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 de-
21 veloper 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 Svn.
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 Svn
44 ./configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --in-
45 fodir=/usr/share/info --datadir=/usr/share --sysconfdir=/etc --local-
46 statedir=/var/lib --disable-own-window --enable-audacious --enable-bmpx
47 --disable-hddtemp --disable-mpd --enable-xmms2 --disable-portmon --dis-
48 able-network --enable-debug --disable-x11 --disable-double-buffer
49 --disable-xdamage --disable-xft
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 De-
139 bian package, this should be in /usr/share/doc/conky/examples ("gunzip
140 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 Border margin in pixels
160 Border width in pixels
164 The number of samples to average for CPU monitoring
168 Default color and border color
171 default_outline_color
172 Default outline color
176 Default shading color and border's shading color
180 Act as client and connect to libdexter server for remote moni-
185 Full path to libdexter configuration file (default search order:
186 $HOME/.dexterrc; /etc/libdexter/dexter.conf)
190 Act as server for libdexter services?
194 Use the Xdbe extension? (eliminates flicker) It is highly recom-
195 mended to use own window with this one so double buffer won't be
200 Draw borders around text?
204 Draw borders around graphs?
215 font Font name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font
218 gap_x Gap, in pixels, between right or left border of screen, same as
219 passing -x at command line, e.g. gap_x 10
222 gap_y Gap, in pixels, between top or bottom border of screen, same as
223 passing -y at command line, e.g. gap_y 10.
226 imap Default global IMAP server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i
227 interval] [-f folder] [-p port] [-e command]". Default port is
228 143, default folder is 'INBOX', default interval is 5 minutes.
229 If the password is supplied as '*', you will be prompted to en-
230 ter the password when Conky starts.
234 Mail spool for mail checking
237 max_port_monitor_connections
238 Allow each port monitor to track at most this many connections
239 (if 0 or not set, default is 256)
243 Maximum number of special things, e.g. fonts, offsets, aligns,
244 etc. (default is 512)
248 Maximum size of user text buffer, i.e. layout below TEXT line in
249 config file (default is 16384 bytes)
253 Maximum width of window
256 minimum_size width (height)
257 Minimum size of window
273 The number of samples to average for net data
277 Substract (file system) buffers from used memory?
281 Force UTF8? requires XFT
285 Boolean, create own window to draw?
289 Manually set the WM_CLASS name. Defaults to "Conky".
292 own_window_colour colour
293 If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour
294 (defaults to black). Takes either a hex value (#ffffff) or a
295 valid RGB name (see /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt)
298 own_window_hints undecorated,below,above,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
299 If own_window is yes, you may use these window manager hints to
300 affect the way Conky displays. Notes: Use own_window_type desk-
301 top as another way to implement many of these hints implicitly.
302 If you use own_window_type override, window manager hints have
303 no meaning and are ignored.
307 Manually set the window name. Defaults to "<hostname> - conky".
310 own_window_transparent
311 Boolean, set pseudo-transparency?
315 if own_window is yes, you may specify type normal, desktop or
316 override (default: normal). Desktop windows are special windows
317 that have no window decorations; are always visible on your
318 desktop; do not appear in your pager or taskbar; and are sticky
319 across all workspaces. Override windows are not under the con-
320 trol of the window manager. Hints are ignored. This type of win-
321 dow can be useful for certain situations.
325 Print text to stdout.
329 Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding)
332 pop3 Default global POP3 server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i
333 interval] [-p port] [-e command]". Default port is 110, default
334 interval is 5 minutes. If the password is supplied as '*', you
335 will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
339 Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
343 Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero
344 makes Conky run forever
348 Update interval in seconds
352 Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
356 Adds spaces after certain objects to stop them from moving other
357 things around. Note that this only helps if you are using a mono
358 font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
362 Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
366 Alpha of Xft font. Must be a value at or between 1 and 0.
373 TEXT After this begins text to be formatted on screen
377 Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
378 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt. Also, <http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html>.
379 Color can be also in #rrggbb format (hex). Note that when displaying
380 bytes, power is 1024 and not 1000 so 1M really means 1024*1024 bytes
384 IP address for an interface
388 ACPI ac adapter state.
396 ACPI temperature in C.
400 ACPI temperature in F.
404 CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
408 Fan speed from therm_adt746x
412 Right-justify text, with space of N
420 Display APM AC adapter status (FreeBSD only)
424 Display APM battery life in percent (FreeBSD only)
428 Display remaining APM battery life in hh:mm:ss or "unknown" if
429 AC adapterstatus is on-line or charging (FreeBSD only)
432 audacious_bar (height),(width)
437 Bitrate of current tune
441 Number of audio channels of current tune
445 Full path and filename of current tune
449 Sampling frequency of current tune
453 Total length of current tune as MM:SS
456 audacious_length_seconds
457 Total length of current tune in seconds
460 audacious_playlist_position
461 Playlist position of current tune
464 audacious_playlist_length
465 Number of tunes in playlist
469 Position of current tune (MM:SS)
472 audacious_position_seconds
473 Position of current tune in seconds
477 Player status (Playing/Paused/Stopped/Not running)
480 audacious_title (max length)
481 Title of current tune with optional maximum length specifier
485 Battery status and remaining percentage capacity of ACPI or APM
486 battery. ACPI battery number can be given as argument (default
491 Battery charge/discharge time remaining of ACPI battery. ACPI
492 battery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
496 Artist in current BMPx track
500 Album in current BMPx track
504 Title of the current BMPx track
508 Track number of the current BMPx track
512 Bitrate of the current BMPx track
516 URI of the current BMPx track
520 Amount of memory buffered
523 cached Amount of memory cached
527 Change drawing color to color
531 CPU usage in percents. For SMP machines, the CPU number can be
532 provided as an argument. ${cpu 0} is the total usage, and ${cpu
533 X} (X >= 1) are individual CPUs.
536 cpubar (cpu number) (height),(width)
537 Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bar's height in pixels. See
538 $cpu for more info on SMP.
541 cpugraph (cpu number) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
543 CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. See
544 $cpu for more info on SMP.
547 diskio Displays current disk IO.
550 diskiograph (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
552 Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is
553 non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
557 Download speed in kilobytes
561 Download speed in kilobytes with one decimal
564 downspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
566 Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
567 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
570 else Text to show if any of the above are not true
574 Current entropy available for crypto freaks
577 entropy_bar (height),(width)
578 Normalized bar of available entropy for crypto freaks
582 Total size of system entropy pool for crypto freaks
586 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn-
587 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I'd
588 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch.
592 Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value be-
593 tween 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for the
594 bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future.
598 Same as execbar, but graphs values.
601 execi interval command
602 Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval can't be less
603 than update_interval in configuration. See also $texeci
606 execibar interval command
607 Same as execbar, except with an interval
610 execigraph interval command
611 Same as execigraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values
615 Specify a different font. This new font will apply to the cur-
616 rent line and everything following. You can use a $font with no
617 arguments to change back to the default font (much like with
622 Returns CPU #n's frequency in MHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If
623 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
627 Returns CPU #n's frequency in GHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If
628 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
632 Returns CPU frequency in MHz, but is calculated by counting to
633 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
638 Returns CPU frequency in GHz, but is calculated by counting to
639 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
643 fs_bar (height),(width) fs
644 Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height
645 is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system.
649 Free space on a file system available for users.
653 Free percentage of space on a file system available for users.
661 File system used space
664 goto x The next element will be printed at position 'x'.
667 hddtemp dev, (host,(port))
668 Displays temperature of a selected hard disk drive as reported
669 by the hddtemp daemon running on host:port. Default host is
670 127.0.0.1, default port is 7634.
673 head logfile lines (interval)
674 Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval
675 is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30
676 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
680 Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels
683 iconv_start codeset_from codeset_to
684 Convert text from one codeset to another using GNU iconv. Needs
685 to be stopped with iconv_stop.
689 Stop iconv codeset conversion.
693 I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev may be omitted if you
694 have only one I2C device. type is either in (or vol) meaning
695 voltage, fan meaning fan or temp/tempf (first in C, second in F)
696 meaning temperature. n is number of the sensor. See
697 /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer.
701 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
702 whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
703 human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by
708 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
709 the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k.
713 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
714 the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k.
718 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
719 the cpu temperature in Celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k.
723 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
724 the cpu temperature in Fahrenheit, as reported by /proc/i8k.
728 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
729 the left fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
730 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
735 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
736 the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-
737 readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in re-
742 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
743 the right fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
744 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
749 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
750 the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to hu-
751 man-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
756 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
757 your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k.
761 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
762 the version formatting of /proc/i8k.
766 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the fan speed.
770 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the temperatures from the IBM
771 temperature sensors (N=0..7) Sensor 0 is on the CPU, 3 is on the
776 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the "master" volume, con-
777 trolled by the volume keys (0-14).
781 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the brigtness of the laptops's
786 if PROCESS is running, display everything if_running and the
791 if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the
795 if_mounted (mountpoint)
796 if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between if_mounted
797 and the matching $endif
801 Displays the number of messages in your global IMAP inbox by de-
802 fault. You can define individual IMAP inboxes seperately by
803 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
804 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command]". Default port is 143, de-
805 fault interval is 5 minutes. If the password is supplied as '*',
806 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
810 Displays the number of unseen messages in your global IMAP inbox
811 by default. You can define individual IMAP inboxes seperately by
812 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
813 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command]". Default port is 143, de-
814 fault interval is 5 minutes. If the password is supplied as '*',
815 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
818 kernel Kernel version
822 Get the link status for wireless connections
826 (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past
827 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes.
831 Machine, i686 for example
834 mails Mail count in mail spool. You can use program like fetchmail to
835 get mails from some server using your favourite protocol. See
839 mem Amount of memory in use
842 membar (height),(width)
843 Bar that shows amount of memory in use
846 memmax Total amount of memory
850 Percentage of memory in use
854 Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile
858 Album in current MPD song
861 mpd_bar (height),(width)
862 Bar of mpd's progress
866 Bitrate of current song
870 Playing, stopped, et cetera.
874 Title of current MPD song
890 Percent of song's progress
894 Random status (On/Off)
898 Repeat status (On/Off)
902 Prints the MPD track field
906 Prints the MPD name field
910 Prints the file name of the current MPD song
914 Prints the song name in either the form "artist - title" or file
915 name, depending on whats available
919 Unread mail count in mail spool.
931 If running on Apple powerbook/ibook, display information on bat-
932 tery status. The item parameter specifies, what information to
933 display. Exactly one item must be specified. Valid items are:
935 status: Display if battery is fully charged, charging, discharg-
936 ing or absent (running on AC)
937 percent: Display charge of battery in percent, if charging or
938 discharging. Nothing will be displayed, if battery is fully
940 time: Display the time remaining until the battery will be fully
941 charged or discharged at current rate. Nothing is displayed, if
942 battery is absent or if it's present but fully charged and not
947 Displays the number of unseen messages in your global POP3 inbox
948 by default. You can define individual POP3 inboxes seperately by
949 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
950 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command]". Default port is 110, de-
951 fault interval is 5 minutes. If the password is supplied as '*',
952 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
956 Displays the amount of space (in MiB, 2^20) used in your global
957 POP3 inbox by default. You can define individual POP3 inboxes
958 seperately by passing arguments to this object. Arguments are:
959 "host user pass [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command]". Default
960 port is 110, default interval is 5 minutes. If the password is
961 supplied as '*', you will be prompted to enter the password when
965 pre_exec shell command
966 Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything
967 and puts output as text.
971 Total processes (sleeping and running)
975 Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6
983 Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
986 swapbar (height),(width)
987 Bar that shows amount of swap in use
990 swap Amount of swap in use
998 Percentage of swap in use
1002 System name, Linux for example
1005 tcp_portmon port_begin port_end item (index) (ip4 only at present)
1006 TCP port monitor for specified local ports. Port numbers must be
1007 in the range 1 to 65535. Valid items are:
1009 count - total number of connections in the range
1010 rip - remote ip address
1011 rhost - remote host name
1012 rport - remote port number
1013 rservice - remote service name from /etc/services
1014 lip - local ip address
1015 lhost - local host name
1016 lport - local port number
1017 lservice - local service name from /etc/services
1019 The connection index provides you with access to each connection
1020 in the port monitor. The monitor will return information for in-
1021 dex values from 0 to n-1 connections. Values higher than n-1 are
1022 simply ignored. For the "count" item, the connection index must
1023 be omitted. It is required for all other items.
1026 ${tcp_portmon 6881 6999 count} - displays the number of connec-
1027 tions in the bittorrent port range
1028 ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 0} - displays the remote host ip of the
1029 first sshd connection
1030 ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 9} - displays the remote host ip of the
1031 tenth sshd connection
1032 ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rhost 0} - displays the remote host name of
1033 the first connection on a privileged port
1034 ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rport 4} - displays the remote host port of
1035 the fifth connection on a privileged port
1036 ${tcp_portmon 1 65535 lservice 14} - displays the local service
1037 name of the fifteenth connection in the range of all ports
1039 Note that port monitor variables which share the same port range
1040 actually refer to the same monitor, so many references to a sin-
1041 gle port range for different items and different indexes all use
1042 the same monitor internally. In other words, the program avoids
1043 creating redundant monitors.
1045 texeci interval command
1046 Runs a command at an interval inside a thread and displays the
1047 output. Same as $execi, except the command is run inside a
1048 thread. Use this if you have a slow script to keep Conky updat-
1049 ing. You should make the interval slightly longer then the time
1050 it takes your script to execute. For example, if you have a
1051 script that take 5 seconds to execute, you should make the in-
1052 terval at least 6 seconds. See also $execi.
1056 Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset.
1059 tab (width, (start))
1060 Puts a tab of the specified width, starting from column 'start'.
1063 tail logfile lines (interval)
1064 Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is
1065 not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30 lines
1066 can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
1070 Local time, see man strftime to get more information about for-
1075 Display time in UTC (universal coordinate time).
1078 tztime (timezone) (format)
1079 Local time for specified timezone, see man strftime to get more
1080 information about format. The timezone argument is specified in
1081 similar fashion as TZ environment variable. For hints, look in
1082 /usr/share/zoneinfo. e.g. US/Pacific, Europe/Zurich, etc.
1086 Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and
1087 there doesn't seem to be a way to know how many times it has al-
1088 ready done that before conky has started.
1092 This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically,
1093 processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu us-
1094 age, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name",
1095 "pid", "cpu", and "mem". There can be a max of 10 processes
1100 Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu
1104 Total upload, this one too, may overflow
1107 updates Number of updates
1112 Upload speed in kilobytes
1116 Upload speed in kilobytes with one decimal
1119 upspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour
1121 Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
1122 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
1129 Uptime in a shorter format
1133 Change vertical offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause
1134 text to overlap. See also $offset.
1138 Returns CPU #n's voltage in mV. CPUs are counted from 1. If
1139 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
1143 Returns CPU #n's voltage in V. CPUs are counted from 1. If omit-
1144 ted, the parameter defaults to 1.
1148 conky -t '${time %D %H:%m}' -o -u 30
1149 Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30
1150 sec update interval.
1152 conky -a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d
1153 Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500).
1156 ~/.conkyrc default configuration file
1159 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn't work with
1160 all window managers. Especially doesn't work well with Gnome and it has
1161 been reported that it doesn't work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
1162 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
1163 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in
1164 Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree
1165 useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument
1166 which makes Conky to create its own window.
1169 <http://conky.sourceforge.net>
1171 <http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky>
1173 #conky on irc.freenode.net
1176 The Conky dev team. What's up now!