conky(1) conky(1) NAME conky - A system monitor for X originally based on the torsmo code, but more kickass. It just keeps on given'er. Yeah. SYNOPSIS conky [options] DESCRIPTION Conky is a system monitor for X originally based on torsmo. Since its inception, Conky has changed significantly from its predecessor, while maintaining simplicity and configurability. Conky can display just about anything, either on your root desktop or in its own window. Not only does Conky have many built-in objects, it can also display just about any piece of information by using scripts and other external pro‐ grams. Conky has more than 250 built in objects, including support for a plethora of OS stats (uname, uptime, CPU usage, mem usage, disk usage, "top" like process stats, and network monitoring, just to name a few), built in IMAP and POP3 support, built in support for many popular music players (MPD, XMMS2, BMPx, Audacious), and much much more. Conky can display this info either as text, or using simple progress bars and graph widgets, with different fonts and colours. We are always looking for help, whether its reporting bugs, writing patches, or writing docs. Please use the facilities at SourceForge to make bug reports, feature requests, and submit patches, or stop by #conky on irc.freenode.net if you have questions or want to contribute. Thanks for your interest in Conky. COMPILING For users compiling from source on a binary distro, make sure you have the X development libraries installed. This should be a package along the lines of "libx11-dev" or "xorg-x11-dev" for X11 libs, and similar "-dev" format for the other libs required (depending on your configure options). Conky has (for some time) been available in the repositories of most popular distributions. Here are some installation instructions for a few: Gentoo users -- Conky is in Gentoo's Portage... simply use "emerge app- admin/conky" for installation. There is also usually an up-to-date ebuild within Conky's package or in the git repo. Debian, etc. users -- Conky should be in your repositories, and can be installed by doing "aptitude install conky". Example to compile and run Conky with all optional components (note that some configure options may differ for your system): sh autogen.sh # Only required if building from the git repo ./configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --in‐ fodir=/usr/share/info --datadir=/usr/share --sysconfdir=/etc --local‐ statedir=/var/lib --disable-own-window --enable-audacious[=yes|no|lega‐ cy] --enable-bmpx --disable-hddtemp --disable-mpd --enable-xmms2 --dis‐ able-portmon --disable-network --enable-debug --disable-x11 --dis‐ able-double-buffer --disable-xdamage --disable-xft make make install # Optional src/conky Conky has been tested to be compatible with C99 C, however it has not been tested with anything other than gcc, and is not guaranteed to work with other compilers. YOU SHOULD KNOW Conky is generally very good on resources. That said, the more you try to make Conky do, the more resources it is going to consume. An easy way to force Conky to reload your ~/.conkyrc: "killall -SIGUSR1 conky". Saves you the trouble of having to kill and then restart. You can now also do the same with SIGHUP. OPTIONS Command line options override configurations defined in configuration file. -v | -V | --version Prints version and exits -q | --quiet Run Conky in 'quiet mode' (ie. no output) -a | --alignment=ALIGNMENT Text alignment on screen, {top,bottom,middle}_{left,right,mid‐ dle} or none -b | --double-buffer Use double buffering (eliminates "flicker") -c | --config=FILE Config file to load instead of $HOME/.conkyrc -d | --daemonize Daemonize Conky, aka fork to background -f | --font=FONT Font to use -h | --help Prints command line help and exits -o | --own-window Create own window to draw -t | --text=TEXT Text to render, remember single quotes, like -t ' $uptime ' -u | --interval=SECONDS Update interval -w | --window-id=WIN_ID Window id to draw -x X_COORDINATE X position -y Y_COORDINATE Y position -i COUNT Number of times to update Conky (and quit) CONFIGURATION SETTINGS Default configuration file location is $HOME/.conkyrc or ${sysconfdir}/conky/conky.conf. On most systems, sysconfdir is /etc, and you can find the sample config file there (/etc/conky/conky.conf). You might want to copy it to $HOME/.conkyrc and then start modifying it. Other configs can be found at http://conky.sf.net/ alias Use this to create aliases of variables. The first argument is the new name, the second the old name, and the other arguments are passed on to the variable. Example: If you want to use $al‐ pha instead of ${beta gamma delta} then you have to write the following: alias alpha beta gamma delta . PS: Instead of creat‐ ing an alias in the config you can also use environment vari‐ ables. Example: Start conky like this: alpha="beta gamma delta" conky alignment Aligned position on screen, may be top_left, top_right, top_mid‐ dle, bottom_left, bottom_right, bottom_middle, middle_left, mid‐ dle_right, or none (also can be abreviated as tl, tr, tm, bl, br, bm, ml, mr) background Boolean value, if true, Conky will be forked to background when started border_margin Border margin in pixels border_width Border width in pixels colorN Predefine a color for use inside TEXT segments. Substitute N by a digit between 0 and 9, inclusively. When specifying the color value in hex, omit the leading hash (#). cpu_avg_samples The number of samples to average for CPU monitoring top_cpu_separate If true, cpu in top will show usage of one processor's power. If false, cpu in top will show the usage of all processors' power combined. default_bar_size Specify a default width and height for bars. Example: 'de‐ fault_bar_size 0 6'. This is particularly useful for execbar and execibar as they do not take size arguments default_graph_size Specify a default width and height for graphs. Example: 'de‐ fault_graph_size 0 25'. This is particularly useful for exec‐ graph and execigraph as they do not take size arguments default_gauge_size Specify a default width and height for gauges. Example: 'de‐ fault_gauge_size 25 25'. This is particularly useful for exec‐ gauge and execigauge as they do not take size arguments default_color Default color and border color default_outline_color Default outline color default_shade_color Default shading color and border's shading color double_buffer Use the Xdbe extension? (eliminates flicker) It is highly recom‐ mended to use own window with this one so double buffer won't be so big. draw_borders Draw borders around text? draw_graph_borders Draw borders around graphs? draw_outline Draw outlines? draw_shades Draw shades? font Font name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font gap_x Gap, in pixels, between right or left border of screen, same as passing -x at command line, e.g. gap_x 10 gap_y Gap, in pixels, between top or bottom border of screen, same as passing -y at command line, e.g. gap_y 10. if_up_strictness How strict should if_up be when testing an interface for being up? The value is one of up, link or address, to check for the interface being solely up, being up and having link or being up, having link and an assigned IP address. imap Default global IMAP server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i interval] [-f folder] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". De‐ fault port is 143, default folder is 'INBOX', default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of retries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as '*', you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts. mail_spool Mail spool for mail checking max_port_monitor_connections Allow each port monitor to track at most this many connections (if 0 or not set, default is 256) max_specials Maximum number of special things, e.g. fonts, offsets, aligns, etc. (default is 512) max_user_text bytes Maximum size of user text buffer, i.e. layout below TEXT line in config file (default is 16384 bytes) text_buffer_size bytes Size of the standard text buffer (default is 256 bytes). This buffer is used for intermediary text, such as individual lines, output from $exec vars, and various other variables. Increasing the size of this buffer can drastically reduce Conky's perfor‐ mance, but will allow for more text display per variable. The size of this buffer cannot be smaller than the default value of 256 bytes. maximum_width pixels Maximum width of window minimum_size width (height) Minimum size of window mpd_host Host of MPD server mpd_port Port of MPD server mpd_password MPD server password music_player_interval Music player thread update interval (defaults to Conky's update interval) net_avg_samples The number of samples to average for net data no_buffers Substract (file system) buffers from used memory? override_utf8_locale Force UTF8? requires XFT own_window Boolean, create own window to draw? own_window_class Manually set the WM_CLASS name. Defaults to "Conky". own_window_colour colour If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour (defaults to black). Takes either a hex value (#ffffff) or a valid RGB name (see /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt) own_window_hints undecorated,below,above,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager If own_window is yes, you may use these window manager hints to affect the way Conky displays. Notes: Use own_window_type desk‐ top as another way to implement many of these hints implicitly. If you use own_window_type override, window manager hints have no meaning and are ignored. own_window_title Manually set the window name. Defaults to " - conky". own_window_transparent Boolean, set pseudo-transparency? own_window_type if own_window is yes, you may specify type normal, desktop, dock or override (default: normal). Desktop windows are special win‐ dows that have no window decorations; are always visible on your desktop; do not appear in your pager or taskbar; and are sticky across all workspaces. Override windows are not under the con‐ trol of the window manager. Hints are ignored. This type of win‐ dow can be useful for certain situations. out_to_console Print text to stdout. out_to_stderr Print text to stderr. out_to_x When set to no, there will be no output in X (useful when you also use things like out_to_console). If you set it to no, make sure that it's placed before all other X-related setting (take the first line of your configfile to be sure). Default value is yes overwrite_file Overwrite the file given as argument. append_file Append the file given as argument. pad_percents Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding) pop3 Default global POP3 server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port is 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐ tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as '*', you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts. short_units Shortens units to a single character (kiB->k, GiB->G, etc.). De‐ fault is off. show_graph_scale Shows the maximum value in scaled graphs. show_graph_range Shows the time range covered by a graph. stippled_borders Border stippling (dashing) in pixels temperature_unit Desired output unit of all objects displaying a temperature. Parameters are either "fahrenheit" or "celsius". The default unit is degree Celsius. templateN Define a template for later use inside TEXT segments. Substitute N by a digit between 0 and 9, inclusively. The value of the variable is being inserted into the stuff below TEXT at the cor‐ responding position, but before some substitutions are applied: '\n' -> newline '\\' -> backslash '\ ' -> space '\N' -> template argument N total_run_times Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero makes Conky run forever update_interval Update interval in seconds uppercase Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case use_spacer Adds spaces around certain objects to stop them from moving oth‐ er things around. Arguments are left, right, and none (default). The old true/false values are deprecated and default to right/none respectively. Note that this only helps if you are using a mono font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono. use_xft Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff) xftalpha Alpha of Xft font. Must be a value at or between 1 and 0. xftfont Xft font to use. TEXT After this begins text to be formatted on screen. Backslash (\) escapes newlines in the text section. This can be useful for cleaning up config files where conky is used to pipe input to dzen2. VARIABLES Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them: /usr/share/X11/rgb.txt. Also, ⟨http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html⟩. Color can be also in #rrggbb format (hex). addr interface IP address for an interface, or "No Address" if no address is assigned. addrs interface IP addresses for an interface (if one - works like addr). Linux only. acpiacadapter ACPI ac adapter state. acpifan ACPI fan state acpitemp ACPI temperature in C. adt746xcpu CPU temperature from therm_adt746x adt746xfan Fan speed from therm_adt746x alignr (num) Right-justify text, with space of N alignc (num) Align text to centre apm_adapter Display APM AC adapter status (FreeBSD only) apm_battery_life Display APM battery life in percent (FreeBSD only) apm_battery_time Display remaining APM battery life in hh:mm:ss or "unknown" if AC adapterstatus is on-line or charging (FreeBSD only) audacious_bar (height),(width) Progress bar audacious_bitrate Bitrate of current tune audacious_channels Number of audio channels of current tune audacious_filename Full path and filename of current tune audacious_frequency Sampling frequency of current tune audacious_length Total length of current tune as MM:SS audacious_length_seconds Total length of current tune in seconds audacious_playlist_position Playlist position of current tune audacious_playlist_length Number of tunes in playlist audacious_position Position of current tune (MM:SS) audacious_position_seconds Position of current tune in seconds audacious_status Player status (Playing/Paused/Stopped/Not running) audacious_title (max length) Title of current tune with optional maximum length specifier audacious_main_volume The current volume fetched from Audacious battery (num) Battery status and remaining percentage capacity of ACPI or APM battery. ACPI battery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0). battery_short (num) Battery status and remaining percentage capacity of ACPI or APM battery. ACPI battery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0). This mode display a short status, which means that C is displayed instead of charging and D is displayed instead of discharging. battery_bar (height),(width) (num) Battery percentage remaining of ACPI battery in a bar. ACPI bat‐ tery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0). battery_percent (num) Battery percentage remaining for ACPI battery. ACPI battery num‐ ber can be given as argument (default is BAT0). battery_time (num) Battery charge/discharge time remaining of ACPI battery. ACPI battery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0). bmpx_artist Artist in current BMPx track bmpx_album Album in current BMPx track bmpx_title Title of the current BMPx track bmpx_track Track number of the current BMPx track bmpx_bitrate Bitrate of the current BMPx track bmpx_uri URI of the current BMPx track buffers Amount of memory buffered cached Amount of memory cached color (color) Change drawing color to color colorN Change drawing color to colorN configuration option, where N is a digit between 0 and 9, inclusively. conky_version Conky version conky_build_date Date Conky was built conky_build_arch CPU architecture Conky was built for cpu (cpuN) CPU usage in percents. For SMP machines, the CPU number can be provided as an argument. ${cpu cpu0} is the total usage, and ${cpu cpuX} (X >= 1) are individual CPUs. cpubar (cpuN) (height),(width) Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bar's height in pixels. See $cpu for more info on SMP. cpugauge (cpuN) (height),(width) Elliptical gauge that shows CPU usage, height and width are gauge's vertical and horizontal axis respectively. See $cpu for more info on SMP. cpugraph (cpuN) ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2) (scale) CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. See $cpu for more info on SMP. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" instead of "normal". diskio (device) Displays current disk IO. Device is optional, and takes the form of sda for /dev/sda. Individual partitions are allowed. diskiograph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gra‐ dient colour 2) (scale) (device) Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" instead of "nor‐ mal". diskio_read (device) Displays current disk IO for reads. Device as in diskio. diskiograph_read ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2) (scale) (device) Disk IO graph for reads, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Device as in diskio. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" instead of "normal". diskio_write (device) Displays current disk IO for writes. Device as in diskio. diskiograph_write ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2) (scale) (device) Disk IO graph for writes, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Device as in diskio. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" instead of "normal". disk_protect device Disk protection status, if supported (needs kernel-patch). Prints either "frozen" or "free " (note the padding). downspeed net Download speed in KiB downspeedf net Download speed in KiB with one decimal downspeedgraph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2) (scale) (net) Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" in‐ stead of "normal". else Text to show if any of the above are not true entropy_avail Current entropy available for crypto freaks entropy_bar (height),(width) Normalized bar of available entropy for crypto freaks entropy_poolsize Total size of system entropy pool for crypto freaks eval string Evalutates given string according to the rules of TEXT interpre‐ tation, i.e. parsing any contained text object specifications into their output, any occuring '$$' into a single '$' and so on. The output is then being parsed again. exec command Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn‐ ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I'd recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch. execbar command Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value be‐ tween 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for the bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future. execgauge command Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value be‐ tween 0-100, it will use that number for a gauge. The size for the gauge is currently fixed, but you may change that for the future conky release. execgraph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradi‐ ent colour 2) (scale) command Same as execbar, but graphs values. Uses a logaritmic scale when the log option is given (to see small numbers). Values still have to be between 0 and 100. execi interval command Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval can't be less than update_interval in configuration. See also $texeci execibar interval command Same as execbar, except with an interval execigraph interval command Same as execgraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values execp command Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn‐ ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I'd recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch. This differs from $exec in that it parses the output of the command, so you can insert things like ${color red}hi!${color} in your script and have it correctly parsed by Conky. Caveats: Conky parses and evaluates the output of $execp every time Conky loops, and then destroys all the objects. If you try to use any‐ thing like $execi within an $execp statement, it will function‐ ally run at the same interval that the $execp statement runs, as it is created and destroyed at every interval. execpi interval command Same as execp but with specific interval. Interval can't be less than update_interval in configuration. Note that the output from the $execpi command is still parsed and evaluated at every in‐ terval. font (font) Specify a different font. This new font will apply to the cur‐ rent line and everything following. You can use a $font with no arguments to change back to the default font (much like with $color) freq (n) Returns CPU #n's frequency in MHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If omitted, the parameter defaults to 1. freq_g (n) Returns CPU #n's frequency in GHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If omitted, the parameter defaults to 1. freq_dyn (n) Returns CPU #n's frequency in MHz (defaults to 1), but is calcu‐ lated by counting to clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for x86/amd64. freq_dyn_g (n) Returns CPU #n's frequency in GHz (defaults to 1), but is calcu‐ lated by counting to clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for x86/amd64. fs_bar (height),(width) fs Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system. fs_free (fs) Free space on a file system available for users. fs_free_perc (fs) Free percentage of space on a file system available for users. fs_size (fs) File system size fs_type (fs) File system type fs_used (fs) File system used space goto x The next element will be printed at position 'x'. gw_iface Displays the default route's interface or "multiple"/"none" ac‐ cordingly. gw_ip Displays the default gateway's IP or "multiple"/"none" accord‐ ingly. hddtemp dev, (host,(port)) Displays temperature of a selected hard disk drive as reported by the hddtemp daemon running on host:port. Default host is 127.0.0.1, default port is 7634. head logfile lines (interval) Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled. hr (height) Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels hwmon (dev) type n Hwmon sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be omit‐ ted if you have only one hwmon device. Parameter type is either 'in' or 'vol' meaning voltage; 'fan' meaning fan; 'temp' meaning temperature. Parameter n is number of the sensor. See /sys/class/hwmon/ on your local computer. iconv_start codeset_from codeset_to Convert text from one codeset to another using GNU iconv. Needs to be stopped with iconv_stop. iconv_stop Stop iconv codeset conversion. i2c (dev) type n I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be omitted if you have only one I2C device. Parameter type is either 'in' or 'vol' meaning voltage; 'fan' meaning fan; 'temp' meaning tem‐ perature. Parameter n is number of the sensor. See /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer. i8k_ac_status If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by i8k itself. i8k_bios If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k. i8k_buttons_status If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k. i8k_cpu_temp If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the cpu temperature in Celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k. i8k_left_fan_rpm If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the left fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in reverse order. i8k_left_fan_status If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human- readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in re‐ verse order. i8k_right_fan_rpm If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the right fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in reverse order. i8k_right_fan_status If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to hu‐ man-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in reverse order. i8k_serial If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k. i8k_version If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the version formatting of /proc/i8k. ibm_fan If running the IBM ACPI, displays the fan speed. ibm_temps N If running the IBM ACPI, displays the temperatures from the IBM temperature sensors (N=0..7) Sensor 0 is on the CPU, 3 is on the GPU. ibm_volume If running the IBM ACPI, displays the "master" volume, con‐ trolled by the volume keys (0-14). ibm_brightness If running the IBM ACPI, displays the brigtness of the laptops's LCD (0-7). if_empty (var) if conky variable VAR is empty, display everything between $if_empty and the matching $endif if_existing file (string) if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the matching $endif. The optional second paramater checks for FILE containing the specified string and prints everything between $if_existing and the matching $endif. if_gw if there is at least one default gateway, display everything be‐ tween $if_gw and the matching $endif if_match expression Evaluates the given boolean expression, printing everything be‐ tween $if_match and the matching $endif depending on whether the evaluation returns true or not. Valid expressions consist of a left side, an operator and a right side. Left and right sides are being parsed for contained text objects before evaluation. Recognised left and right side types are: double: argument consists of only digits and a single dot. long: argument consists of only digits. string: argument is enclosed in quotation mark or the checks for double and long failed before. Valid operands are: '>', '<', '>=', '<=', '==', '!='. if_running (process) if PROCESS is running, display everything $if_running and the matching $endif. This uses the ``pidof'' command, so the -x switch is also supported. if_mounted (mountpoint) if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between $if_mounted and the matching $endif if_smapi_bat_installed (INDEX) when using smapi, if the battery with index INDEX is installed, display everything between $if_smapi_bat_installed and the matching $endif if_up (interface) if INTERFACE exists and is up, display everything between $if_up and the matching $endif if_updatenr (updatenr) If it's the UPDATENR-th time that conky updates, display every‐ thing between $if_updatenr and the matching $endif. The counter resets when the highest UPDATENR is reached. Example : "{$if_updatenr 1}foo$endif{$if_updatenr 2}bar$endif{$if_updatenr 4}$endif" shows foo 25% of the time followed by bar 25% of the time followed by nothing the other half of the time. imap_messages (args) Displays the number of messages in your global IMAP inbox by de‐ fault. You can define individual IMAP inboxes seperately by passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port is 143, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐ tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as '*', you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts. imap_unseen (args) Displays the number of unseen messages in your global IMAP inbox by default. You can define individual IMAP inboxes seperately by passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port is 143, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐ tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as '*', you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts. ioscheduler disk Prints the current ioscheduler used for the given disk name (i.e. e.g. "hda" or "sdb") kernel Kernel version laptop_mode The value of /proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode loadavg (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes. loadgraph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradi‐ ent colour 2) (scale) Load1 average graph, similar to xload, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small num‐ bers) when you use "log" instead of "normal". lines textfile Displays the number of lines in the given file machine Machine, i686 for example mails (mailbox) (interval) Mail count in the specified mailbox or your mail spool if not. Both mbox and maildir type mailboxes are supported. You can use a program like fetchmail to get mails from some server using your favourite protocol. See also new_mails. new_mails (mailbox) (interval) Unread mail count in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not. Both mbox and maildir type mailboxes are supported. seen_mails (maildir) (interval) Number of mails marked as seen in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not. Only maildir type mailboxes are supported, mbox type will return -1. unseen_mails (maildir) (interval) Number of new or unseen mails in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not. Only maildir type mailboxes are supported, mbox type will return -1. flagged_mails (maildir) (interval) Number of mails marked as flagged in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not. Only maildir type mailboxes are supported, mbox type will return -1. unflagged_mails (maildir) (interval) Number of mails not marked as flagged in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not. Only maildir type mailboxes are supported, mbox type will return -1. forwarded_mails (maildir) (interval) Number of mails marked as forwarded in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not. Only maildir type mailboxes are supported, mbox type will return -1. unforwarded_mails (maildir) (interval) Number of mails not marked as forwarded in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not. Only maildir type mailboxes are supported, mbox type will return -1. replied_mails (maildir) (interval) Number of mails marked as replied in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not. Only maildir type mailboxes are supported, mbox type will return -1. unreplied_mails (maildir) (interval) Number of mails not marked as replied in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not. Only maildir type mailboxes are supported, mbox type will return -1. draft_mails (maildir) (interval) Number of mails marked as draft in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not. Only maildir type mailboxes are supported, mbox type will return -1. trashed_mails (maildir) (interval) Number of mails marked as trashed in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not. Only maildir type mailboxes are supported, mbox type will return -1. mboxscan (-n number of messages to print) (-fw from width) (-sw subject width) mbox Print a summary of recent messages in an mbox format mailbox. mbox parameter is the filename of the mailbox (can be encapsu‐ lated using '"', ie. ${mboxscan -n 10 "/home/brenden/some box"} mem Amount of memory in use membar (height),(width) Bar that shows amount of memory in use memgauge (height),(width) Gauge that shows amount of memory in use (see cpugauge) memgraph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradi‐ ent colour 2) (scale) Memory usage graph. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small num‐ bers) when you use "log" instead of "normal". memeasyfree Amount of free memory including the memory that is very easily freed (buffers/cache) memfree Amount of free memory memmax Total amount of memory memperc Percentage of memory in use mixer (device) Prints the mixer value as reported by the OS. Default mixer is "vol", but you can specify one of the following optional argu‐ ments: "vol", "bass", "treble", "synth", "pcm", "speaker", "line", "mic", "cd", "mix", "pcm2", "rec", "igain", "ogain", "line1", "line2", "line3", "dig1", "dig2", "dig3", "phin", "phout", "video", "radio", "monitor". Refer to the definition of SOUND_DEVICE_NAMES in (on Linux), (on OpenBSD), or to find the exact op‐ tions available on your system. mixerbar (device) Displays mixer value in a bar as reported by the OS. See docs for $mixer for details on arguments. mixerr (device) Prints the right channel mixer value as reported by the OS. See docs for $mixer for details on arguments. mixerrbar (device) Displays the right channel mixer value in a bar as reported by the OS. See docs for $mixer for details on arguments. mixerl (device) Prints the left channel mixer value as reported by the OS. See docs for $mixer for details on arguments. mixerlbar (device) Displays the left channel mixer value in a bar as reported by the OS. See docs for $mixer for details on arguments. moc_state Current state of MOC; playing, stopped etc. moc_file File name of the current MOC song moc_title Title of the current MOC song moc_artist Artist of the current MOC song moc_song The current song name being played in MOC. moc_album Album of the current MOC song moc_totaltime Total length of the current MOC song moc_timeleft Time left in the current MOC song moc_curtime Current time of the current MOC song moc_bitrate Bitrate in the current MOC song moc_rate Rate of the current MOC song monitor Number of the monitor on which conky is running monitor_number Number of monitors mpd_artist Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile mpd_album Album in current MPD song mpd_bar (height),(width) Bar of mpd's progress mpd_bitrate Bitrate of current song mpd_status Playing, stopped, et cetera. mpd_title (max length) Title of current MPD song mpd_vol MPD's volume mpd_elapsed Song's elapsed time mpd_length Song's length mpd_percent Percent of song's progress mpd_random Random status (On/Off) mpd_repeat Repeat status (On/Off) mpd_track Prints the MPD track field mpd_name Prints the MPD name field mpd_file Prints the file name of the current MPD song mpd_smart (max length) Prints the song name in either the form "artist - title" or file name, depending on whats available if_mpd_playing if mpd is playing or paused, display everything between $if_mpd_playing and the matching $endif nameserver (index) Print a nameserver from /etc/resolv.conf. Index starts at and defaults to 0. nodename Hostname nvidia threshold temp ambient gpufreq memfreq imagequality Nvidia graficcard support for the XNVCtrl library. Each option can be shortened to the least significant part. Temperatures are printed as float, all other values as integer. threshold: the thresholdtemperature at which the gpu slows down temp: gives the gpu current temperature ambient: gives current air temperature near GPU case gpufreq: gives the current gpu frequency memfreq: gives the current mem frequency imagequality: which imagequality should be choosen by OpenGL ap‐ plications outlinecolor (color) Change outline color pb_battery item If running on Apple powerbook/ibook, display information on bat‐ tery status. The item parameter specifies, what information to display. Exactly one item must be specified. Valid items are: status: Display if battery is fully charged, charging, discharg‐ ing or absent (running on AC) percent: Display charge of battery in percent, if charging or discharging. Nothing will be displayed, if battery is fully charged or absent. time: Display the time remaining until the battery will be fully charged or discharged at current rate. Nothing is displayed, if battery is absent or if it's present but fully charged and not discharging. platform (dev) type n Platform sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be omitted if you have only one platform device. Platform type is either 'in' or 'vol' meaning voltage; 'fan' meaning fan; 'temp' meaning temperature. Parameter n is number of the sensor. See /sys/bus/platform/devices/ on your local computer. pop3_unseen (args) Displays the number of unseen messages in your global POP3 inbox by default. You can define individual POP3 inboxes seperately by passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port is 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐ tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as '*', you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts. pop3_used (args) Displays the amount of space (in MiB, 2^20) used in your global POP3 inbox by default. You can define individual POP3 inboxes seperately by passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r re‐ tries]". Default port is 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of retries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as '*', you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts. pre_exec shell command Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything and puts output as text. processes Total processes (sleeping and running) running_processes Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6 scroll length (step) text Scroll 'text' by 'step' characters showing 'length' number of characters at the same time. The text may also contain vari‐ ables. 'step' is optional and defaults to 1 if not set. If a var creates output on multiple lines then the lines are placed be‐ hind each other separated with a '|'-sign. Do NOT use vars that change colors or otherwise affect the design inside a scrolling text. If you want spaces between the start and the end of 'text', place them at the end of 'text' not at the front ("foo‐ bar" and " foobar" can both generate "barfoo" but "foobar " will keep the spaces like this "bar foo"). shadecolor (color) Change shading color smapi (ARGS) when using smapi, display contents of the /sys/devices/plat‐ form/smapi directory. ARGS are either '(FILENAME)' or 'bat (IN‐ DEX) (FILENAME)' to display the corresponding files' content. This is a very raw method of accessing the smapi values. When available, better use one of the smapi_* variables instead. smapi_bat_bar (INDEX),(height),(width) when using smapi, display the remaining capacity of the battery with index INDEX as a bar. smapi_bat_perc (INDEX) when using smapi, display the remaining capacity in percent of the battery with index INDEX. This is a separate variable be‐ cause it supports the 'use_spacer' configuration option. smapi_bat_power INDEX when using smapi, display the current power of the battery with index INDEX in watt. This is a separate variable because the original read out value is being converted from mW. The sign of the output reflects charging (positive) or discharging (nega‐ tive) state. smapi_bat_temp INDEX when using smapi, display the current temperature of the battery with index INDEX in degree Celsius. This is a separate variable because the original read out value is being converted from mil‐ li degree Celsius. stippled_hr (space) Stippled (dashed) horizontal line swapbar (height),(width) Bar that shows amount of swap in use swap Amount of swap in use swapmax Total amount of swap swapperc Percentage of swap in use sysname System name, Linux for example tcp_portmon port_begin port_end item (index) (ip4 only at present) TCP port monitor for specified local ports. Port numbers must be in the range 1 to 65535. Valid items are: count - total number of connections in the range rip - remote ip address rhost - remote host name rport - remote port number rservice - remote service name from /etc/services lip - local ip address lhost - local host name lport - local port number lservice - local service name from /etc/services The connection index provides you with access to each connection in the port monitor. The monitor will return information for in‐ dex values from 0 to n-1 connections. Values higher than n-1 are simply ignored. For the "count" item, the connection index must be omitted. It is required for all other items. Examples: ${tcp_portmon 6881 6999 count} - displays the number of connec‐ tions in the bittorrent port range ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 0} - displays the remote host ip of the first sshd connection ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 9} - displays the remote host ip of the tenth sshd connection ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rhost 0} - displays the remote host name of the first connection on a privileged port ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rport 4} - displays the remote host port of the fifth connection on a privileged port ${tcp_portmon 1 65535 lservice 14} - displays the local service name of the fifteenth connection in the range of all ports Note that port monitor variables which share the same port range actually refer to the same monitor, so many references to a sin‐ gle port range for different items and different indexes all use the same monitor internally. In other words, the program avoids creating redundant monitors. texeci interval command Runs a command at an interval inside a thread and displays the output. Same as $execi, except the command is run inside a thread. Use this if you have a slow script to keep Conky updat‐ ing. You should make the interval slightly longer then the time it takes your script to execute. For example, if you have a script that take 5 seconds to execute, you should make the in‐ terval at least 6 seconds. See also $execi. offset (pixels) Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset. rss url delay_in_minutes action item_num Download and parse RSS feeds. Action may be one of the follow‐ ing: feed_title, item_title (with num par), item_desc (with num par) and item_titles. tab (width, (start)) Puts a tab of the specified width, starting from column 'start'. tail logfile lines (interval) Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled. templateN (arg1) (arg2) (arg3 ...) Evaluate the content of the templateN configuration variable (where N is a value between 0 and 9, inclusively), applying sub‐ stitutions as described in the documentation of the correspond‐ ing configuration variable. The number of arguments is option‐ al, but must match the highest referred index in the template. You can use the same special sequences in each argument as the ones valid for a template definition, e.g. to allow an argument to contain a whitespace. Also simple nesting of templates is possible this way. Here are some examples of template definitions: template0 $\1\2 template1 \1: ${fs_used \2} / ${fs_size \2} template2 \1 \2 The following list shows sample usage of the templates defined above, with the equivalent syntax when not using any template at all: using template same without template ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ${template0 node name} $nodename ${template1 root /} root: ${fs_free /} / ${fs_size /} ${template1 ${template2\ disk\ root} /} disk root: ${fs_free /} / ${fs_size /} time (format) Local time, see man strftime to get more information about for‐ mat utime (format) Display time in UTC (universal coordinate time). tztime (timezone) (format) Local time for specified timezone, see man strftime to get more information about format. The timezone argument is specified in similar fashion as TZ environment variable. For hints, look in /usr/share/zoneinfo. e.g. US/Pacific, Europe/Zurich, etc. totaldown net Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and there doesn't seem to be a way to know how many times it has al‐ ready done that before conky has started. top type, num This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically, processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu us‐ age, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name", "pid", "cpu", "mem", "mem_res", "mem_vsize", and "time". There can be a max of 10 processes listed. top_mem type, num Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu top_time type, num Same as top, except sorted by total CPU time instead of current CPU usage totalup net Total upload, this one too, may overflow updates Number of updates for debugging upspeed net Upload speed in KiB upspeedf net Upload speed in KiB with one decimal upspeedgraph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2) (scale) (net) Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" in‐ stead of "normal". uptime Uptime uptime_short Uptime in a shorter format user_number Number of users logged in user_names Lists the names of the users logged in user_terms Lists the consoles in use user_times Lists how long users have been logged in for voffset (pixels) Change vertical offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause text to overlap. See also $offset. voltage_mv (n) Returns CPU #n's voltage in mV. CPUs are counted from 1. If omitted, the parameter defaults to 1. voltage_v (n) Returns CPU #n's voltage in V. CPUs are counted from 1. If omit‐ ted, the parameter defaults to 1. wireless_essid net Wireless access point ESSID (Linux only) wireless_mode net Wireless mode (Managed/Ad-Hoc/Master) (Linux only) wireless_bitrate net Wireless bitrate (ie 11 Mb/s) (Linux only) wireless_ap net Wireless access point MAC address (Linux only) wireless_link_qual net Wireless link quality (Linux only) wireless_link_qual_max net Wireless link quality maximum value (Linux only) wireless_link_qual_perc net Wireless link quality in percents (Linux only) wireless_link_bar (height), (width) net Wireless link quality bar (Linux only) words textfile Displays the number of words in the given file xmms2_artist Artist in current XMMS2 song xmms2_album Album in current XMMS2 song xmms2_title Title in current XMMS2 song xmms2_genre Genre in current XMMS2 song xmms2_comment Comment in current XMMS2 song xmms2_decoder Decoder plugin used xmms2_transport Transport plugin used xmms2_url Full path to current song xmms2_tracknr Track number in current XMMS2 song xmms2_bitrate Bitrate of current song xmms2_id XMMS2 id of current song xmms2_duration Duration of current song xmms2_elapsed Song's elapsed time xmms2_size Size of current song xmms2_percent Percent of song's progress xmms2_status XMMS2 status (Playing, Paused, Stopped, or Disconnected) xmms2_bar (height),(width) Bar of XMMS2's progress xmms2_smart Prints the song name in either the form "artist - title" or file name, depending on whats available if_xmms2_connected Display everything between $if_xmms2_connected and the matching $endif if xmms2 is running. eve api_userid api_key character_id Fetches your currently training skill from the Eve Online API servers (http://www.eve-online.com/) and displays the skill along with the remaining training time. EXAMPLES conky -t '${time %D %H:%M}' -o -u 30 Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30 sec update interval. conky -a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500). FILES ~/.conkyrc default configuration file BUGS Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn't work with all window managers. Especially doesn't work well with Gnome and it has been reported that it doesn't work with KDE either. Nautilus can be disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument which makes Conky to create its own window. If you do try running Conky in its own window, be sure to read up on the own_window_type settings and experiment. SEE ALSO ⟨http://conky.sourceforge.net/⟩ ⟨http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky⟩ #conky on irc.freenode.net COPYING Copyright (c) 2005-2009 Brenden Matthews, Philip Kovacs, et. al. Any original torsmo code is licensed under the BSD license (see LICENSE.BSD for a copy). All code written since the fork of torsmo is licensed un‐ der the GPL (see LICENSE.GPL for a copy), except where noted different‐ ly (such as in portmon code, timed thread code, and audacious code which are LGPL, and prss which is an MIT-style license). AUTHORS The Conky dev team (see AUTHORS for a full list of contributors). 2009-03-15 conky(1)