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 SVN.
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 SVN0m
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 Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero
393 makes Conky run forever
397 Update interval in seconds
401 Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
405 Adds spaces around certain objects to stop them from moving oth‐
406 er things around. Arguments are left, right, and none (default).
407 The old true/false values are deprecated and default to
408 right/none respectively. Note that this only helps if you are
409 using a mono font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
413 Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
417 Alpha of Xft font. Must be a value at or between 1 and 0.
424 1mTEXT 22mAfter this begins text to be formatted on screen
428 Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
429 /usr/share/X11/rgb.txt. Also, ⟨http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html⟩.
430 Color can be also in #rrggbb format (hex).
433 IP address for an interface, or "No Address" if no address is
438 IP addresses for an interface (if one - works like addr). Linux
443 ACPI ac adapter state.
451 ACPI temperature in C.
455 ACPI temperature in F.
459 CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
463 Fan speed from therm_adt746x
467 Right-justify text, with space of N
475 Display APM AC adapter status (FreeBSD only)
479 Display APM battery life in percent (FreeBSD only)
483 Display remaining APM battery life in hh:mm:ss or "unknown" if
484 AC adapterstatus is on-line or charging (FreeBSD only)
487 1maudacious_bar (height),(width)0m
491 1maudacious_bitrate0m
492 Bitrate of current tune
495 1maudacious_channels0m
496 Number of audio channels of current tune
499 1maudacious_filename0m
500 Full path and filename of current tune
503 1maudacious_frequency0m
504 Sampling frequency of current tune
508 Total length of current tune as MM:SS
511 1maudacious_length_seconds0m
512 Total length of current tune in seconds
515 1maudacious_playlist_position0m
516 Playlist position of current tune
519 1maudacious_playlist_length0m
520 Number of tunes in playlist
523 1maudacious_position0m
524 Position of current tune (MM:SS)
527 1maudacious_position_seconds0m
528 Position of current tune in seconds
532 Player status (Playing/Paused/Stopped/Not running)
535 1maudacious_title (max length)0m
536 Title of current tune with optional maximum length specifier
540 Battery status and remaining percentage capacity of ACPI or APM
541 battery. ACPI battery number can be given as argument (default
545 1mbattery_bar (height),(width) (num)0m
546 Battery percentage remaining of ACPI battery in a bar. ACPI bat‐
547 tery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
550 1mbattery_percent (num)0m
551 Battery percentage remaining for ACPI battery. ACPI battery num‐
552 ber can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
555 1mbattery_time (num)0m
556 Battery charge/discharge time remaining of ACPI battery. ACPI
557 battery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
561 Artist in current BMPx track
565 Album in current BMPx track
569 Title of the current BMPx track
573 Track number of the current BMPx track
577 Bitrate of the current BMPx track
581 URI of the current BMPx track
585 Amount of memory buffered
588 1mcached 22mAmount of memory cached
592 Change drawing color to color
595 1mcolorN 22mChange drawing color to colorN configuration option, where N is
596 a digit between 0 and 9, inclusively.
608 CPU architecture Conky was built for
612 CPU usage in percents. For SMP machines, the CPU number can be
613 provided as an argument. ${cpu cpu0} is the total usage, and
614 ${cpu cpuX} (X >= 1) are individual CPUs.
617 1mcpubar (cpu number) (height),(width)0m
618 Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bar’s height in pixels. See
619 $cpu for more info on SMP.
622 1mcpugraph normal|log (cpu number) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
623 1m(gradient colour 2)0m
624 CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. See
625 $cpu for more info on SMP. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see
626 small numbers) when you use "log" instead of "normal".
630 Displays current disk IO. Device is optional, and takes the form
631 of sda for /dev/sda. Individual partitions are allowed.
634 1mdiskiograph normal|log (device) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
635 1m(gradient colour 2) (scale)0m
636 Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is
637 non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a logarithmic
638 scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" instead of "nor‐
642 1mdiskio_read (device)0m
643 Displays current disk IO for reads. Device as in diskio.
646 1mdiskiograph_read normal|log (device) (height),(width) (gradient colour0m
647 1m1) (gradient colour 2) (scale)0m
648 Disk IO graph for reads, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
649 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Device as
650 in diskio. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when
651 you use "log" instead of "normal".
654 1mdiskio_write (device)0m
655 Displays current disk IO for writes. Device as in diskio.
658 1mdiskiograph_write normal|log (device) (height),(width) (gradient colour0m
659 1m1) (gradient colour 2) (scale)0m
660 Disk IO graph for writes, colours defined in hex, minus the #.
661 If scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Device
662 as in diskio. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers)
663 when you use "log" instead of "normal".
666 1mdisk_protect device0m
667 Disk protection status, if supported (needs kernel-patch).
668 Prints either "frozen" or "free " (note the padding).
672 Download speed in KiB
676 Download speed in KiB with one decimal
679 1mdownspeedgraph normal|log net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
680 1m(gradient colour 2) (scale)0m
681 Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
682 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a
683 logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" in‐
687 1melse 22mText to show if any of the above are not true
691 Current entropy available for crypto freaks
694 1mentropy_bar (height),(width)0m
695 Normalized bar of available entropy for crypto freaks
699 Total size of system entropy pool for crypto freaks
703 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn‐
704 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I’d
705 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch.
709 Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value be‐
710 tween 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for the
711 bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future.
714 1mexecgraph (normal|log) command0m
715 Same as execbar, but graphs values. Uses a logaritmic scale when
716 the log option is given (to see small numbers). Values still
717 have to be between 0 and 100.
720 1mexeci interval command0m
721 Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval can’t be less
722 than update_interval in configuration. See also $texeci
725 1mexecibar interval command0m
726 Same as execbar, except with an interval
729 1mexecigraph interval command0m
730 Same as execgraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values
734 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn‐
735 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I’d
736 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch. This
737 differs from $exec in that it parses the output of the command,
738 so you can insert things like ${color red}hi!${color} in your
739 script and have it correctly parsed by Conky. Caveats: Conky
740 parses and evaluates the output of $execp every time Conky
741 loops, and then destroys all the objects. If you try to use any‐
742 thing like $execi within an $execp statement, it will function‐
743 ally run at the same interval that the $execp statement runs, as
744 it is created and destroyed at every interval.
747 1mexecpi interval command0m
748 Same as execp but with specific interval. Interval can’t be less
749 than update_interval in configuration. Note that the output from
750 the $execpi command is still parsed and evaluated at every in‐
755 Specify a different font. This new font will apply to the cur‐
756 rent line and everything following. You can use a $font with no
757 arguments to change back to the default font (much like with
762 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in MHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If
763 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
767 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in GHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If
768 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
772 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in MHz (defaults to 1), but is calcu‐
773 lated by counting to clock cycles to complete an instruction.
774 Only available for x86/amd64.
778 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in GHz (defaults to 1), but is calcu‐
779 lated by counting to clock cycles to complete an instruction.
780 Only available for x86/amd64.
783 1mfs_bar (height),(width) fs0m
784 Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height
785 is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system.
789 Free space on a file system available for users.
792 1mfs_free_perc (fs)0m
793 Free percentage of space on a file system available for users.
805 File system used space
808 1mgoto x 22mThe next element will be printed at position ’x’.
812 Displays the default route’s interface or "multiple"/"none" ac‐
816 1mgw_ip 22mDisplays the default gateway’s IP or "multiple"/"none" accord‐
820 1mhddtemp dev, (host,(port))0m
821 Displays temperature of a selected hard disk drive as reported
822 by the hddtemp daemon running on host:port. Default host is
823 127.0.0.1, default port is 7634.
826 1mhead logfile lines (interval)0m
827 Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval
828 is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky’s interval. Max of 30
829 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
833 Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels
836 1mhwmon (dev) type n0m
837 Hwmon sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be omit‐
838 ted if you have only one hwmon device. Parameter type is either
839 ’in’ or ’vol’ meaning voltage; ’fan’ meaning fan; ’temp’ (Cel‐
840 sius) or ’tempf’ (Fahrenheit) meaning temperature. Parameter n
841 is number of the sensor. See /sys/class/hwmon/ on your local
845 1miconv_start codeset_from codeset_to0m
846 Convert text from one codeset to another using GNU iconv. Needs
847 to be stopped with iconv_stop.
851 Stop iconv codeset conversion.
855 I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be omitted
856 if you have only one I2C device. Parameter type is either ’in’
857 or ’vol’ meaning voltage; ’fan’ meaning fan; ’temp’ (Celsius) or
858 ’tempf’ (Fahrenheit) meaning temperature. Parameter n is number
859 of the sensor. See /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer.
863 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
864 whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
865 human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by
870 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
871 the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k.
874 1mi8k_buttons_status0m
875 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
876 the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k.
880 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
881 the cpu temperature in Celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k.
885 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
886 the cpu temperature in Fahrenheit, as reported by /proc/i8k.
890 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
891 the left fan’s rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
892 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
896 1mi8k_left_fan_status0m
897 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
898 the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-
899 readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in re‐
903 1mi8k_right_fan_rpm0m
904 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
905 the right fan’s rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
906 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
910 1mi8k_right_fan_status0m
911 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
912 the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to hu‐
913 man-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
918 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
919 your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k.
923 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
924 the version formatting of /proc/i8k.
928 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the fan speed.
932 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the temperatures from the IBM
933 temperature sensors (N=0..7) Sensor 0 is on the CPU, 3 is on the
938 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the "master" volume, con‐
939 trolled by the volume keys (0-14).
943 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the brigtness of the laptops’s
948 if conky variable VAR is empty, display everything between
949 $if_empty and the matching $endif
952 1mif_gw 22mif there is at least one default gateway, display everything be‐
953 tween $if_gw and the matching $endif
956 1mif_running (process)0m
957 if PROCESS is running, display everything $if_running and the
961 1mif_existing file (string)0m
962 if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the
963 matching $endif. The optional second paramater checks for FILE
964 containing the specified string and prints everything between
965 $if_existing and the matching $endif.
968 1mif_mounted (mountpoint)0m
969 if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between $if_mounted
970 and the matching $endif
973 1mif_smapi_bat_installed (INDEX)0m
974 when using smapi, if the battery with index INDEX is installed,
975 display everything between $if_smapi_bat_installed and the
979 1mif_up (interface)0m
980 if INTERFACE exists and is up, display everything between $if_up
981 and the matching $endif
984 1mimap_messages (args)0m
985 Displays the number of messages in your global IMAP inbox by de‐
986 fault. You can define individual IMAP inboxes seperately by
987 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
988 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port
989 is 143, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
990 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
991 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
994 1mimap_unseen (args)0m
995 Displays the number of unseen messages in your global IMAP inbox
996 by default. You can define individual IMAP inboxes seperately by
997 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
998 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port
999 is 143, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
1000 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
1001 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
1004 1mioscheduler disk0m
1005 Prints the current ioscheduler used for the given disk name
1006 (i.e. e.g. "hda" or "sdb")
1009 1mkernel 22mKernel version
1013 The value of /proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode
1017 (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past
1018 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes.
1021 1mloadgraph normal|log (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient0m
1023 Load1 average graph, similar to xload, with optional colours in
1024 hex, minus the #. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small num‐
1025 bers) when you use "log" instead of "normal".
1029 Displays the number of lines in the given file
1033 Machine, i686 for example
1036 1mmails (mailbox) (interval)0m
1037 Mail count in the specified mailbox or your mail spool if not.
1038 Both mbox and maildir type mailboxes are supported. You can use
1039 a program like fetchmail to get mails from some server using
1040 your favourite protocol. See also new_mails.
1043 1mmboxscan (-n number of messages to print) (-fw from width) (-sw subject0m
1045 Print a summary of recent messages in an mbox format mailbox.
1046 mbox parameter is the filename of the mailbox (can be encapsu‐
1047 lated using ’"’, ie. ${mboxscan -n 10 "/home/brenden/some box"}
1050 1mmem 22mAmount of memory in use
1053 1mmembar (height),(width)0m
1054 Bar that shows amount of memory in use
1057 1mmemgraph normal|log (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient0m
1059 Memory usage graph. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small num‐
1060 bers) when you use "log" instead of "normal".
1064 Amount of free memory including the memory that is very easily
1065 freed (buffers/cache)
1069 Amount of free memory
1072 1mmemmax 22mTotal amount of memory
1076 Percentage of memory in use
1080 Number of the monitor on which conky is running
1088 Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile
1092 Album in current MPD song
1095 1mmpd_bar (height),(width)0m
1096 Bar of mpd’s progress
1100 Bitrate of current song
1104 Playing, stopped, et cetera.
1107 1mmpd_title (max length)0m
1108 Title of current MPD song
1124 Percent of song’s progress
1128 Random status (On/Off)
1132 Repeat status (On/Off)
1136 Prints the MPD track field
1140 Prints the MPD name field
1144 Prints the file name of the current MPD song
1147 1mmpd_smart (max length)0m
1148 Prints the song name in either the form "artist - title" or file
1149 name, depending on whats available
1152 1mnameserver (index)0m
1153 Print a nameserver from /etc/resolv.conf. Index starts at and
1157 1mnew_mails (mailbox) (interval)0m
1158 Unread mail count in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not.
1159 Both mbox and maildir type mailboxes are supported.
1166 1mnvidia threshold temp gpufreq memfreq imagequality0m
1167 Nvidia graficcard support for the XNVCtrl library. Each option
1168 can be shortened to the least significant part. Temperatures
1169 are printed as float, all other values as integer.
1171 1mthreshold22m: the thresholdtemperature at which the gpu slows down
1172 1mtemp22m: gives the gpu current temperature
1173 1mgpufreq22m: gives the current gpu frequency
1174 1mmemfreq22m: gives the current mem frequency
1175 1mimagequality22m: which imagequality should be choosen by OpenGL ap‐
1179 1moutlinecolor (color)0m
1180 Change outline color
1184 If running on Apple powerbook/ibook, display information on bat‐
1185 tery status. The item parameter specifies, what information to
1186 display. Exactly one item must be specified. Valid items are:
1188 1mstatus22m: Display if battery is fully charged, charging, discharg‐
1189 ing or absent (running on AC)
1190 1mpercent22m: Display charge of battery in percent, if charging or
1191 discharging. Nothing will be displayed, if battery is fully
1193 1mtime22m: Display the time remaining until the battery will be fully
1194 charged or discharged at current rate. Nothing is displayed, if
1195 battery is absent or if it’s present but fully charged and not
1199 1mplatform (dev) type n0m
1200 Platform sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be
1201 omitted if you have only one platform device. Platform type is
1202 either ’in’ or ’vol’ meaning voltage; ’fan’ meaning fan; ’temp’
1203 (Celsius) or ’tempf’ (Fahrenheit) meaning temperature. Parameter
1204 n is number of the sensor. See /sys/bus/platform/devices/ on
1205 your local computer.
1208 1mpop3_unseen (args)0m
1209 Displays the number of unseen messages in your global POP3 inbox
1210 by default. You can define individual POP3 inboxes seperately by
1211 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
1212 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port
1213 is 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
1214 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
1215 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
1218 1mpop3_used (args)0m
1219 Displays the amount of space (in MiB, 2^20) used in your global
1220 POP3 inbox by default. You can define individual POP3 inboxes
1221 seperately by passing arguments to this object. Arguments are:
1222 "host user pass [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r re‐
1223 tries]". Default port is 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and
1224 default number of retries before giving up is 5. If the password
1225 is supplied as ’*’, you will be prompted to enter the password
1229 1mpre_exec shell command0m
1230 Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything
1231 and puts output as text.
1235 Total processes (sleeping and running)
1238 1mrunning_processes0m
1239 Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6
1242 1mscroll length text0m
1243 Scroll ’text’ showing ’length’ number of characters at the same
1244 time. The text may also contain variables. If a var creates out‐
1245 put on multiple lines then the lines are placed behind each oth‐
1246 er separated with a ’|’-sign. Do NOT use vars that change colors
1247 or otherwise affect the design inside a scrolling text. If you
1248 want spaces between the start and the end of ’text’, place them
1249 at the end of ’text’ not at the front ("foobar" and " foobar"
1250 can both generate "barfoo" but "foobar " will keep the spaces
1251 like this "bar foo").
1254 1mshadecolor (color)0m
1255 Change shading color
1259 when using smapi, display contents of the /sys/devices/plat‐
1260 form/smapi directory. ARGS are either ’(FILENAME)’ or ’bat (IN‐
1261 DEX) (FILENAME)’ to display the corresponding files’ content.
1262 This is a very raw method of accessing the smapi values. When
1263 available, better use one of the smapi_* variables instead.
1266 1msmapi_bat_bar (INDEX),(height),(width)0m
1267 when using smapi, display the remaining capacity of the battery
1268 with index INDEX as a bar.
1271 1msmapi_bat_perc (INDEX)0m
1272 when using smapi, display the remaining capacity in percent of
1273 the battery with index INDEX. This is a separate variable be‐
1274 cause it supports the ’use_spacer’ configuration option.
1277 1msmapi_bat_power INDEX0m
1278 when using smapi, display the current power of the battery with
1279 index INDEX in watt. This is a separate variable because the
1280 original read out value is being converted from mW. The sign of
1281 the output reflects charging (positive) or discharging (nega‐
1285 1msmapi_bat_temp INDEX0m
1286 when using smapi, display the current temperature of the battery
1287 with index INDEX in degree Celsius. This is a separate variable
1288 because the original read out value is being converted from mil‐
1292 1mstippled_hr (space)0m
1293 Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
1296 1mswapbar (height),(width)0m
1297 Bar that shows amount of swap in use
1300 1mswap 22mAmount of swap in use
1304 Total amount of swap
1308 Percentage of swap in use
1312 System name, Linux for example
1315 1mtcp_portmon port_begin port_end item (index) 4m22m(ip424m 4monly24m 4mat24m 4mpresent)0m
1316 TCP port monitor for specified local ports. Port numbers must be
1317 in the range 1 to 65535. Valid items are:
1319 1mcount 22m- total number of connections in the range
1320 1mrip 22m- remote ip address
1321 1mrhost 22m- remote host name
1322 1mrport 22m- remote port number
1323 1mrservice 22m- remote service name from /etc/services
1324 1mlip 22m- local ip address
1325 1mlhost 22m- local host name
1326 1mlport 22m- local port number
1327 1mlservice 22m- local service name from /etc/services
1329 The connection index provides you with access to each connection
1330 in the port monitor. The monitor will return information for in‐
1331 dex values from 0 to n-1 connections. Values higher than n-1 are
1332 simply ignored. For the "count" item, the connection index must
1333 be omitted. It is required for all other items.
1336 1m${tcp_portmon 6881 6999 count} 22m- displays the number of connec‐
1337 tions in the bittorrent port range
1338 1m${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 0} 22m- displays the remote host ip of the
1339 first sshd connection
1340 1m${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 9} 22m- displays the remote host ip of the
1341 tenth sshd connection
1342 1m${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rhost 0} 22m- displays the remote host name of
1343 the first connection on a privileged port
1344 1m${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rport 4} 22m- displays the remote host port of
1345 the fifth connection on a privileged port
1346 1m${tcp_portmon 1 65535 lservice 14} 22m- displays the local service
1347 name of the fifteenth connection in the range of all ports
1349 Note that port monitor variables which share the same port range
1350 actually refer to the same monitor, so many references to a sin‐
1351 gle port range for different items and different indexes all use
1352 the same monitor internally. In other words, the program avoids
1353 creating redundant monitors.
1355 1mtexeci interval command0m
1356 Runs a command at an interval inside a thread and displays the
1357 output. Same as $execi, except the command is run inside a
1358 thread. Use this if you have a slow script to keep Conky updat‐
1359 ing. You should make the interval slightly longer then the time
1360 it takes your script to execute. For example, if you have a
1361 script that take 5 seconds to execute, you should make the in‐
1362 terval at least 6 seconds. See also $execi.
1366 Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset.
1369 1mrss url delay_in_minutes action item_num0m
1370 Download and parse RSS feeds. Action may be one of the follow‐
1371 ing: feed_title, item_title (with num par), item_desc (with num
1372 par) and item_titles.
1375 1mtab (width, (start))0m
1376 Puts a tab of the specified width, starting from column ’start’.
1379 1mtail logfile lines (interval)0m
1380 Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is
1381 not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky’s interval. Max of 30 lines
1382 can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
1386 Local time, see man strftime to get more information about for‐
1391 Display time in UTC (universal coordinate time).
1394 1mtztime (timezone) (format)0m
1395 Local time for specified timezone, see man strftime to get more
1396 information about format. The timezone argument is specified in
1397 similar fashion as TZ environment variable. For hints, look in
1398 /usr/share/zoneinfo. e.g. US/Pacific, Europe/Zurich, etc.
1402 Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and
1403 there doesn’t seem to be a way to know how many times it has al‐
1404 ready done that before conky has started.
1408 This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically,
1409 processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu us‐
1410 age, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name",
1411 "pid", "cpu", "mem", "mem_res", "mem_vsize", and "time". There
1412 can be a max of 10 processes listed.
1415 1mtop_mem type, num0m
1416 Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu
1420 Total upload, this one too, may overflow
1423 1mupdates Number of updates0m
1432 Upload speed in KiB with one decimal
1435 1mupspeedgraph normal|log net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gra‐0m
1436 1mdient colour 2) (scale)0m
1437 Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
1438 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a
1439 logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" in‐
1447 Uptime in a shorter format
1451 Number of users logged in
1455 Lists the names of the users logged in
1459 Lists the consoles in use
1463 Lists how long users have been logged in for
1466 1mvoffset (pixels)0m
1467 Change vertical offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause
1468 text to overlap. See also $offset.
1472 Returns CPU #n’s voltage in mV. CPUs are counted from 1. If
1473 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
1477 Returns CPU #n’s voltage in V. CPUs are counted from 1. If omit‐
1478 ted, the parameter defaults to 1.
1481 1mwireless_essid net0m
1482 Wireless access point ESSID (Linux only)
1485 1mwireless_mode net0m
1486 Wireless mode (Managed/Ad-Hoc/Master) (Linux only)
1489 1mwireless_bitrate net0m
1490 Wireless bitrate (ie 11 Mb/s) (Linux only)
1494 Wireless access point MAC address (Linux only)
1497 1mwireless_link_qual net0m
1498 Wireless link quality (Linux only)
1501 1mwireless_link_qual_max net0m
1502 Wireless link quality maximum value (Linux only)
1505 1mwireless_link_qual_perc net0m
1506 Wireless link quality in percents (Linux only)
1509 1mwireless_link_bar (height), (width) net0m
1510 Wireless link quality bar (Linux only)
1514 Displays the number of words in the given file
1518 Artist in current XMMS2 song
1522 Album in current XMMS2 song
1526 Title in current XMMS2 song
1530 Genre in current XMMS2 song
1534 Comment in current XMMS2 song
1542 Transport plugin used
1546 Full path to current song
1550 Track number in current XMMS2 song
1554 Bitrate of current song
1558 XMMS2 id of current song
1562 Duration of current song
1570 Size of current song
1574 Percent of song’s progress
1578 XMMS2 status (Playing, Paused, Stopped, or Disconnected)
1581 1mxmms2_bar (height),(width)0m
1582 Bar of XMMS2’s progress
1586 Prints the song name in either the form "artist - title" or file
1587 name, depending on whats available
1590 1meve api_userid api_key character_id0m
1591 Fetches your currently training skill from the Eve Online API
1592 servers (http://www.eve-online.com/) and displays the skill
1593 along with the remaining training time.
1597 conky 1m-t ’${time %D %H:%M}’ -o -u 300m
1598 Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30
1599 sec update interval.
1601 conky 1m-a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d0m
1602 Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500).
1605 4m~/.conkyrc24m default configuration file
1608 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn’t work with
1609 all window managers. Especially doesn’t work well with Gnome and it has
1610 been reported that it doesn’t work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
1611 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
1612 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in
1613 Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree
1614 useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument
1615 which makes Conky to create its own window. If you do try running Conky
1616 in its own window, be sure to read up on the own_window_type settings
1620 ⟨http://conky.sourceforge.net/⟩
1622 ⟨http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky⟩
1624 #conky on irc.freenode.net
1627 Copyright (c) 2005-2008 Brenden Matthews, Philip Kovacs, et. al. Any
1628 original torsmo code is licensed under the BSD license (see LICENSE.BSD
1629 for a copy). All code written since the fork of torsmo is licensed un‐
1630 der the GPL (see LICENSE.GPL for a copy), except where noted different‐
1631 ly (such as in portmon code, timed thread code, and audacious code
1632 which are LGPL, and prss which is an MIT-style license).
1635 The Conky dev team (see AUTHORS for a full list of contributors).