6 conky - a system monitor for X originally based on the torsmo code, but
13 Conky is a system monitor for X originally based on the torsmo code.
14 Since its original conception, Conky has changed a fair bit from its
15 predecessor. Conky can display just about anything, either on your
16 root desktop or in its 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 Gentoos Portage. Simply use "emerge conky"
30 for installation. There is also usually an up-to-date ebuild within
31 Conkys 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 doesnt probably compile with other compilers than gcc and icc.
49 It doesnt 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 dont
55 You can disable drawing to own window feature in case you dont 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
70 Command line options override configurations defined in configuration
73 -V Prints version and exits
77 Text alignment on screen, {top,bottom}_{left,right} or none
80 -b Use double buffering (eliminates "flicker")
84 Config file to load instead of $HOME/.conkyrc
87 -d Daemonize Conky, aka fork to background
94 -h Prints command line help and exits
97 -o Create own window to draw
101 Text to render, remember single quotes, like -t $uptime
120 CONFIGURATION SETTINGS
121 Default configuration file is $HOME/.conkyrc (can be changed from
122 conky.c among other things). See conkyrc.sample. You might want to copy
123 it to $HOME/.conkyrc and then start modifying it.
126 Aligned position on screen, may be top_left, top_right, bot
127 tom_left, bottom_right, or none
131 Boolean value, if true, Conky will be forked to background when
136 Set conky on the bottom of all other applications
140 Border margin in pixels
144 Border width in pixels
148 The number of samples to average for CPU monitoring
152 Default color and border color
156 Default shading color and borders shading color
159 default_outline_color
160 Default outline color
164 Use the Xdbe extension? (eliminates flicker) It is highly recom
165 mended to use own window with this one so double buffer wont be
170 Draw borders around text?
181 font Font name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font
184 gap_x Gap between right or left border of screen, same as passing -x
188 gap_y Gap between top or bottom border of screen, same as passing -y
193 Substract (file system) buffers from used memory?
197 Mail spool for mail checking
201 Maximum width of window
204 minimum_size width (height)
205 Minimum size of window
209 Hostname for mldonkey stuff, defaults to localhost
213 Mldonkey port, 4001 default
217 Mldonkey login, default none
221 Mldonkey password, default none
237 The number of samples to average for net data
241 Force UTF8? requires XFT
245 Boolean, create own window to draw?
248 own_window_transparent
249 Boolean, set pseudo-transparency?
252 own_window_colour colour
253 If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour
254 (defaults to black). Takes either a hex value (#ffffff) or a
255 valid RGB name (see /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt)
259 Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding)
263 Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
267 Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero
268 makes Conky run forever
272 Update interval in seconds
276 Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
280 Adds spaces after certain objects to stop them from moving other
281 things around. Note that this only helps if you are using a mono
282 font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
286 Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
289 text After this begins text to be formatted on screen
293 Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
294 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt. Also, http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html
295 Color can be also in #rrggbb format (hex). Note that when displaying
296 bytes, power is 1024 and not 1000 so 1M really means 1024*1024 bytes
300 IP address for an interface
304 ACPI ac adapter state.
312 ACPI temperature in C.
316 ACPI temperature in F.
320 CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
324 Fan speed from therm_adt746x
328 Right-justify text, with space of N
336 Remaining capacity in ACPI or APM battery. ACPI battery number
337 can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
341 Amount of memory buffered
344 cached Amount of memory cached
348 Change drawing color to color
351 cpu CPU usage in percents
354 cpubar (height),(width)
355 Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bars height in pixels
358 cpugraph (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
359 CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #.
362 diskio Displays current disk IO.
365 diskiograph (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
367 Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is
368 non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
372 Download speed in kilobytes
376 Download speed in kilobytes with one decimal
379 downspeedgraph net, (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
381 Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
382 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
385 else Text to show if any of the above are not true
389 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn
390 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. Id
391 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch.
395 Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value
396 between 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for
397 the bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future.
401 Same as execbar, but graphs values.
404 execi interval command
405 Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval cant be less
406 than update_interval in configuration.
409 execibar interval command
410 Same as execbar, except with an interval
413 execigraph interval command
414 Same as execigraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values
418 Specify a different font. Only applies to one line.
421 freq Returns CPU frequency in MHz
424 freq_g Returns CPU frequency in GHz
428 Returns CPU frequency in MHz, but is calculated by counting to
429 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
434 Returns CPU frequency in GHz, but is calculated by counting to
435 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
439 fs_bar (height),(width) fs
440 Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height
441 is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system.
445 Free space on a file system available for users.
449 Free percentage of space on a file system available for users.
457 File system used space
460 head logfile lines (interval)
461 Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval
462 is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conkys interval. Max of 30
463 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
467 Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels
471 I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev may be omitted if you
472 have only one I2C device. type is either in (or vol) meaning
473 voltage, fan meaning fan or temp/tempf (first in C, second in F)
474 meaning temperature. n is number of the sensor. See
475 /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer.
479 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
480 whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
481 human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by
486 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
487 the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k.
491 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
492 the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k.
496 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
497 the cpu temperature in celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k.
501 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
502 the cpu temperature in farenheit, as reported by /proc/i8k.
506 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
507 the left fans rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
508 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
513 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
514 the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
515 human-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
520 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
521 the right fans rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
522 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
527 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
528 the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
529 human-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
534 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
535 your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k.
539 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
540 the version formatting of /proc/i8k.
544 if PROCESS is running, display everything if_running and the
549 if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the
553 if_mounted (mountpoint)
554 if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between if_mounted
555 and the matching $endif
558 kernel Kernel version
562 Get the link status for wireless connections
566 (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past
567 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes.
571 Machine, i686 for example
574 mails Mail count in mail spool. You can use program like fetchmail to
575 get mails from some server using your favourite protocol. See
579 mem Amount of memory in use
582 membar (height),(width)
583 Bar that shows amount of memory in use
586 memmax Total amount of memory
590 Percentage of memory in use
594 total session upload in mb
598 total session download in mb
602 number of shared files
606 total session shared in mb, buggy in some mldonkey versions
610 tcp upload rate in kb/s
614 tcp download rate in kb/s
618 udp upload rate in kb/s
622 udp download rate in kb/s
626 number of completed files
629 ml_ndownloading_files
630 number of downloading files
634 Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile
638 Album in current MPD song
641 mpd_bar (height),(width)
646 Bitrate of current song
650 Playing, stopped, et cetera.
654 Title of current MPD song
670 Percent of songs progress
674 Unread mail count in mail spool.
685 pre_exec shell command
686 Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything
687 and puts output as text.
691 Total processes (sleeping and running)
695 Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6
703 Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
706 swapbar (height),(width)
707 Bar that shows amount of swap in use
710 swap Amount of swap in use
718 Percentage of swap in use
722 System name, Linux for example
726 Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset.
729 tail logfile lines (interval)
730 Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is
731 not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conkys interval. Max of 30 lines
732 can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
736 Local time, see man strftime to get more information about for
741 Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and
742 there doesnt seem to be a way to know how many times it has
743 already done that before conky has started.
747 This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically,
748 processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu
749 usage, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name",
750 "pid", "cpu", and mem". There can be a max of 10 processes
755 Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu
759 Total upload, this one too, may overflow
762 updates Number of updates
767 Upload speed in kilobytes
771 Upload speed in kilobytes with one decimal
774 upspeedgraph net, (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour
776 Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
777 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
784 Uptime in a shorter format
788 Seti@home current progress
791 seti_progbar (height),(width)
792 Seti@home current progress bar
796 Seti@home total user credit
800 Change verticle offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause
801 text to overlap. See also $offset.
805 conky -t${time %D %H:%m}-o -u 30
806 Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30
809 conky -a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d
810 Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500).
813 ~/.conkyrc default configuration file
816 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesnt work with
817 all window managers. Especially doesnt work well with Gnome and it has
818 been reported that it doesnt work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
819 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
820 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in
821 Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree
822 useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument
823 which makes Conky to create its own window.
826 http://conky.sourceforge.net
828 http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky
830 #conky on irc.freenode.net
833 The Conky dev team. Whats up now??!