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?
200 font Font name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font
203 gap_x Gap between right or left border of screen, same as passing -x
207 gap_y Gap between top or bottom border of screen, same as passing -y
212 Substract (file system) buffers from used memory?
216 Mail spool for mail checking
220 Maximum width of window
223 minimum_size width (height)
224 Minimum size of window
228 Hostname for mldonkey stuff, defaults to localhost
232 Mldonkey port, 4001 default
236 Mldonkey login, default none
240 Mldonkey password, default none
256 The number of samples to average for net data
260 Force UTF8? requires XFT
264 Boolean, create own window to draw?
267 own_window_transparent
268 Boolean, set pseudo-transparency?
271 own_window_colour colour
272 If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour
273 (defaults to black). Takes either a hex value (#ffffff) or a
274 valid RGB name (see /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt)
278 Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding)
282 Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
286 Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero
287 makes Conky run forever
291 Update interval in seconds
295 Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
299 Adds spaces after certain objects to stop them from moving other
300 things around. Note that this only helps if you are using a mono
301 font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
305 Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
308 TEXT After this begins text to be formatted on screen
312 Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
313 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt. Also, http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html
314 [http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html]. Color can be also in #rrggbb for-
315 mat (hex). Note that when displaying bytes, power is 1024 and not 1000
316 so 1M really means 1024*1024 bytes and not 1000*1000.
319 IP address for an interface
323 ACPI ac adapter state.
331 ACPI temperature in C.
335 ACPI temperature in F.
339 CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
343 Fan speed from therm_adt746x
347 Right-justify text, with space of N
355 Display APM AC adapter status (FreeBSD only)
359 Display APM battery life in percent (FreeBSD only)
363 Display remaining APM battery life in hh:mm:ss or "unknown" if
364 AC adapterstatus is on-line or charging (FreeBSD only)
368 Remaining capacity in ACPI or APM battery. ACPI battery number
369 can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
373 Amount of memory buffered
376 cached Amount of memory cached
380 Change drawing color to color
384 CPU usage in percents. For SMP machines, the CPU number can be
385 provided as an argument. cpu0 is the total usage, and >=cpu1 are
389 cpubar (cpu number) (height),(width)
390 Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bar's height in pixels. See
391 $cpu for more info on SMP.
394 cpugraph (cpu number) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
396 CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. See
397 $cpu for more info on SMP.
400 diskio Displays current disk IO.
403 diskiograph (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
405 Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is
406 non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
410 Download speed in kilobytes
414 Download speed in kilobytes with one decimal
417 downspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient
419 Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
420 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
423 else Text to show if any of the above are not true
427 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn-
428 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I'd
429 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch.
433 Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value
434 between 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for
435 the bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future.
439 Same as execbar, but graphs values.
442 execi interval command
443 Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval can't be less
444 than update_interval in configuration. See also $texeci
447 execibar interval command
448 Same as execbar, except with an interval
451 execigraph interval command
452 Same as execigraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values
456 Specify a different font. Only applies to one line.
459 freq Returns CPU frequency in MHz
462 freq_g Returns CPU frequency in GHz
466 Returns CPU frequency in MHz, but is calculated by counting to
467 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
472 Returns CPU frequency in GHz, but is calculated by counting to
473 clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for
477 fs_bar (height),(width) fs
478 Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height
479 is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system.
483 Free space on a file system available for users.
487 Free percentage of space on a file system available for users.
495 File system used space
498 head logfile lines (interval)
499 Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval
500 is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30
501 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
505 Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels
509 I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev may be omitted if you
510 have only one I2C device. type is either in (or vol) meaning
511 voltage, fan meaning fan or temp/tempf (first in C, second in F)
512 meaning temperature. n is number of the sensor. See
513 /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer.
517 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
518 whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
519 human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by
524 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
525 the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k.
529 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
530 the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k.
534 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
535 the cpu temperature in celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k.
539 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
540 the cpu temperature in farenheit, as reported by /proc/i8k.
544 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
545 the left fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
546 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
551 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
552 the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-
553 readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
558 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
559 the right fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
560 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
565 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
566 the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
567 human-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
572 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
573 your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k.
577 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
578 the version formatting of /proc/i8k.
582 if PROCESS is running, display everything if_running and the
587 if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the
591 if_mounted (mountpoint)
592 if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between if_mounted
593 and the matching $endif
596 kernel Kernel version
600 Get the link status for wireless connections
604 (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past
605 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes.
609 Machine, i686 for example
612 mails Mail count in mail spool. You can use program like fetchmail to
613 get mails from some server using your favourite protocol. See
617 mem Amount of memory in use
620 membar (height),(width)
621 Bar that shows amount of memory in use
624 memmax Total amount of memory
628 Percentage of memory in use
632 total session upload in mb
636 total session download in mb
640 number of shared files
644 total session shared in mb, buggy in some mldonkey versions
648 tcp upload rate in kb/s
652 tcp download rate in kb/s
656 udp upload rate in kb/s
660 udp download rate in kb/s
664 number of completed files
667 ml_ndownloading_files
668 number of downloading files
672 Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile
676 Album in current MPD song
679 mpd_bar (height),(width)
680 Bar of mpd's progress
684 Bitrate of current song
688 Playing, stopped, et cetera.
692 Title of current MPD song
708 Percent of song's progress
712 Random status (On/Off)
716 Repeat status (On/Off)
720 Prints the MPD track field
724 Unread mail count in mail spool.
735 pre_exec shell command
736 Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything
737 and puts output as text.
741 Total processes (sleeping and running)
745 Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6
753 Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
756 swapbar (height),(width)
757 Bar that shows amount of swap in use
760 swap Amount of swap in use
768 Percentage of swap in use
772 System name, Linux for example
775 tcp_portmon port_begin port_end item (index) (ip4 only at present)
776 TCP port monitor for specified local ports. Port numbers must be
777 in the range 1 to 65535. Valid items are:
779 count - total number of connections in the range
781 rip - remote ip address
783 rhost - remote host name
785 rport - remote port number
787 lip - local ip address
789 lhost - local host name
791 lservice - local service name from /etc/services
793 The connection index provides you with access to each connection
794 in the port monitor. The monitor will return information for
795 index values from 0 to n-1 connections. Values higher than n-1
796 are simply ignored. For the "count" item, the connection index
797 must be omitted. It is required for all other items.
801 ${tcp_portmon 6881 6889 count} - displays the number of connec-
802 tions in the bittorrent port range
804 ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 0} - displays the remote host ip of the
805 first sshd connection
807 ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 9} - displays the remote host ip of the
808 tenth sshd connection
810 ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rhost 0} - displays the remote host name of
811 the first connection on a privileged port
813 ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rport 4} - displays the remote host port of
814 the fifth connection on a privileged port
816 ${tcp_portmon 1 65535 lservice 14} - displays the local service
817 name of the fifteenth connection in the range of all ports
819 Note that port monitor variables which share the same port range
820 actually refer to the same monitor, so many references to a sin-
821 gle port range for different items and different indexes all use
822 the same monitor internally. In other words, the program avoids
823 creating redundant monitors.
825 texeci interval command
826 Runs a command at an interval inside a thread and displays the
827 output. Same as $execi, except the command is run inside a
828 thread. Use this if you have a slow script to keep Conky updat-
829 ing. You should make the interval slightly longer then the time
830 it takes your script to execute. For example, if you have a
831 script that take 5 seconds to execute, you should make the
832 interval at least 6 seconds. See also $execi.
836 Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset.
839 tail logfile lines (interval)
840 Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is
841 not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30 lines
842 can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
846 Local time, see man strftime to get more information about for-
851 Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and
852 there doesn't seem to be a way to know how many times it has
853 already done that before conky has started.
857 This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically,
858 processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu
859 usage, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name",
860 "pid", "cpu", and mem". There can be a max of 10 processes
865 Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu
869 Total upload, this one too, may overflow
872 updates Number of updates
877 Upload speed in kilobytes
881 Upload speed in kilobytes with one decimal
884 upspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour
886 Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
887 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
894 Uptime in a shorter format
898 Seti@home current progress
901 seti_progbar (height),(width)
902 Seti@home current progress bar
906 Seti@home total user credit
910 Change verticle offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause
911 text to overlap. See also $offset.
915 conky -t '${time %D %H:%m}' -o -u 30
916 Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30
919 conky -a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d
920 Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500).
923 ~/.conkyrc default configuration file
926 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn't work with
927 all window managers. Especially doesn't work well with Gnome and it has
928 been reported that it doesn't work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
929 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
930 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in
931 Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree
932 useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument
933 which makes Conky to create its own window.
936 http://conky.sourceforge.net [http://conky.sourceforge.net]
938 http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky [http://www.source-
939 forge.net/projects/conky]
941 #conky on irc.freenode.net
944 The Conky dev team. What's up now!