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-bmpx
49 --enable-xmms=[project]
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 Hostname for mldonkey stuff, defaults to localhost
237 Mldonkey port, 4001 default
241 Mldonkey login, default none
245 Mldonkey password, default none
261 The number of samples to average for net data
265 Force UTF8? requires XFT
269 Boolean, create own window to draw?
272 own_window_transparent
273 Boolean, set pseudo-transparency?
276 own_window_colour colour
277 If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour
278 (defaults to black). Takes either a hex value (#ffffff) or a
279 valid RGB name (see /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt)
283 Print text to stdout.
287 Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding)
291 Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
295 Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero
296 makes Conky run forever
300 Update interval in seconds
304 Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
308 Adds spaces after certain objects to stop them from moving other
309 things around. Note that this only helps if you are using a mono
310 font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
314 Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
318 Allow for the creation of at least this number of port monitors
319 (if 0 or not set, default is 16)
322 min_port_monitor_connections
323 Allow each port monitor to track at least this many connections
324 (if 0 or not set, default is 256)
327 TEXT After this begins text to be formatted on screen
331 Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
332 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt. Also, http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html
333 [http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html]. Color can be also in #rrggbb for‐
334 mat (hex). Note that when displaying bytes, power is 1024 and not 1000
335 so 1M really means 1024*1024 bytes and not 1000*1000.
338 IP address for an interface
342 ACPI ac adapter state.
350 ACPI temperature in C.
354 ACPI temperature in F.
358 CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
362 Fan speed from therm_adt746x
366 Right-justify text, with space of N
374 Display APM AC adapter status (FreeBSD only)
378 Display APM battery life in percent (FreeBSD only)
382 Display remaining APM battery life in hh:mm:ss or "unknown" if
383 AC adapterstatus is on-line or charging (FreeBSD only)
387 Remaining capacity in ACPI or APM battery. ACPI battery number
388 can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
392 Artist in current BMPx track
396 Album in current BMPx track
400 Title of the current BMPx track
404 Track number of the current BMPx track
408 Bitrate of the current BMPx track
412 URI of the current BMPx track
416 Amount of memory buffered
419 cached Amount of memory cached
423 Change drawing color to color
427 CPU usage in percents. For SMP machines, the CPU number can be
428 provided as an argument. cpu0 is the total usage, and >=cpu1 are
432 cpubar (cpu number) (height),(width)
433 Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bar’s height in pixels. See
434 $cpu for more info on SMP.
437 cpugraph (cpu number) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
439 CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. See
440 $cpu for more info on SMP.
443 diskio Displays current disk IO.
446 diskiograph (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
448 Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is
449 non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
453 Download speed in kilobytes
457 Download speed in kilobytes with one decimal
460 downspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
462 Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
463 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
466 else Text to show if any of the above are not true
470 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn‐
471 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I’d
472 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch.
476 Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value
477 between 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for
478 the bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future.
482 Same as execbar, but graphs values.
485 execi interval command
486 Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval can’t be less
487 than update_interval in configuration. See also $texeci
490 execibar interval command
491 Same as execbar, except with an interval
494 execigraph interval command
495 Same as execigraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values
499 Specify a different font. Only applies to one line.
502 freq Returns CPU frequency in MHz
505 freq_g Returns CPU frequency in GHz
509 Returns CPU frequency in MHz, but is calculated by counting to
510 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
515 Returns CPU frequency in GHz, but is calculated by counting to
516 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
520 fs_bar (height),(width) fs
521 Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height
522 is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system.
526 Free space on a file system available for users.
530 Free percentage of space on a file system available for users.
538 File system used space
541 head logfile lines (interval)
542 Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval
543 is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky’s interval. Max of 30
544 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
548 Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels
552 I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev may be omitted if you
553 have only one I2C device. type is either in (or vol) meaning
554 voltage, fan meaning fan or temp/tempf (first in C, second in F)
555 meaning temperature. n is number of the sensor. See
556 /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer.
560 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
561 whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
562 human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by
567 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
568 the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k.
572 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
573 the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k.
577 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
578 the cpu temperature in celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k.
582 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
583 the cpu temperature in farenheit, as reported by /proc/i8k.
587 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
588 the left fan’s rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
589 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
594 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
595 the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-
596 readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
601 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
602 the right fan’s rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
603 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
608 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
609 the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
610 human-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
615 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
616 your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k.
620 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
621 the version formatting of /proc/i8k.
625 if PROCESS is running, display everything if_running and the
630 if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the
634 if_mounted (mountpoint)
635 if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between if_mounted
636 and the matching $endif
639 kernel Kernel version
643 Get the link status for wireless connections
647 (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past
648 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes.
652 Machine, i686 for example
655 mails Mail count in mail spool. You can use program like fetchmail to
656 get mails from some server using your favourite protocol. See
660 mem Amount of memory in use
663 membar (height),(width)
664 Bar that shows amount of memory in use
667 memmax Total amount of memory
671 Percentage of memory in use
675 Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile
679 Album in current MPD song
682 mpd_bar (height),(width)
683 Bar of mpd’s progress
687 Bitrate of current song
691 Playing, stopped, et cetera.
695 Title of current MPD song
711 Percent of song’s progress
715 Random status (On/Off)
719 Repeat status (On/Off)
723 Prints the MPD track field
727 Unread mail count in mail spool.
738 pre_exec shell command
739 Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything
740 and puts output as text.
744 Total processes (sleeping and running)
748 Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6
756 Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
759 swapbar (height),(width)
760 Bar that shows amount of swap in use
763 swap Amount of swap in use
771 Percentage of swap in use
775 System name, Linux for example
778 tcp_portmon port_begin port_end item (index) (ip4 only at present)
779 TCP port monitor for specified local ports. Port numbers must be
780 in the range 1 to 65535. Valid items are:
782 count - total number of connections in the range
784 rip - remote ip address
786 rhost - remote host name
788 rport - remote port number
790 lip - local ip address
792 lhost - local host name
794 lservice - local service name from /etc/services
796 The connection index provides you with access to each connection
797 in the port monitor. The monitor will return information for
798 index values from 0 to n-1 connections. Values higher than n-1
799 are simply ignored. For the "count" item, the connection index
800 must be omitted. It is required for all other items.
804 ${tcp_portmon 6881 6999 count} - displays the number of connec‐
805 tions in the bittorrent port range
807 ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 0} - displays the remote host ip of the
808 first sshd connection
810 ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 9} - displays the remote host ip of the
811 tenth sshd connection
813 ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rhost 0} - displays the remote host name of
814 the first connection on a privileged port
816 ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rport 4} - displays the remote host port of
817 the fifth connection on a privileged port
819 ${tcp_portmon 1 65535 lservice 14} - displays the local service
820 name of the fifteenth connection in the range of all ports
822 Note that port monitor variables which share the same port range
823 actually refer to the same monitor, so many references to a sin‐
824 gle port range for different items and different indexes all use
825 the same monitor internally. In other words, the program avoids
826 creating redundant monitors.
828 texeci interval command
829 Runs a command at an interval inside a thread and displays the
830 output. Same as $execi, except the command is run inside a
831 thread. Use this if you have a slow script to keep Conky updat‐
832 ing. You should make the interval slightly longer then the time
833 it takes your script to execute. For example, if you have a
834 script that take 5 seconds to execute, you should make the
835 interval at least 6 seconds. See also $execi.
839 Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset.
842 tail logfile lines (interval)
843 Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is
844 not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky’s interval. Max of 30 lines
845 can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
849 Local time, see man strftime to get more information about for‐
854 Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and
855 there doesn’t seem to be a way to know how many times it has
856 already done that before conky has started.
860 This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically,
861 processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu
862 usage, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name",
863 "pid", "cpu", and mem". There can be a max of 10 processes
868 Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu
872 Total upload, this one too, may overflow
875 updates Number of updates
880 Upload speed in kilobytes
884 Upload speed in kilobytes with one decimal
887 upspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour
889 Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
890 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
897 Uptime in a shorter format
901 Seti@home current progress
904 seti_progbar (height),(width)
905 Seti@home current progress bar
909 Seti@home total user credit
913 Change verticle offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause
914 text to overlap. See also $offset.
917 xmms_bar (height),(width)
918 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: progress bar
922 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: bitrate of current tune
926 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: number of audio channels of
931 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: full path and filename of
936 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: sampling frequency of current
941 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: total length of current tune
946 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: total length of current tune
950 xmms_playlist_position
951 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: playlist position of current
956 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: number of tunes in playlist
960 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: MM:SS position of current
964 xmms_position_seconds
965 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: position of current tune in
970 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: player status (Play‐
971 ing/Paused/Stopped/Not running)
975 xmms / bmp / audacious / infopipe: title of current tune
979 conky -t ’${time %D %H:%m}’ -o -u 30
980 Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30
983 conky -a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d
984 Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500).
987 ~/.conkyrc default configuration file
990 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn’t work with
991 all window managers. Especially doesn’t work well with Gnome and it has
992 been reported that it doesn’t work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
993 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
994 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in
995 Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree
996 useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument
997 which makes Conky to create its own window.
1000 http://conky.sourceforge.net [http://conky.sourceforge.net]
1002 http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky [http://www.source‐
1003 forge.net/projects/conky]
1005 #conky on irc.freenode.net
1008 The Conky dev team. What’s up now!