a thread and displays the
1458 output. Same as $execi, except the command is run inside a
1459 thread. Use this if you have a slow script to keep Conky updat‐
1460 ing. You should make the interval slightly longer then the time
1461 it takes your script to execute. For example, if you have a
1462 script that take 5 seconds to execute, you should make the in‐
1463 terval at least 6 seconds. See also $execi.
1467 Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset.
1470 1mrss url delay_in_minutes action item_num0m
1471 Download and parse RSS feeds. Action may be one of the follow‐
1472 ing: feed_title, item_title (with num par), item_desc (with num
1473 par) and item_titles.
1476 1mtab (width, (start))0m
1477 Puts a tab of the specified width, starting from column ’start’.
1480 1mtail logfile lines (interval)0m
1481 Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is
1482 not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky’s interval. Max of 30 lines
1483 can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
1486 1mtemplateN (arg1) (arg2) (arg3 ...)0m
1487 Evaluate the content of the templateN configuration variable
1488 (where N is a value between 0 and 9, inclusively), applying sub‐
1489 stitutions as described in the documentation of the correspond‐
1490 ing configuration variable. The number of arguments is option‐
1491 al, but must match the highest referred index in the template.
1492 You can use the same special sequences in each argument as the
1493 ones valid for a template definition, e.g. to allow an argument
1494 to contain a whitespace. Also simple nesting of templates is
1497 Here are some examples of template definitions:
1500 template1 \1: ${fs_used \2} / ${fs_size \2}
1503 The following list shows sample usage of the templates defined
1504 above, with the equivalent syntax when not using any template at
1507 using template same without template
1508 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1509 ${template0 node name} $nodename
1510 ${template1 root /} root: ${fs_free /} /
1512 ${template1 ${template2\ disk\ root} /} disk root: ${fs_free /} / ${fs_size /}
1516 Local time, see man strftime to get more information about for‐
1521 Display time in UTC (universal coordinate time).
1524 1mtztime (timezone) (format)0m
1525 Local time for specified timezone, see man strftime to get more
1526 information about format. The timezone argument is specified in
1527 similar fashion as TZ environment variable. For hints, look in
1528 /usr/share/zoneinfo. e.g. US/Pacific, Europe/Zurich, etc.
1532 Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and
1533 there doesn’t seem to be a way to know how many times it has al‐
1534 ready done that before conky has started.
1538 This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically,
1539 processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu us‐
1540 age, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name",
1541 "pid", "cpu", "mem", "mem_res", "mem_vsize", and "time". There
1542 can be a max of 10 processes listed.
1545 1mtop_mem type, num0m
1546 Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu
1550 Total upload, this one too, may overflow
1553 1mupdates Number of updates0m
1562 Upload speed in KiB with one decimal
1565 1mupspeedgraph normal|log net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gra‐0m
1566 1mdient colour 2) (scale)0m
1567 Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
1568 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a
1569 logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" in‐
1577 Uptime in a shorter format
1581 Number of users logged in
1585 Lists the names of the users logged in
1589 Lists the consoles in use
1593 Lists how long users have been logged in for
1596 1mvoffset (pixels)0m
1597 Change vertical offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause
1598 text to overlap. See also $offset.
1602 Returns CPU #n’s voltage in mV. CPUs are counted from 1. If
1603 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
1607 Returns CPU #n’s voltage in V. CPUs are counted from 1. If omit‐
1608 ted, the parameter defaults to 1.
1611 1mwireless_essid net0m
1612 Wireless access point ESSID (Linux only)
1615 1mwireless_mode net0m
1616 Wireless mode (Managed/Ad-Hoc/Master) (Linux only)
1619 1mwireless_bitrate net0m
1620 Wireless bitrate (ie 11 Mb/s) (Linux only)
1624 Wireless access point MAC address (Linux only)
1627 1mwireless_link_qual net0m
1628 Wireless link quality (Linux only)
1631 1mwireless_link_qual_max net0m
1632 Wireless link quality maximum value (Linux only)
1635 1mwireless_link_qual_perc net0m
1636 Wireless link quality in percents (Linux only)
1639 1mwireless_link_bar (height), (width) net0m
1640 Wireless link quality bar (Linux only)
1644 Displays the number of words in the given file
1648 Artist in current XMMS2 song
1652 Album in current XMMS2 song
1656 Title in current XMMS2 song
1660 Genre in current XMMS2 song
1664 Comment in current XMMS2 song
1672 Transport plugin used
1676 Full path to current song
1680 Track number in current XMMS2 song
1684 Bitrate of current song
1688 XMMS2 id of current song
1692 Duration of current song
1700 Size of current song
1704 Percent of song’s progress
1708 XMMS2 status (Playing, Paused, Stopped, or Disconnected)
1711 1mxmms2_bar (height),(width)0m
1712 Bar of XMMS2’s progress
1716 Prints the song name in either the form "artist - title" or file
1717 name, depending on whats available
1720 1mif_xmms2_connected0m
1721 Display everything between $if_xmms2_connected and the matching
1722 $endif if xmms2 is running.
1725 1meve api_userid api_key character_id0m
1726 Fetches your currently training skill from the Eve Online API
1727 servers (http://www.eve-online.com/) and displays the skill
1728 along with the remaining training time.
1732 conky 1m-t ’${time %D %H:%M}’ -o -u 300m
1733 Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30
1734 sec update interval.
1736 conky 1m-a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d0m
1737 Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500).
1740 4m~/.conkyrc24m default configuration file
1743 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn’t work with
1744 all window managers. Especially doesn’t work well with Gnome and it has
1745 been reported that it doesn’t work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
1746 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
1747 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in
1748 Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree
1749 useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument
1750 which makes Conky to create its own window. If you do try running Conky
1751 in its own window, be sure to read up on the own_window_type settings
1755 ⟨http://conky.sourceforge.net/⟩
1757 ⟨http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky⟩
1759 #conky on irc.freenode.net
1762 Copyright (c) 2005-2008 Brenden Matthews, Philip Kovacs, et. al. Any
1763 original torsmo code is licensed under the BSD license (see LICENSE.BSD
1764 for a copy). All code written since the fork of torsmo is licensed un‐
1765 der the GPL (see LICENSE.GPL for a copy), except where noted different‐
1766 ly (such as in portmon code, timed thread code, and audacious code
1767 which are LGPL, and prss which is an MIT-style license).
1770 The Conky dev team (see AUTHORS for a full list of contributors).