1 Conky (http://conky.rty.ca)
5 Conky is a system monitor for X originally based on the torsmo code.
6 Since it's original conception, Conky has changed a fair bit from
7 it's predecessor. Conky can display just about anything, either on
8 your root desktop or in it's own window. Conky has many built-in
9 objects, as well as the ability to execute programs and scripts,
10 then display the output from stdout.
12 We are always looking for help, and anyone interested in becoming
13 a developer is welcome. Please use the facilities at SourceForge
14 to make bug reports, feature requests, and submit patches.
16 Thanks for your interest in Conky.
18 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW
20 Conky is generally very good on resources. However, certain objects in
21 Conky are harder on resources then others. In particular, the $tail,
22 $top, $font, and $graph objects are quite costly in comparison to
25 If you do use them, please do not complain about memory or CPU usage,
26 unless you think something is going seriously wrong (mem leak, et cetera).
30 To compile and run Conky with all optional components (If you run Gentoo, see the "Ebuild" Section below):
32 ./configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --datadir=/usr/share --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var/lib --enable-double-buffer --enable-own-window --enable-proc-uptime --enable-mpd --enable-xft --enable-metar --enable-seti
36 Conky doesn't probably compile with other compilers than gcc and icc. It
37 doesn't compile with C89 compiler and not even with pure C99. It uses few
38 things that might not exist: strdup(), strcasecmp(), strncasecmp(), optarg
39 variable with getopt() and long long (not in C89). Crashes in file system
40 statistics stuff when compiled with icc, I don't know exactly why.
42 You can disable 'drawing to own window' feature in case you don't need it
43 by passing --disable-own-window to configure -script.
47 Conky is in Gentoo's Portage. Simply use "emerge conky" to install conky.
48 There is also usually an up-to-date ebuild within Conky's package or in
53 Default configuration file is $HOME/.conkyrc (can be changed from
54 conky.c among other things). See conkyrc.sample. You might want to copy
55 it to $HOME/.conkyrc and then start modifying it.
57 Configuration file confs
60 alignment Aligned position on screen, may be top_left,
61 top_right, bottom_left, bottom_right
62 background Boolean value, if true, Conky will be forked to
63 background when started
64 on_bottom Set conky on the bottom of all other applications
65 border_margin Border margin in pixels
66 border_width Border width in pixels
67 cpu_avg_samples The number of samples to average for CPU monitoring
68 default_color Default color and border color
69 default_shade_color Default shading color and border's shading color
70 default_outline_color Default outline color
71 Use the Xdbe extension? (eliminates flicker) It is
72 double_buffer highly recommended to use own window with this one
73 so double buffer won't be so big.
74 draw_borders Draw borders around text?
75 draw_shades Draw shades?
76 draw_outline Draw outlines?
77 font Font name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font
78 gap_x Gap between right or left border of screen, same as passing -x at command line
79 gap_y Gap between top or bottom border of screen, same as passing -y at command line
80 no_buffers Substract (file system) buffers from used memory?
81 mail_spool Mail spool for mail checking
82 metar_station METAR station code for weather, see http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/ if you need to find your code.
83 metar_server Define a custom METAR ftp server
84 metar_path Path on server to use
85 minimum_size Minimum size of window
86 mldonkey_hostname Hostname for mldonkey stuff, defaults to localhost
87 mldonkey_port Mldonkey port, 4001 default
88 mldonkey_login Mldonkey login, default none
89 mldonkey_password Mldonkey password, default none
90 net_avg_samples The number of samples to average for net data
91 override_utf8_locale Force UTF8? requires XFT
92 own_window Boolean, create own window to draw?
93 pad_percents Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no
95 stippled_borders Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
96 total_run_times Total number of times for Conky to update before
97 quitting. Zero makes Conky run forever
98 update_interval Update interval in seconds
99 uppercase Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper
101 use_spacer Adds spaces after certain objects to stop them
102 from moving other things around. Note that
103 this only helps if you are using a mono font,
104 such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
105 use_xft Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
106 text After this begins text to be formatted on screen
108 Boolean variable without value in text means yes. Value may be also yes,
109 true or any negative or positive integer meaning yes. No, false or zero
111 There may be some variables in text. Variable is given either in format
112 $variable or in ${variable}. Latter allows characters right after the
113 variable and must be used in some stuff because of arguments.
118 -V Prints version and exits
119 -a ALIGNMENT Text alignment on screen, {top,bottom}_{left,right}
120 -b Use double buffering (eliminates flicker)
121 -c FILE Config file to load instead of $HOME/.conkyrc
122 -d Daemonize, fork to background
124 -h Prints command line help and exits
125 -o Create own window to draw
126 -t TEXT Text to render, remember single quotes, like -t '$uptime'
127 -u SECS Update interval
128 -w WIN_ID Window id to draw
132 Command line options override configurations defined in configuration
137 Variable Arguments Description
139 addr (interface) IP address for an interface
140 acpiacadapter ACPI ac adapter state.
141 acpifan ACPI fan state
142 acpitemp ACPI temperature.
143 adt746xcpu CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
144 adt746xfan Fan speed from therm_adt746x
145 alignr (num) Right-justify text, with space of N
146 alignc Align text to centre
147 battery (num) Remaining capasity in ACPI or APM
148 battery. ACPI battery number can be
149 given as argument (default is BAT0).
150 buffers Amount of memory buffered
151 cached Amount of memory cached
152 color (color) Change drawing color to color
153 cpu CPU usage in percents
154 cpubar (height) Bar that shows CPU usage, height is
155 bar's height in pixels
156 cpugraph (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
157 CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex,
159 downspeed net Download speed in kilobytes
160 downspeedf net Download speed in kilobytes with one
162 downspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
163 Download speed graph, colours defined in
165 exec shell command Executes a shell command and displays
166 the output in conky. warning: this
167 takes a lot more resources than other
168 variables. I'd recommend coding wanted
169 behaviour in C and posting a patch :-).
170 execbar shell command Same as exec, except if the first value
171 return is a value between 0-100, it
172 will use that number for a bar.
173 The size for the bar is currently fixed,
174 but that may change in the future.
175 execgraph shell command Same as execbar, but graphs values
176 execi interval, shell command
177 Same as exec but with specific interval.
178 Interval can't be less than
179 update_interval in configuration.
180 font font Specify a different font. Only applies
182 fs_bar (height), (fs)Bar that shows how much space is used on
183 a file system. height is the height in
184 pixels. fs is any file on that file
186 fs_free (fs) Free space on a file system available
188 fs_free_perc (fs) Free percentage of space on a file
189 system available for users.
190 fs_size (fs) File system size
191 fs_used (fs) File system used space
192 hr (height) Horizontal line, height is the height in
194 i2c (dev), type, n I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev
195 may be omitted if you have only one I2C
196 device. type is either in (or vol)
197 meaning voltage, fan meaning fan or
198 temp/tempf (first in C, second in F)
199 meaning temperature. n is number of the
200 sensor. See /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on
202 if_running (process) if PROCESS is running, display
203 everything if_running and the matching $endif
204 if_existing (file) if FILE exists, display everything between
205 if_existing and the matching $endif
206 if_mounted (mountpoint) if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between
207 if_mounted and the matching $endif
208 else Text to show if any of the above are not true
209 kernel Kernel version
210 linkstatus (interface) Get the link status for wireless connections
211 loadavg (1), (2), (3) System load average, 1 is for past 1
212 minute, 2 for past 5 minutes and 3 for
214 machine Machine, i686 for example
215 mails Mail count in mail spool. You can use
216 program like fetchmail to get mails from
217 some server using your favourite
218 protocol. See also new_mails.
219 mem Amount of memory in use
220 membar (height) Bar that shows amount of memory in use
221 memmax Total amount of memory
222 memperc Percentage of memory in use
226 metar_tempf Temp in F
228 metar_dew_point There are a bunch of these
229 metar_rh and they are self-explanatory
236 ml_upload_counter total session upload in mb
237 ml_download_counter total session download in mb
238 ml_nshared_files number of shared files
239 ml_shared_counter total session shared in mb, buggy
240 in some mldonkey versions
241 ml_tcp_upload_rate tcp upload rate in kb/s
242 ml_tcp_download_rate tcp download rate in kb/s
243 ml_udp_upload_rate udp upload rate in kb/s
244 ml_udp_download_rate udp download rate in kb/s
245 ml_ndownloaded_files number of completed files
246 ml_ndownloading_files number of downloading files
248 mpd_artist Artist in current MPD song
249 (must be enabled at compile)
250 mpd_album Album in current MPD song
251 mpd_bar (height) Bar of mpd's progress
252 mpd_bitrate Bitrate of current song
253 mpd_status Playing, stopped, et cetera.
254 mpd_title Title of current MPD song
256 mpd_elapsed Song's elapsed time
257 mpd_length Song's length
258 mpd_percent Percent of song's progress
259 new_mails Unread mail count in mail spool.
261 outlinecolor (color) Change outline color
262 pre_exec shell command Executes a shell command one time before
263 conky displays anything and puts output
265 processes Total processes (sleeping and running)
266 running_processes Running processes (not sleeping),
268 shadecolor (color) Change shading color
269 stippled_hr (space), Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
271 swapbar (height) Bar that shows amount of swap in use
272 swap Amount of swap in use
273 swapmax Total amount of swap
274 swapperc Percentage of swap in use
275 sysname System name, Linux for example
276 offset pixels Move text over by N pixels
277 tail logfile, lines (interval)
278 Displays last N lines of supplied text
279 text file. If interval is not supplied,
280 Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval.
282 Max of 30 lines can be displayed.
283 time (format) Local time, see man strftime to get more
284 information about format
285 totaldown net Total download, overflows at 4 GB on
286 Linux with 32-bit arch and there doesn't
287 seem to be a way to know how many times
288 it has already done that before conky
290 top type, num This takes arguments in the form:
292 Basically, processes are ranked from
293 highest to lowest in terms of cpu
294 usage, which is what <num> represents.
295 The types are: "name", "pid", "cpu", and
297 There can be a max of 10 processes listed.
298 top_mem type, num Same as top, except sorted by mem usage
300 totalup net Total upload, this one too, may overflow
301 updates Number of updates (for debugging)
302 upspeed net Upload speed in kilobytes
303 upspeedf net Upload speed in kilobytes with one
305 upspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
306 Upload speed graph, colours defined in
309 uptime_short Uptime in a shorter format
311 seti_prog Seti@home current progress
312 seti_progbar (height) Seti@home current progress bar
313 seti_credit Seti@hoome total user credit
316 colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
317 /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt. color can be also in #rrggbb format (hex).
319 Note that when displaying bytes, power is 1024 and not 1000 so 1M really
320 means 1024*1024 bytes and not 1000*1000.
324 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn't work with
325 all window managers. Especially doesn't work well with Gnome and it has
326 been reported that it doesn't work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
327 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
328 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in Conky
329 to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree useful to
330 find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument which makes
331 Conky to create its own window.
projects / monky / blob