6 conky - a system monitor for X originally based on the torsmo code, but
7 more kickass. It just keeps on given'er.
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 First, make sure you have the X development libraries installed, this
28 should be a package along the lines of "libx11-dev or xorg-x11-dev".
29 Gentoo users, Conky is in Gentoo's Portage. Simply use "emerge conky"
30 for installation. There is also usually an up-to-date ebuild within
31 Conky's package or in CVS.
33 To compile and run Conky with all optional components:
35 sh autogen.sh # Only required if building from CVS
37 ./configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man
38 --infodir=/usr/share/info --datadir=/usr/share --sysconfdir=/etc
39 --localstatedir=/var/lib --enable-double-buffer --enable-own-window
40 --enable-proc-uptime --enable-mpd --enable-xft --enable-seti
44 make install # Optional
48 Conky doesn't probably compile with other compilers than gcc and icc.
49 It doesn't compile with C89 compiler and not even with pure C99. It
50 uses few things that might not exist: strdup(), strcasecmp(), strn-
51 casecmp(), optarg variable with getopt() and long long (not in C89).
52 Crashes in file system statistics stuff when compiled with icc, I don't
55 You can disable 'drawing to own window' feature in case you don't need
56 it by passing --disable-own-window to configure -script.
60 Conky is generally very good on resources. However, certain objects in
61 Conky are harder on resources then others. In particular, the $tail,
62 $top, $font, and $graph objects are quite costly in comparison to the
65 If you do use them, please do not complain about memory or CPU usage,
66 unless you think something is going seriously wrong (mem leak, et
69 Easy way to force Conky to reload your ~/.conkyrc: "killall -SIGUSR1
70 conky". Saves you the trouble of having to stop and then restart!
73 Command line options override configurations defined in configuration
76 -V Prints version and exits
80 Text alignment on screen, {top,bottom}_{left,right} or none
83 -b Use double buffering (eliminates "flicker")
87 Config file to load instead of $HOME/.conkyrc
90 -d Daemonize Conky, aka fork to background
97 -h Prints command line help and exits
100 -o Create own window to draw
104 Text to render, remember single quotes, like -t ' $uptime '
123 CONFIGURATION SETTINGS
124 Default configuration file is $HOME/.conkyrc (can be changed from
125 conky.c among other things). See conkyrc.sample. You might want to copy
126 it to $HOME/.conkyrc and then start modifying it.
129 Aligned position on screen, may be top_left, top_right, bot-
130 tom_left, bottom_right, or none
134 Boolean value, if true, Conky will be forked to background when
139 Set conky on the bottom of all other applications
143 Border margin in pixels
147 Border width in pixels
151 The number of samples to average for CPU monitoring
155 Default color and border color
159 Default shading color and border's shading color
162 default_outline_color
163 Default outline color
167 Use the Xdbe extension? (eliminates flicker) It is highly recom-
168 mended to use own window with this one so double buffer won't be
173 Draw borders around text?
184 font Font name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font
187 gap_x Gap between right or left border of screen, same as passing -x
191 gap_y Gap between top or bottom border of screen, same as passing -y
196 Substract (file system) buffers from used memory?
200 Mail spool for mail checking
204 Maximum width of window
207 minimum_size width (height)
208 Minimum size of window
212 Hostname for mldonkey stuff, defaults to localhost
216 Mldonkey port, 4001 default
220 Mldonkey login, default none
224 Mldonkey password, default none
240 The number of samples to average for net data
244 Force UTF8? requires XFT
248 Boolean, create own window to draw?
251 own_window_transparent
252 Boolean, set pseudo-transparency?
255 own_window_colour colour
256 If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour
257 (defaults to black). Takes either a hex value (#ffffff) or a
258 valid RGB name (see /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt)
262 Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding)
266 Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
270 Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero
271 makes Conky run forever
275 Update interval in seconds
279 Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
283 Adds spaces after certain objects to stop them from moving other
284 things around. Note that this only helps if you are using a mono
285 font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
289 Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
292 text After this begins text to be formatted on screen
296 Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
297 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt. Also, http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html
298 [http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html] Color can be also in #rrggbb format
299 (hex). Note that when displaying bytes, power is 1024 and not 1000 so
300 1M really means 1024*1024 bytes and not 1000*1000.
303 IP address for an interface
307 ACPI ac adapter state.
315 ACPI temperature in C.
319 ACPI temperature in F.
323 CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
327 Fan speed from therm_adt746x
331 Right-justify text, with space of N
339 Remaining capacity in ACPI or APM battery. ACPI battery number
340 can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
344 Amount of memory buffered
347 cached Amount of memory cached
351 Change drawing color to color
355 CPU usage in percents. For SMP machines, the CPU number can be
356 provided as an argument. cpu0 is the total usage, and >=cpu1 are
357 individual CPUs. See $cpu for more info on SMP.
360 cpubar (cpu number) (height),(width)
361 Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bar's height in pixels
364 cpugraph (cpu number) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
366 CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. See
367 $cpu for more info on SMP.
370 diskio Displays current disk IO.
373 diskiograph (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
375 Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is
376 non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
380 Download speed in kilobytes
384 Download speed in kilobytes with one decimal
387 downspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
389 Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
390 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
393 else Text to show if any of the above are not true
397 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn-
398 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I'd
399 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch.
403 Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value
404 between 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for
405 the bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future.
409 Same as execbar, but graphs values.
412 execi interval command
413 Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval can't be less
414 than update_interval in configuration.
417 execibar interval command
418 Same as execbar, except with an interval
421 execigraph interval command
422 Same as execigraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values
426 Specify a different font. Only applies to one line.
429 freq Returns CPU frequency in MHz
432 freq_g Returns CPU frequency in GHz
436 Returns CPU frequency in MHz, but is calculated by counting to
437 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
442 Returns CPU frequency in GHz, but is calculated by counting to
443 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
447 fs_bar (height),(width) fs
448 Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height
449 is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system.
453 Free space on a file system available for users.
457 Free percentage of space on a file system available for users.
465 File system used space
468 head logfile lines (interval)
469 Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval
470 is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30
471 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
475 Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels
479 I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev may be omitted if you
480 have only one I2C device. type is either in (or vol) meaning
481 voltage, fan meaning fan or temp/tempf (first in C, second in F)
482 meaning temperature. n is number of the sensor. See
483 /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer.
487 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
488 whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
489 human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by
494 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
495 the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k.
499 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
500 the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k.
504 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
505 the cpu temperature in celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k.
509 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
510 the cpu temperature in farenheit, as reported by /proc/i8k.
514 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
515 the left fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
516 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
521 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
522 the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-
523 readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
528 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
529 the right fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
530 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
535 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
536 the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
537 human-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
542 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
543 your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k.
547 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
548 the version formatting of /proc/i8k.
552 if PROCESS is running, display everything if_running and the
557 if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the
561 if_mounted (mountpoint)
562 if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between if_mounted
563 and the matching $endif
566 kernel Kernel version
570 Get the link status for wireless connections
574 (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past
575 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes.
579 Machine, i686 for example
582 mails Mail count in mail spool. You can use program like fetchmail to
583 get mails from some server using your favourite protocol. See
587 mem Amount of memory in use
590 membar (height),(width)
591 Bar that shows amount of memory in use
594 memmax Total amount of memory
598 Percentage of memory in use
602 total session upload in mb
606 total session download in mb
610 number of shared files
614 total session shared in mb, buggy in some mldonkey versions
618 tcp upload rate in kb/s
622 tcp download rate in kb/s
626 udp upload rate in kb/s
630 udp download rate in kb/s
634 number of completed files
637 ml_ndownloading_files
638 number of downloading files
642 Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile
646 Album in current MPD song
649 mpd_bar (height),(width)
650 Bar of mpd's progress
654 Bitrate of current song
658 Playing, stopped, et cetera.
662 Title of current MPD song
678 Percent of song's progress
682 Unread mail count in mail spool.
693 pre_exec shell command
694 Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything
695 and puts output as text.
699 Total processes (sleeping and running)
703 Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6
711 Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
714 swapbar (height),(width)
715 Bar that shows amount of swap in use
718 swap Amount of swap in use
726 Percentage of swap in use
730 System name, Linux for example
734 Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset.
737 tail logfile lines (interval)
738 Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is
739 not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30 lines
740 can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
744 Local time, see man strftime to get more information about for-
749 Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and
750 there doesn't seem to be a way to know how many times it has
751 already done that before conky has started.
755 This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically,
756 processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu
757 usage, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name",
758 "pid", "cpu", and mem". There can be a max of 10 processes
763 Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu
767 Total upload, this one too, may overflow
770 updates Number of updates
775 Upload speed in kilobytes
779 Upload speed in kilobytes with one decimal
782 upspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour
784 Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
785 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
792 Uptime in a shorter format
796 Seti@home current progress
799 seti_progbar (height),(width)
800 Seti@home current progress bar
804 Seti@home total user credit
808 Change verticle offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause
809 text to overlap. See also $offset.
813 conky -t '${time %D %H:%m}' -o -u 30
814 Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30
817 conky -a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d
818 Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500).
821 ~/.conkyrc default configuration file
824 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn't work with
825 all window managers. Especially doesn't work well with Gnome and it has
826 been reported that it doesn't work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
827 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
828 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in
829 Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree
830 useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument
831 which makes Conky to create its own window.
834 http://conky.sourceforge.net [http://conky.sourceforge.net]
836 http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky [http://www.source-
837 forge.net/projects/conky]
839 #conky on irc.freenode.net
842 The Conky dev team. What's up now??!