1 Conky (http://conky.rty.ca)
5 Conky is a system monitor for Linux that sits in the corner of your
6 desktop. Conky renders itself on the root window (on the desktop) or to
7 its own transparent window any special eyecandy.
8 Conky can show lots of info about your system, including:
12 * network interface information
13 * memory and swap usage
15 * machine, i686 for example
16 * system name, Linux for example
17 * temperatures from i2c-sensors
19 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
21 Conky is generally very good on resources. However, certain objects in
22 Conky are harder on resources then others. In particular, the $tail and
23 $top objects are quite costly in comparison to the rest of Conky.
24 If you do use them, please do not complain about memory or CPU usage,
25 because you will simply be ignored.
27 With that out of the way, if you have a better way of doing something,
28 please submit a patch for Conky. I know I am certainly not the world's
29 best programmer, and I still have a lot to learn.
33 To compile and run Conky with all optional components (If you run Gentoo, see the "Ebuild" Section below):
35 ./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-xft --enable-mpd --enable-seti --enable-double-buffer --enable-own-window --enable-proc-uptime
39 Conky doesn't probably compile with other compilers than gcc and icc. It
40 doesn't compile with C89 compiler and not even with pure C99. It uses few
41 things that might not exist: strdup(), strcasecmp(), strncasecmp(), optarg
42 variable with getopt() and long long (not in C89). Crashes in file system
43 statistics stuff when compiled with icc, I don't know exactly why.
45 You can disable 'drawing to own window' feature in case you don't need it
46 by passing --disable-own-window to configure -script.
50 Conky is in Gentoo's Portage. Simply use "emerge conky" to install conky.
54 Default configuration file is $HOME/.conkyrc (can be changed from
55 conky.c among other things). See conkyrc.sample. You might want to copy
56 it to $HOME/.conkyrc and then start modifying it.
58 Configuration file confs
61 alignment Aligned position on screen, may be top_left,
62 top_right, bottom_left, bottom_right
63 background Boolean value, if true, Conky will be forked to
64 background when started
65 border_margin Border margin in pixels
66 border_width Border width in pixels
67 cpu_avg_samples The number of samples to average for CPU monitoring
68 default_color Default color and border color
69 default_shade_color Default shading color and border's shading color
70 default_outline_color Default outline color
71 Use the Xdbe extension? (eliminates flicker) It is
72 double_buffer highly recommended to use own window with this one
73 so double buffer won't be so big.
74 draw_borders Draw borders around text?
75 draw_shades Draw shades?
76 draw_outline Draw outlines?
77 font Font name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice
79 gap_x Gap between right or left border of screen
80 gap_y Gap between top or bottom border of screen
81 no_buffers Substract (file system) buffers from used memory?
82 mail_spool Mail spool for mail checking
83 metar_station METAR station code for weather, see
84 http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/ if you need to find
86 metar_server Define a custom METAR ftp server
87 metar_path Path on server to use
88 minimum_size Minimum size of window
89 mldonkey_hostname Hostname for mldonkey stuff, defaults to localhost
90 mldonkey_port Mldonkey port, 4001 default
91 mldonkey_login Mldonkey login, default none
92 mldonkey_password Mldonkey password, default none
93 net_avg_samples The number of samples to average for net data
94 own_window Boolean, create own window to draw?
95 pad_percents Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no
97 stippled_borders Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
98 top_sort_cpu Set to yes to sort top output by cpu
99 set to no to sort by mem usage
100 total_run_times Total number of times for Conky to update before
101 quitting. Zero makes Conky run forever
102 update_interval Update interval in seconds
103 uppercase Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper
105 use_spacer Adds spaces after certain objects to stop them
106 from moving other things around. Note that
107 this only helps if you are using a mono font,
108 such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
109 use_xft Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
110 text After this begins text to be formatted on screen
112 Boolean variable without value in text means yes. Value may be also yes,
113 true or any negative or positive integer meaning yes. No, false or zero
115 There may be some variables in text. Variable is given either in format
116 $variable or in ${variable}. Latter allows characters right after the
117 variable and must be used in some stuff because of arguments.
122 -V Prints version and exits
123 -a ALIGNMENT Text alignment on screen, {top,bottom}_{left,right}
124 -b Use double buffering (eliminates flicker)
125 -c FILE Config file to load instead of $HOME/.conkyrc
126 -d Daemonize, fork to background
128 -h Prints command line help and exits
129 -o Create own window to draw
130 -t TEXT Text to render, remember single quotes, like -t '$uptime'
131 -u SECS Update interval
132 -w WIN_ID Window id to draw
136 Command line options override configurations defined in configuration
141 Variable Arguments Description
143 addr (interface) IP address for an interface
144 acpiacadapter ACPI ac adapter state.
145 acpifan ACPI fan state
146 acpitemp ACPI temperature.
147 adt746xcpu CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
148 adt746xfan Fan speed from therm_adt746x
149 alignr (num) Right-justify text, with space of N
150 alignc Align text to centre
151 battery (num) Remaining capasity in ACPI or APM
152 battery. ACPI battery number can be
153 given as argument (default is BAT0).
154 buffers Amount of memory buffered
155 cached Amount of memory cached
156 color (color) Change drawing color to color
157 cpu CPU usage in percents
158 cpubar (height) Bar that shows CPU usage, height is
159 bar's height in pixels
160 downspeed net Download speed in kilobytes
161 downspeedf net Download speed in kilobytes with one
163 exec shell command Executes a shell command and displays
164 the output in conky. warning: this
165 takes a lot more resources than other
166 variables. I'd recommend coding wanted
167 behaviour in C and posting a patch :-).
168 execbar shell command Same as exec, except if the first value
169 return is a value between 0-100, it
170 will use that number for a bar.
171 The size for the bar is currently fixed,
172 but that may change in the future.
173 execi interval, shell Same as exec but with specific interval.
174 command Interval can't be less than
175 update_interval in configuration.
176 fs_bar (height), (fs) Bar that shows how much space is used on
177 a file system. height is the height in
178 pixels. fs is any file on that file
180 fs_free (fs) Free space on a file system available
182 fs_free_perc (fs) Free percentage of space on a file
183 system available for users.
184 fs_size (fs) File system size
185 fs_used (fs) File system used space
186 hr (height) Horizontal line, height is the height in
188 i2c (dev), type, n I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev
189 may be omitted if you have only one I2C
190 device. type is either in (or vol)
191 meaning voltage, fan meaning fan or
192 temp/tempf (first in C, second in F)
193 meaning temperature. n is number of the
194 sensor. See /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on
196 if_running (process) if PROCESS is running, display
197 everything if_running and the matching $endif
198 if_existing (file) if FILE exists, display everything between
199 if_existing and the matching $endif
200 if_mounted (mountpoint) if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between
201 if_mounted and the matching $endif
202 else Text to show if any of the above are not true
203 kernel Kernel version
204 linkstatus (interface) Get the link status for wireless connections
205 loadavg (1), (2), (3) System load average, 1 is for past 1
206 minute, 2 for past 5 minutes and 3 for
208 machine Machine, i686 for example
209 mails Mail count in mail spool. You can use
210 program like fetchmail to get mails from
211 some server using your favourite
212 protocol. See also new_mails.
213 mem Amount of memory in use
214 membar (height) Bar that shows amount of memory in use
215 memmax Total amount of memory
216 memperc Percentage of memory in use
220 metar_tempf Temp in F
222 metar_dew_point There are a bunch of these
223 metar_rh and they are self-explanatory
230 ml_upload_counter total session upload in mb
231 ml_download_counter total session download in mb
232 ml_nshared_files number of shared files
233 ml_shared_counter total session shared in mb, buggy
234 in some mldonkey versions
235 ml_tcp_upload_rate tcp upload rate in kb/s
236 ml_tcp_download_rate tcp download rate in kb/s
237 ml_udp_upload_rate udp upload rate in kb/s
238 ml_udp_download_rate udp download rate in kb/s
239 ml_ndownloaded_files number of completed files
240 ml_ndownloading_files number of downloading files
242 mpd_artist Artist in current MPD song
243 (must be enabled at compile)
244 mpd_album Album in current MPD song
245 mpd_bar (height) Bar of mpd's progress
246 mpd_bitrate Bitrate of current song
247 mpd_status Playing, stopped, et cetera.
248 mpd_title Title of current MPD song
250 new_mails Unread mail count in mail spool.
252 outlinecolor (color) Change outline color
253 pre_exec shell command Executes a shell command one time before
254 conky displays anything and puts output
256 processes Total processes (sleeping and running)
257 running_processes Running processes (not sleeping),
259 shadecolor (color) Change shading color
260 stippled_hr (space), Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
262 swapbar (height) Bar that shows amount of swap in use
263 swap Amount of swap in use
264 swapmax Total amount of swap
265 swapperc Percentage of swap in use
266 sysname System name, Linux for example
267 tail logfile, lines (interval)
268 Displays last N lines of supplied text
269 text file. If interval is not supplied,
270 Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval.
272 Max of 30 lines can be displayed.
273 time (format) Local time, see man strftime to get more
274 information about format
275 totaldown net Total download, overflows at 4 GB on
276 Linux with 32-bit arch and there doesn't
277 seem to be a way to know how many times
278 it has already done that before conky
280 top type, num This takes arguments in the form:
282 Basically, processes are ranked from
283 highest to lowest in terms of cpu
284 usage, which is what <num> represents.
285 The types are: "name", "pid", "cpu", and
287 There can be a max of 10 processes listed.
288 totalup net Total upload, this one too, may overflow
289 updates Number of updates (for debugging)
290 upspeed net Upload speed in kilobytes
291 upspeedf net Upload speed in kilobytes with one
294 uptime_short Uptime in a shorter format
296 seti_prog Seti@home current progress
297 seti_progbar (height) Seti@home current progress bar
298 seti_credit Seti@hoome total user credit
301 colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
302 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt. color can be also in #rrggbb format (hex).
304 Note that when displaying bytes, power is 1024 and not 1000 so 1M really
305 means 1024*1024 bytes and not 1000*1000.
309 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn't work with
310 all window managers. Especially doesn't work well with Gnome and it has
311 been reported that it doesn't work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
312 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
313 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in Conky
314 to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree useful to
315 find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument which makes
316 Conky to create its own window.
projects / monky / blob