6 conky - A system monitor for X originally based on the torsmo code, but
7 more kickass. It just keeps on given'er. Yeah.
13 Conky is a system monitor for X originally based on the torsmo code.
14 Since it's original conception, Conky has changed a fair bit from it's
15 predecessor. Conky can display just about anything, either on your
16 root desktop or in it's own window. Conky has many built-in objects,
17 as well as the ability to execute programs and scripts, then display
18 the output from stdout.
20 We are always looking for help, and anyone interested in becoming a
21 developer is welcome. Please use the facilities at SourceForge to make
22 bug reports, feature requests, and submit patches.
24 Thanks for your interest in Conky.
27 For users compiling from source, make sure you have the X development
28 libraries installed. This should be a package along the lines of
29 "libx11-dev or xorg-x11-dev".
31 Gentoo users -- Conky is in Gentoo's Portage... simply use "emerge app-
32 admin/conky" for installation. There is also usually an up-to-date
33 ebuild within Conky's package or in CVS.
35 Debian,etc. users -- Conky will be in Debian's repositories soon (by
36 mid-September, hopefully), and then Ubuntu shortly thereafter. Until
37 then, "dpkg -i" the .deb package to install.
39 Example to compile and run Conky with all optional components (note
40 that some configure options may differ for your system):
42 sh autogen.sh # Only required if building from CVS
44 ./configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man
45 --infodir=/usr/share/info --datadir=/usr/share --sysconfdir=/etc
46 --localstatedir=/var/lib --enable-xft --enable-seti --enable-dou-
47 ble-buffer --enable-own-window --enable-proc-uptime --enable-mpd
48 --enable-mldonkey --enable-x11 --enable-portmon --enable-xmms
49 --enable-bmp --enable-audacious --enable-infopipe --enable-bmpx
53 make install # Optional
57 Conky probably doesn't compile with compilers other than gcc and icc.
58 It doesn't compile with C89 compiler and not even with pure C99. It
59 uses a few things that might not exist: strdup(), strcasecmp(), strn-
60 casecmp(), optarg variable with getopt() and long long (not in C89).
61 Crashes in file system statistics stuff when compiled with icc, I don't
64 You can disable 'drawing to own window' feature in case you don't need
65 it by passing --disable-own-window to configure -script.
69 Conky is generally very good on resources. However, certain objects in
70 Conky are harder on resources then others. In particular, the $tail,
71 $top, $font, and $graph objects are quite costly in comparison to the
74 If you do use them, please do not complain about memory or CPU usage,
75 unless you think something's seriously wrong (mem leak, etc.).
77 An easy way to force Conky to reload your ~/.conkyrc: "killall -SIGUSR1
78 conky". Saves you the trouble of having to kill and then restart.
80 IMPORTANT: For previous Conky users, Conky 1.3 no longer supports the
81 metar stuff. mdsplib was causing way too many problems. Hopefully
82 there'll be a better solution in Conky 2.x...
85 Command line options override configurations defined in configuration
89 Prints version and exits
93 Text alignment on screen, {top,bottom}_{left,right} or none
96 -b Use double buffering (eliminates "flicker")
100 Config file to load instead of $HOME/.conkyrc
103 -d Daemonize Conky, aka fork to background
110 -h Prints command line help and exits
113 -o Create own window to draw
117 Text to render, remember single quotes, like -t ' $uptime '
136 CONFIGURATION SETTINGS
137 Default configuration file is $HOME/.conkyrc (can be changed from
138 conky.c among other things). See conkyrc.sample. If installing from
139 Debian package, this should be in /usr/share/doc/conky/examples ("gun-
140 zip conkyrc.sample.gz" to get conkyrc.sample).
142 You might want to copy it to $HOME/.conkyrc and then start modifying
143 it. Other configs can be found at http://conky.sf.net
146 Aligned position on screen, may be top_left, top_right, bot-
147 tom_left, bottom_right, or none
151 Boolean value, if true, Conky will be forked to background when
156 Set conky on the bottom of all other applications
160 Border margin in pixels
164 Border width in pixels
168 The number of samples to average for CPU monitoring
172 Default color and border color
176 Default shading color and border's shading color
179 default_outline_color
180 Default outline color
184 Use the Xdbe extension? (eliminates flicker) It is highly recom-
185 mended to use own window with this one so double buffer won't be
190 Draw borders around text?
194 Draw borders around graphs?
205 font Font name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font
208 gap_x Gap between right or left border of screen, same as passing -x
212 gap_y Gap between top or bottom border of screen, same as passing -y
217 Substract (file system) buffers from used memory?
221 Mail spool for mail checking
225 Maximum width of window
228 minimum_size width (height)
229 Minimum size of window
233 Allow for the creation of at least this number of port monitors
234 (if 0 or not set, default is 16)
237 min_port_monitor_connections
238 Allow each port monitor to track at least this many connections
239 (if 0 or not set, default is 256)
243 Hostname for mldonkey stuff, defaults to localhost
247 Mldonkey port, 4001 default
251 Mldonkey login, default none
255 Mldonkey password, default none
271 The number of samples to average for net data
275 Force UTF8? requires XFT
279 Boolean, create own window to draw?
282 own_window_transparent
283 Boolean, set pseudo-transparency?
286 own_window_colour colour
287 If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour
288 (defaults to black). Takes either a hex value (#ffffff) or a
289 valid RGB name (see /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt)
293 Print text to stdout.
297 Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding)
301 Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
305 Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero
306 makes Conky run forever
310 Update interval in seconds
314 Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
318 Adds spaces after certain objects to stop them from moving other
319 things around. Note that this only helps if you are using a mono
320 font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
324 Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
328 Manually set the WM_CLASS name. Defaults to "conky".
332 Use specified player/plugin for the xmms status variables. Valid
333 items are: none, xmms, bmp, audacious and infopipe. (default is
334 none). Note that bmpx is currently handled separately.
337 TEXT After this begins text to be formatted on screen
341 Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
342 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt. Also, http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html
343 [http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html]. Color can be also in #rrggbb for-
344 mat (hex). Note that when displaying bytes, power is 1024 and not 1000
345 so 1M really means 1024*1024 bytes and not 1000*1000.
348 IP address for an interface
352 ACPI ac adapter state.
360 ACPI temperature in C.
364 ACPI temperature in F.
368 CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
372 Fan speed from therm_adt746x
376 Right-justify text, with space of N
384 Display APM AC adapter status (FreeBSD only)
388 Display APM battery life in percent (FreeBSD only)
392 Display remaining APM battery life in hh:mm:ss or "unknown" if
393 AC adapterstatus is on-line or charging (FreeBSD only)
397 Remaining capacity in ACPI or APM battery. ACPI battery number
398 can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
402 Artist in current BMPx track
406 Album in current BMPx track
410 Title of the current BMPx track
414 Track number of the current BMPx track
418 Bitrate of the current BMPx track
422 URI of the current BMPx track
426 Amount of memory buffered
429 cached Amount of memory cached
433 Change drawing color to color
437 CPU usage in percents. For SMP machines, the CPU number can be
438 provided as an argument. cpu0 is the total usage, and >=cpu1 are
442 cpubar (cpu number) (height),(width)
443 Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bar's height in pixels. See
444 $cpu for more info on SMP.
447 cpugraph (cpu number) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
449 CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. See
450 $cpu for more info on SMP.
453 diskio Displays current disk IO.
456 diskiograph (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
458 Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is
459 non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
463 Download speed in kilobytes
467 Download speed in kilobytes with one decimal
470 downspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
472 Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
473 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
476 else Text to show if any of the above are not true
480 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn-
481 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I'd
482 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch.
486 Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value
487 between 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for
488 the bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future.
492 Same as execbar, but graphs values.
495 execi interval command
496 Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval can't be less
497 than update_interval in configuration. See also $texeci
500 execibar interval command
501 Same as execbar, except with an interval
504 execigraph interval command
505 Same as execigraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values
509 Specify a different font. Only applies to one line.
512 freq Returns CPU frequency in MHz
515 freq_g Returns CPU frequency in GHz
519 Returns CPU frequency in MHz, but is calculated by counting to
520 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
525 Returns CPU frequency in GHz, but is calculated by counting to
526 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
530 fs_bar (height),(width) fs
531 Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height
532 is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system.
536 Free space on a file system available for users.
540 Free percentage of space on a file system available for users.
548 File system used space
551 head logfile lines (interval)
552 Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval
553 is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30
554 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
558 Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels
562 I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev may be omitted if you
563 have only one I2C device. type is either in (or vol) meaning
564 voltage, fan meaning fan or temp/tempf (first in C, second in F)
565 meaning temperature. n is number of the sensor. See
566 /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer.
570 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
571 whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
572 human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by
577 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
578 the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k.
582 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
583 the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k.
587 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
588 the cpu temperature in Celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k.
592 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
593 the cpu temperature in Farenheit, as reported by /proc/i8k.
597 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
598 the left fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
599 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
604 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
605 the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-
606 readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
611 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
612 the right fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
613 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
618 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
619 the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
620 human-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
625 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
626 your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k.
630 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
631 the version formatting of /proc/i8k.
635 if PROCESS is running, display everything if_running and the
640 if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the
644 if_mounted (mountpoint)
645 if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between if_mounted
646 and the matching $endif
649 kernel Kernel version
653 Get the link status for wireless connections
657 (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past
658 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes.
662 Machine, i686 for example
665 mails Mail count in mail spool. You can use program like fetchmail to
666 get mails from some server using your favourite protocol. See
670 mem Amount of memory in use
673 membar (height),(width)
674 Bar that shows amount of memory in use
677 memmax Total amount of memory
681 Percentage of memory in use
685 Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile
689 Album in current MPD song
692 mpd_bar (height),(width)
693 Bar of mpd's progress
697 Bitrate of current song
701 Playing, stopped, et cetera.
705 Title of current MPD song
721 Percent of song's progress
725 Random status (On/Off)
729 Repeat status (On/Off)
733 Prints the MPD track field
737 Prints the MPD name field
741 Prints the file name of the current MPD song
745 Unread mail count in mail spool.
756 pre_exec shell command
757 Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything
758 and puts output as text.
762 Total processes (sleeping and running)
766 Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6
774 Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
777 swapbar (height),(width)
778 Bar that shows amount of swap in use
781 swap Amount of swap in use
789 Percentage of swap in use
793 System name, Linux for example
796 tcp_portmon port_begin port_end item (index) (ip4 only at present)
797 TCP port monitor for specified local ports. Port numbers must be
798 in the range 1 to 65535. Valid items are:
800 count - total number of connections in the range
802 rip - remote ip address
804 rhost - remote host name
806 rport - remote port number
808 lip - local ip address
810 lhost - local host name
812 lservice - local service name from /etc/services
814 The connection index provides you with access to each connection
815 in the port monitor. The monitor will return information for
816 index values from 0 to n-1 connections. Values higher than n-1
817 are simply ignored. For the "count" item, the connection index
818 must be omitted. It is required for all other items.
822 ${tcp_portmon 6881 6999 count} - displays the number of connec-
823 tions in the bittorrent port range
825 ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 0} - displays the remote host ip of the
826 first sshd connection
828 ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 9} - displays the remote host ip of the
829 tenth sshd connection
831 ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rhost 0} - displays the remote host name of
832 the first connection on a privileged port
834 ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rport 4} - displays the remote host port of
835 the fifth connection on a privileged port
837 ${tcp_portmon 1 65535 lservice 14} - displays the local service
838 name of the fifteenth connection in the range of all ports
840 Note that port monitor variables which share the same port range
841 actually refer to the same monitor, so many references to a sin-
842 gle port range for different items and different indexes all use
843 the same monitor internally. In other words, the program avoids
844 creating redundant monitors.
846 texeci interval command
847 Runs a command at an interval inside a thread and displays the
848 output. Same as $execi, except the command is run inside a
849 thread. Use this if you have a slow script to keep Conky updat-
850 ing. You should make the interval slightly longer then the time
851 it takes your script to execute. For example, if you have a
852 script that take 5 seconds to execute, you should make the
853 interval at least 6 seconds. See also $execi.
857 Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset.
860 tail logfile lines (interval)
861 Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is
862 not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30 lines
863 can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
867 Local time, see man strftime to get more information about for-
872 Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and
873 there doesn't seem to be a way to know how many times it has
874 already done that before conky has started.
878 This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically,
879 processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu
880 usage, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name",
881 "pid", "cpu", and mem". There can be a max of 10 processes
886 Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu
890 Total upload, this one too, may overflow
893 updates Number of updates
898 Upload speed in kilobytes
902 Upload speed in kilobytes with one decimal
905 upspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour
907 Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
908 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
915 Uptime in a shorter format
919 Seti@home current progress
922 seti_progbar (height),(width)
923 Seti@home current progress bar
927 Seti@home total user credit
931 Change vertical offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause
932 text to overlap. See also $offset.
935 xmms_bar (height),(width)
936 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: progress bar
940 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: bitrate of current tune
944 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: number of audio channels of
949 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: full path and filename of
954 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: sampling frequency of current
959 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: total length of current tune
964 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: total length of current tune
968 xmms_playlist_position
969 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: playlist position of current
974 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: number of tunes in playlist
978 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: MM:SS position of current
982 xmms_position_seconds
983 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: position of current tune in
988 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: player status (Play-
989 ing/Paused/Stopped/Not running)
993 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: title of current tune
997 conky -t '${time %D %H:%m}' -o -u 30
998 Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30
1001 conky -a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d
1002 Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500).
1005 ~/.conkyrc default configuration file
1008 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn't work with
1009 all window managers. Especially doesn't work well with Gnome and it has
1010 been reported that it doesn't work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
1011 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
1012 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in
1013 Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree
1014 useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument
1015 which makes Conky to create its own window.
1018 http://conky.sourceforge.net [http://conky.sourceforge.net]
1020 http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky [http://www.source-
1021 forge.net/projects/conky]
1023 #conky on irc.freenode.net
1026 The Conky dev team. What's up now!