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
52 make install # Optional
56 Conky probably doesn't compile with compilers other than gcc and icc.
57 It doesn't compile with C89 compiler and not even with pure C99. It
58 uses a few things that might not exist: strdup(), strcasecmp(), strn-
59 casecmp(), optarg variable with getopt() and long long (not in C89).
60 Crashes in file system statistics stuff when compiled with icc, I don't
63 You can disable 'drawing to own window' feature in case you don't need
64 it by passing --disable-own-window to configure -script.
68 Conky is generally very good on resources. However, certain objects in
69 Conky are harder on resources then others. In particular, the $tail,
70 $top, $font, and $graph objects are quite costly in comparison to the
73 If you do use them, please do not complain about memory or CPU usage,
74 unless you think something's seriously wrong (mem leak, etc.).
76 An easy way to force Conky to reload your ~/.conkyrc: "killall -SIGUSR1
77 conky". Saves you the trouble of having to kill and then restart.
79 IMPORTANT: For previous Conky users, Conky 1.3 no longer supports the
80 metar stuff. mdsplib was causing way too many problems. Hopefully
81 there'll be a better solution in Conky 2.x...
84 Command line options override configurations defined in configuration
88 Prints version and exits
92 Text alignment on screen, {top,bottom}_{left,right} or none
95 -b Use double buffering (eliminates "flicker")
99 Config file to load instead of $HOME/.conkyrc
102 -d Daemonize Conky, aka fork to background
109 -h Prints command line help and exits
112 -o Create own window to draw
116 Text to render, remember single quotes, like -t ' $uptime '
135 CONFIGURATION SETTINGS
136 Default configuration file is $HOME/.conkyrc (can be changed from
137 conky.c among other things). See conkyrc.sample. If installing from
138 Debian package, this should be in /usr/share/doc/conky/examples ("gun-
139 zip conkyrc.sample.gz" to get conkyrc.sample).
141 You might want to copy it to $HOME/.conkyrc and then start modifying
142 it. Other configs can be found at http://conky.sf.net
145 Aligned position on screen, may be top_left, top_right, bot-
146 tom_left, bottom_right, or none
150 Boolean value, if true, Conky will be forked to background when
155 Set conky on the bottom of all other applications
159 Border margin in pixels
163 Border width in pixels
167 The number of samples to average for CPU monitoring
171 Default color and border color
175 Default shading color and border's shading color
178 default_outline_color
179 Default outline color
183 Use the Xdbe extension? (eliminates flicker) It is highly recom-
184 mended to use own window with this one so double buffer won't be
189 Draw borders around text?
193 Draw borders around graphs?
204 font Font name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font
207 gap_x Gap between right or left border of screen, same as passing -x
211 gap_y Gap between top or bottom border of screen, same as passing -y
216 Substract (file system) buffers from used memory?
220 Mail spool for mail checking
224 Maximum width of window
227 minimum_size width (height)
228 Minimum size of window
232 Hostname for mldonkey stuff, defaults to localhost
236 Mldonkey port, 4001 default
240 Mldonkey login, default none
244 Mldonkey password, default none
260 The number of samples to average for net data
264 Force UTF8? requires XFT
268 Boolean, create own window to draw?
271 own_window_transparent
272 Boolean, set pseudo-transparency?
275 own_window_colour colour
276 If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour
277 (defaults to black). Takes either a hex value (#ffffff) or a
278 valid RGB name (see /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt)
282 Print text to stdout.
286 Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding)
290 Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
294 Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero
295 makes Conky run forever
299 Update interval in seconds
303 Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
307 Adds spaces after certain objects to stop them from moving other
308 things around. Note that this only helps if you are using a mono
309 font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
313 Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
317 Allow for the creation of at least this number of port monitors
318 (if 0 or not set, default is 16)
321 min_port_monitor_connections
322 Allow each port monitor to track at least this many connections
323 (if 0 or not set, default is 256)
326 TEXT After this begins text to be formatted on screen
330 Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
331 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt. Also, http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html
332 [http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html]. Color can be also in #rrggbb for-
333 mat (hex). Note that when displaying bytes, power is 1024 and not 1000
334 so 1M really means 1024*1024 bytes and not 1000*1000.
337 IP address for an interface
341 ACPI ac adapter state.
349 ACPI temperature in C.
353 ACPI temperature in F.
357 CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
361 Fan speed from therm_adt746x
365 Right-justify text, with space of N
373 Display APM AC adapter status (FreeBSD only)
377 Display APM battery life in percent (FreeBSD only)
381 Display remaining APM battery life in hh:mm:ss or "unknown" if
382 AC adapterstatus is on-line or charging (FreeBSD only)
386 Remaining capacity in ACPI or APM battery. ACPI battery number
387 can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
391 Artist in current BMPx track
395 Album in current BMPx track
399 Title of the current BMPx track
403 Track number of the current BMPx track
407 Bitrate of the current BMPx track
411 URI of the current BMPx track
415 Amount of memory buffered
418 cached Amount of memory cached
422 Change drawing color to color
426 CPU usage in percents. For SMP machines, the CPU number can be
427 provided as an argument. cpu0 is the total usage, and >=cpu1 are
431 cpubar (cpu number) (height),(width)
432 Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bar's height in pixels. See
433 $cpu for more info on SMP.
436 cpugraph (cpu number) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
438 CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. See
439 $cpu for more info on SMP.
442 diskio Displays current disk IO.
445 diskiograph (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
447 Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is
448 non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
452 Download speed in kilobytes
456 Download speed in kilobytes with one decimal
459 downspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
461 Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
462 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
465 else Text to show if any of the above are not true
469 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn-
470 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I'd
471 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch.
475 Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value
476 between 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for
477 the bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future.
481 Same as execbar, but graphs values.
484 execi interval command
485 Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval can't be less
486 than update_interval in configuration. See also $texeci
489 execibar interval command
490 Same as execbar, except with an interval
493 execigraph interval command
494 Same as execigraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values
498 Specify a different font. Only applies to one line.
501 freq Returns CPU frequency in MHz
504 freq_g Returns CPU frequency in GHz
508 Returns CPU frequency in MHz, but is calculated by counting to
509 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
514 Returns CPU frequency in GHz, but is calculated by counting to
515 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
519 fs_bar (height),(width) fs
520 Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height
521 is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system.
525 Free space on a file system available for users.
529 Free percentage of space on a file system available for users.
537 File system used space
540 head logfile lines (interval)
541 Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval
542 is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30
543 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
547 Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels
551 I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev may be omitted if you
552 have only one I2C device. type is either in (or vol) meaning
553 voltage, fan meaning fan or temp/tempf (first in C, second in F)
554 meaning temperature. n is number of the sensor. See
555 /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer.
559 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
560 whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
561 human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by
566 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
567 the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k.
571 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
572 the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k.
576 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
577 the cpu temperature in celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k.
581 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
582 the cpu temperature in farenheit, as reported by /proc/i8k.
586 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
587 the left fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
588 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
593 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
594 the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-
595 readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
600 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
601 the right fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
602 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
607 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
608 the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
609 human-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
614 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
615 your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k.
619 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
620 the version formatting of /proc/i8k.
624 if PROCESS is running, display everything if_running and the
629 if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the
633 if_mounted (mountpoint)
634 if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between if_mounted
635 and the matching $endif
638 kernel Kernel version
642 Get the link status for wireless connections
646 (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past
647 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes.
651 Machine, i686 for example
654 mails Mail count in mail spool. You can use program like fetchmail to
655 get mails from some server using your favourite protocol. See
659 mem Amount of memory in use
662 membar (height),(width)
663 Bar that shows amount of memory in use
666 memmax Total amount of memory
670 Percentage of memory in use
674 Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile
678 Album in current MPD song
681 mpd_bar (height),(width)
682 Bar of mpd's progress
686 Bitrate of current song
690 Playing, stopped, et cetera.
694 Title of current MPD song
710 Percent of song's progress
714 Random status (On/Off)
718 Repeat status (On/Off)
722 Prints the MPD track field
726 Unread mail count in mail spool.
737 pre_exec shell command
738 Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything
739 and puts output as text.
743 Total processes (sleeping and running)
747 Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6
755 Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
758 swapbar (height),(width)
759 Bar that shows amount of swap in use
762 swap Amount of swap in use
770 Percentage of swap in use
774 System name, Linux for example
777 tcp_portmon port_begin port_end item (index) (ip4 only at present)
778 TCP port monitor for specified local ports. Port numbers must be
779 in the range 1 to 65535. Valid items are:
781 count - total number of connections in the range
783 rip - remote ip address
785 rhost - remote host name
787 rport - remote port number
789 lip - local ip address
791 lhost - local host name
793 lservice - local service name from /etc/services
795 The connection index provides you with access to each connection
796 in the port monitor. The monitor will return information for
797 index values from 0 to n-1 connections. Values higher than n-1
798 are simply ignored. For the "count" item, the connection index
799 must be omitted. It is required for all other items.
803 ${tcp_portmon 6881 6999 count} - displays the number of connec-
804 tions in the bittorrent port range
806 ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 0} - displays the remote host ip of the
807 first sshd connection
809 ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 9} - displays the remote host ip of the
810 tenth sshd connection
812 ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rhost 0} - displays the remote host name of
813 the first connection on a privileged port
815 ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rport 4} - displays the remote host port of
816 the fifth connection on a privileged port
818 ${tcp_portmon 1 65535 lservice 14} - displays the local service
819 name of the fifteenth connection in the range of all ports
821 Note that port monitor variables which share the same port range
822 actually refer to the same monitor, so many references to a sin-
823 gle port range for different items and different indexes all use
824 the same monitor internally. In other words, the program avoids
825 creating redundant monitors.
827 texeci interval command
828 Runs a command at an interval inside a thread and displays the
829 output. Same as $execi, except the command is run inside a
830 thread. Use this if you have a slow script to keep Conky updat-
831 ing. You should make the interval slightly longer then the time
832 it takes your script to execute. For example, if you have a
833 script that take 5 seconds to execute, you should make the
834 interval at least 6 seconds. See also $execi.
838 Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset.
841 tail logfile lines (interval)
842 Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is
843 not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30 lines
844 can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
848 Local time, see man strftime to get more information about for-
853 Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and
854 there doesn't seem to be a way to know how many times it has
855 already done that before conky has started.
859 This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically,
860 processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu
861 usage, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name",
862 "pid", "cpu", and mem". There can be a max of 10 processes
867 Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu
871 Total upload, this one too, may overflow
874 updates Number of updates
879 Upload speed in kilobytes
883 Upload speed in kilobytes with one decimal
886 upspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour
888 Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
889 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
896 Uptime in a shorter format
900 Seti@home current progress
903 seti_progbar (height),(width)
904 Seti@home current progress bar
908 Seti@home total user credit
912 Change verticle offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause
913 text to overlap. See also $offset.
917 conky -t '${time %D %H:%m}' -o -u 30
918 Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30
921 conky -a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d
922 Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500).
925 ~/.conkyrc default configuration file
928 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn't work with
929 all window managers. Especially doesn't work well with Gnome and it has
930 been reported that it doesn't work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
931 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
932 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in
933 Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree
934 useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument
935 which makes Conky to create its own window.
938 http://conky.sourceforge.net [http://conky.sourceforge.net]
940 http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky [http://www.source-
941 forge.net/projects/conky]
943 #conky on irc.freenode.net
946 The Conky dev team. What's up now!