6 conky - A system monitor for X originally based on the torsmo code, but
7 more kickass. It just keeps on given’er. Yeah.
10 1mconky 22m[4moptions24m]
13 Conky is a system monitor for X originally based on torsmo. Since its
14 inception, Conky has changed significantly from its predecessor, while
15 maintaining simplicity and configurability. Conky can display just
16 about anything, either on your root desktop or in its own window. Not
17 only does Conky have many built-in objects, it can also display just
18 about any piece of information by using scripts and other external pro‐
21 Conky has more than 250 built in objects, including support for a
22 plethora of OS stats (uname, uptime, CPU usage, mem usage, disk usage,
23 "top" like process stats, and network monitoring, just to name a few),
24 built in IMAP and POP3 support, built in support for many popular music
25 players (MPD, XMMS2, BMPx, Audacious), and much much more. Conky can
26 display this info either as text, or using simple progress bars and
27 graph widgets, with different fonts and colours.
29 We are always looking for help, whether its reporting bugs, writing
30 patches, or writing docs. Please use the facilities at SourceForge to
31 make bug reports, feature requests, and submit patches, or stop by
32 #conky on irc.freenode.net if you have questions or want to contribute.
34 Thanks for your interest in Conky.
37 For users compiling from source on a binary distro, make sure you have
38 the X development libraries installed. This should be a package along
39 the lines of "libx11-dev" or "xorg-x11-dev" for X11 libs, and similar
40 "-dev" format for the other libs required (depending on your configure
43 Conky has (for some time) been available in the repositories of most
44 popular distributions. Here are some installation instructions for a
47 Gentoo users -- Conky is in Gentoo’s Portage... simply use "emerge app-
48 admin/conky" for installation. There is also usually an up-to-date
49 ebuild within Conky’s package or in the git repo.
51 Debian, etc. users -- Conky should be in your repositories, and can be
52 installed by doing "aptitude install conky".
54 Example to compile and run Conky with all optional components (note
55 that some configure options may differ for your system):
57 1msh autogen.sh # Only required if building from the git repo0m
59 1m./configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --in‐0m
60 1mfodir=/usr/share/info --datadir=/usr/share --sysconfdir=/etc --local‐0m
61 1mstatedir=/var/lib --disable-own-window --enable-audacious[=yes|no|lega‐0m
62 1mcy] --enable-bmpx --disable-hddtemp --disable-mpd --enable-xmms2 --dis‐0m
63 1mable-portmon --disable-network --enable-debug --disable-x11 --dis‐0m
64 1mable-double-buffer --disable-xdamage --disable-xft0m
68 1mmake install # Optional0m
72 Conky has been tested to be compatible with C99 C, however it has not
73 been tested with anything other than gcc, and is not guaranteed to work
78 Conky is generally very good on resources. That said, the more you try
79 to make Conky do, the more resources it is going to consume.
81 An easy way to force Conky to reload your ~/.conkyrc: "killall -SIGUSR1
82 conky". Saves you the trouble of having to kill and then restart. You
83 can now also do the same with SIGHUP.
86 Command line options override configurations defined in configuration
89 1m-v | -V | --version0m
90 Prints version and exits
94 Run Conky in ’quiet mode’ (ie. no output)
97 1m-a | --alignment=ALIGNMENT0m
98 Text alignment on screen, {top,bottom,middle}_{left,right,mid‐
102 1m-b | --double-buffer0m
103 Use double buffering (eliminates "flicker")
106 1m-c | --config=FILE0m
107 Config file to load instead of $HOME/.conkyrc
111 Daemonize Conky, aka fork to background
119 Prints command line help and exits
122 1m-o | --own-window0m
123 Create own window to draw
127 Text to render, remember single quotes, like -t ’ $uptime ’
130 1m-u | --interval=SECONDS0m
134 1m-w | --window-id=WIN_ID0m
147 Number of times to update Conky (and quit)
150 1mCONFIGURATION SETTINGS0m
151 Default configuration file location is $HOME/.conkyrc or
152 ${sysconfdir}/conky/conky.conf. On most systems, sysconfdir is /etc,
153 and you can find the sample config file there (/etc/conky/conky.conf).
155 You might want to copy it to $HOME/.conkyrc and then start modifying
156 it. Other configs can be found at http://conky.sf.net/
159 Aligned position on screen, may be top_left, top_right, top_mid‐
160 dle, bottom_left, bottom_right, bottom_middle, middle_left, mid‐
161 dle_right, or none (also can be abreviated as tl, tr, tm, bl,
166 Boolean value, if true, Conky will be forked to background when
171 Border margin in pixels
175 Border width in pixels
178 1mcolorN 22mPredefine a color for use inside TEXT segments. Substitute N by
179 a digit between 0 and 9, inclusively. When specifying the color
180 value in hex, omit the leading hash (#).
184 The number of samples to average for CPU monitoring
188 If true, cpu in top will show usage of one processor’s power. If
189 false, cpu in top will show the usage of all processors’ power
194 Default color and border color
197 1mdefault_outline_color0m
198 Default outline color
201 1mdefault_shade_color0m
202 Default shading color and border’s shading color
206 Use the Xdbe extension? (eliminates flicker) It is highly recom‐
207 mended to use own window with this one so double buffer won’t be
212 Draw borders around text?
215 1mdraw_graph_borders0m
216 Draw borders around graphs?
227 1mfont 22mFont name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font
230 1mgap_x 22mGap, in pixels, between right or left border of screen, same as
231 passing -x at command line, e.g. gap_x 10
234 1mgap_y 22mGap, in pixels, between top or bottom border of screen, same as
235 passing -y at command line, e.g. gap_y 10.
239 How strict should if_up be when testing an interface for being
240 up? The value is one of up, link or address, to check for the
241 interface being solely up, being up and having link or being up,
242 having link and an assigned IP address.
245 1mimap 22mDefault global IMAP server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i
246 interval] [-f folder] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". De‐
247 fault port is 143, default folder is ’INBOX’, default interval
248 is 5 minutes, and default number of retries before giving up is
249 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’, you will be prompted to
250 enter the password when Conky starts.
254 Mail spool for mail checking
257 1mmax_port_monitor_connections0m
258 Allow each port monitor to track at most this many connections
259 (if 0 or not set, default is 256)
263 Maximum number of special things, e.g. fonts, offsets, aligns,
264 etc. (default is 512)
267 1mmax_user_text bytes0m
268 Maximum size of user text buffer, i.e. layout below TEXT line in
269 config file (default is 16384 bytes)
272 1mtext_buffer_size bytes0m
273 Size of the standard text buffer (default is 256 bytes). This
274 buffer is used for intermediary text, such as individual lines,
275 output from $exec vars, and various other variables. Increasing
276 the size of this buffer can drastically reduce Conky’s perfor‐
277 mance, but will allow for more text display per variable. The
278 size of this buffer cannot be smaller than the default value of
282 1mmaximum_width pixels0m
283 Maximum width of window
286 1mminimum_size width (height)0m
287 Minimum size of window
302 1mmusic_player_interval0m
303 Music player thread update interval (defaults to Conky’s update
308 The number of samples to average for net data
312 Substract (file system) buffers from used memory?
315 1moverride_utf8_locale0m
316 Force UTF8? requires XFT
320 Boolean, create own window to draw?
324 Manually set the WM_CLASS name. Defaults to "Conky".
327 1mown_window_colour colour0m
328 If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour
329 (defaults to black). Takes either a hex value (#ffffff) or a
330 valid RGB name (see /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt)
333 1mown_window_hints undecorated,below,above,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager0m
334 If own_window is yes, you may use these window manager hints to
335 affect the way Conky displays. Notes: Use own_window_type desk‐
336 top as another way to implement many of these hints implicitly.
337 If you use own_window_type override, window manager hints have
338 no meaning and are ignored.
342 Manually set the window name. Defaults to "<hostname> - conky".
345 1mown_window_transparent0m
346 Boolean, set pseudo-transparency?
350 if own_window is yes, you may specify type normal, desktop, dock
351 or override (default: normal). Desktop windows are special win‐
352 dows that have no window decorations; are always visible on your
353 desktop; do not appear in your pager or taskbar; and are sticky
354 across all workspaces. Override windows are not under the con‐
355 trol of the window manager. Hints are ignored. This type of win‐
356 dow can be useful for certain situations.
360 Print text to stdout.
364 Print text to stderr.
368 When set to no, there will be no output in X (useful when you
369 also use things like out_to_console). If you set it to no, make
370 sure that it’s placed before all other X-related setting (take
371 the first line of your configfile to be sure). Default value is
376 Overwrite the file given as argument.
380 Append the file given as argument.
384 Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding)
387 1mpop3 22mDefault global POP3 server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i
388 interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port is
389 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
390 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
391 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
395 Shortens units to a single character (kiB->k, GiB->G, etc.). De‐
400 Shows the maximum value in scaled graphs.
404 Shows the time range covered by a graph.
408 Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
412 Desired output unit of all objects displaying a temperature.
413 Parameters are either "fahrenheit" or "celsius". The default
414 unit is degree Celsius.
418 Define a template for later use inside TEXT segments. Substitute
419 N by a digit between 0 and 9, inclusively. The value of the
420 variable is being inserted into the stuff below TEXT at the cor‐
421 responding position, but before some substitutions are applied:
426 ’\N’ -> template argument N
430 Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero
431 makes Conky run forever
435 Update interval in seconds
439 Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
443 Adds spaces around certain objects to stop them from moving oth‐
444 er things around. Arguments are left, right, and none (default).
445 The old true/false values are deprecated and default to
446 right/none respectively. Note that this only helps if you are
447 using a mono font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
451 Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
455 Alpha of Xft font. Must be a value at or between 1 and 0.
462 1mTEXT 22mAfter this begins text to be formatted on screen. Backslash (\)
463 escapes newlines in the text section. This can be useful for
464 cleaning up config files where conky is used to pipe input to
469 Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
470 /usr/share/X11/rgb.txt. Also, ⟨http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html⟩.
471 Color can be also in #rrggbb format (hex).
474 IP address for an interface, or "No Address" if no address is
479 IP addresses for an interface (if one - works like addr). Linux
484 ACPI ac adapter state.
492 ACPI temperature in C.
496 CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
500 Fan speed from therm_adt746x
504 Right-justify text, with space of N
512 Display APM AC adapter status (FreeBSD only)
516 Display APM battery life in percent (FreeBSD only)
520 Display remaining APM battery life in hh:mm:ss or "unknown" if
521 AC adapterstatus is on-line or charging (FreeBSD only)
524 1maudacious_bar (height),(width)0m
528 1maudacious_bitrate0m
529 Bitrate of current tune
532 1maudacious_channels0m
533 Number of audio channels of current tune
536 1maudacious_filename0m
537 Full path and filename of current tune
540 1maudacious_frequency0m
541 Sampling frequency of current tune
545 Total length of current tune as MM:SS
548 1maudacious_length_seconds0m
549 Total length of current tune in seconds
552 1maudacious_playlist_position0m
553 Playlist position of current tune
556 1maudacious_playlist_length0m
557 Number of tunes in playlist
560 1maudacious_position0m
561 Position of current tune (MM:SS)
564 1maudacious_position_seconds0m
565 Position of current tune in seconds
569 Player status (Playing/Paused/Stopped/Not running)
572 1maudacious_title (max length)0m
573 Title of current tune with optional maximum length specifier
576 1maudacious_main_volume0m
577 The current volume fetched from Audacious
581 Battery status and remaining percentage capacity of ACPI or APM
582 battery. ACPI battery number can be given as argument (default
586 1mbattery_bar (height),(width) (num)0m
587 Battery percentage remaining of ACPI battery in a bar. ACPI bat‐
588 tery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
591 1mbattery_percent (num)0m
592 Battery percentage remaining for ACPI battery. ACPI battery num‐
593 ber can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
596 1mbattery_time (num)0m
597 Battery charge/discharge time remaining of ACPI battery. ACPI
598 battery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
602 Artist in current BMPx track
606 Album in current BMPx track
610 Title of the current BMPx track
614 Track number of the current BMPx track
618 Bitrate of the current BMPx track
622 URI of the current BMPx track
626 Amount of memory buffered
629 1mcached 22mAmount of memory cached
633 Change drawing color to color
636 1mcolorN 22mChange drawing color to colorN configuration option, where N is
637 a digit between 0 and 9, inclusively.
649 CPU architecture Conky was built for
653 CPU usage in percents. For SMP machines, the CPU number can be
654 provided as an argument. ${cpu cpu0} is the total usage, and
655 ${cpu cpuX} (X >= 1) are individual CPUs.
658 1mcpubar (cpu number) (height),(width)0m
659 Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bar’s height in pixels. See
660 $cpu for more info on SMP.
663 1mcpugraph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradi‐0m
664 1ment colour 2) (scale) (cpu number)0m
665 CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. See
666 $cpu for more info on SMP. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see
667 small numbers) when you use "log" instead of "normal".
671 Displays current disk IO. Device is optional, and takes the form
672 of sda for /dev/sda. Individual partitions are allowed.
675 1mdiskiograph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gra‐0m
676 1mdient colour 2) (scale) (device)0m
677 Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is
678 non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a logarithmic
679 scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" instead of "nor‐
683 1mdiskio_read (device)0m
684 Displays current disk IO for reads. Device as in diskio.
687 1mdiskiograph_read ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
688 1m(gradient colour 2) (scale) (device)0m
689 Disk IO graph for reads, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
690 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Device as
691 in diskio. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when
692 you use "log" instead of "normal".
695 1mdiskio_write (device)0m
696 Displays current disk IO for writes. Device as in diskio.
699 1mdiskiograph_write ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
700 1m(gradient colour 2) (scale) (device)0m
701 Disk IO graph for writes, colours defined in hex, minus the #.
702 If scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Device
703 as in diskio. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers)
704 when you use "log" instead of "normal".
707 1mdisk_protect device0m
708 Disk protection status, if supported (needs kernel-patch).
709 Prints either "frozen" or "free " (note the padding).
713 Download speed in KiB
717 Download speed in KiB with one decimal
720 1mdownspeedgraph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
721 1m(gradient colour 2) (scale) (net)0m
722 Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
723 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a
724 logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" in‐
728 1melse 22mText to show if any of the above are not true
732 Current entropy available for crypto freaks
735 1mentropy_bar (height),(width)0m
736 Normalized bar of available entropy for crypto freaks
740 Total size of system entropy pool for crypto freaks
744 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn‐
745 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I’d
746 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch.
750 Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value be‐
751 tween 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for the
752 bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future.
755 1mexecgraph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradi‐0m
756 1ment colour 2) (scale) command0m
757 Same as execbar, but graphs values. Uses a logaritmic scale when
758 the log option is given (to see small numbers). Values still
759 have to be between 0 and 100.
762 1mexeci interval command0m
763 Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval can’t be less
764 than update_interval in configuration. See also $texeci
767 1mexecibar interval command0m
768 Same as execbar, except with an interval
771 1mexecigraph interval command0m
772 Same as execgraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values
776 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn‐
777 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I’d
778 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch. This
779 differs from $exec in that it parses the output of the command,
780 so you can insert things like ${color red}hi!${color} in your
781 script and have it correctly parsed by Conky. Caveats: Conky
782 parses and evaluates the output of $execp every time Conky
783 loops, and then destroys all the objects. If you try to use any‐
784 thing like $execi within an $execp statement, it will function‐
785 ally run at the same interval that the $execp statement runs, as
786 it is created and destroyed at every interval.
789 1mexecpi interval command0m
790 Same as execp but with specific interval. Interval can’t be less
791 than update_interval in configuration. Note that the output from
792 the $execpi command is still parsed and evaluated at every in‐
797 Specify a different font. This new font will apply to the cur‐
798 rent line and everything following. You can use a $font with no
799 arguments to change back to the default font (much like with
804 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in MHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If
805 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
809 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in GHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If
810 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
814 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in MHz (defaults to 1), but is calcu‐
815 lated by counting to clock cycles to complete an instruction.
816 Only available for x86/amd64.
820 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in GHz (defaults to 1), but is calcu‐
821 lated by counting to clock cycles to complete an instruction.
822 Only available for x86/amd64.
825 1mfs_bar (height),(width) fs0m
826 Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height
827 is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system.
831 Free space on a file system available for users.
834 1mfs_free_perc (fs)0m
835 Free percentage of space on a file system available for users.
847 File system used space
850 1mgoto x 22mThe next element will be printed at position ’x’.
854 Displays the default route’s interface or "multiple"/"none" ac‐
858 1mgw_ip 22mDisplays the default gateway’s IP or "multiple"/"none" accord‐
862 1mhddtemp dev, (host,(port))0m
863 Displays temperature of a selected hard disk drive as reported
864 by the hddtemp daemon running on host:port. Default host is
865 127.0.0.1, default port is 7634.
868 1mhead logfile lines (interval)0m
869 Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval
870 is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky’s interval. Max of 30
871 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
875 Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels
878 1mhwmon (dev) type n0m
879 Hwmon sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be omit‐
880 ted if you have only one hwmon device. Parameter type is either
881 ’in’ or ’vol’ meaning voltage; ’fan’ meaning fan; ’temp’ meaning
882 temperature. Parameter n is number of the sensor. See
883 /sys/class/hwmon/ on your local computer.
886 1miconv_start codeset_from codeset_to0m
887 Convert text from one codeset to another using GNU iconv. Needs
888 to be stopped with iconv_stop.
892 Stop iconv codeset conversion.
896 I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be omitted
897 if you have only one I2C device. Parameter type is either ’in’
898 or ’vol’ meaning voltage; ’fan’ meaning fan; ’temp’ meaning tem‐
899 perature. Parameter n is number of the sensor. See
900 /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer.
904 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
905 whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
906 human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by
911 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
912 the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k.
915 1mi8k_buttons_status0m
916 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
917 the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k.
921 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
922 the cpu temperature in Celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k.
926 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
927 the left fan’s rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
928 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
932 1mi8k_left_fan_status0m
933 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
934 the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-
935 readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in re‐
939 1mi8k_right_fan_rpm0m
940 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
941 the right fan’s rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
942 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
946 1mi8k_right_fan_status0m
947 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
948 the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to hu‐
949 man-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
954 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
955 your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k.
959 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
960 the version formatting of /proc/i8k.
964 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the fan speed.
968 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the temperatures from the IBM
969 temperature sensors (N=0..7) Sensor 0 is on the CPU, 3 is on the
974 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the "master" volume, con‐
975 trolled by the volume keys (0-14).
979 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the brigtness of the laptops’s
984 if conky variable VAR is empty, display everything between
985 $if_empty and the matching $endif
988 1mif_existing file (string)0m
989 if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the
990 matching $endif. The optional second paramater checks for FILE
991 containing the specified string and prints everything between
992 $if_existing and the matching $endif.
995 1mif_gw 22mif there is at least one default gateway, display everything be‐
996 tween $if_gw and the matching $endif
999 1mif_match expression0m
1000 Evaluates the given boolean expression, printing everything be‐
1001 tween $if_match and the matching $endif depending on whether the
1002 evaluation returns true or not. Valid expressions consist of a
1003 left side, an operator and a right side. Left and right sides
1004 are being parsed for contained text objects before evaluation.
1005 Recognised left and right side types are:
1007 1mdouble22m: argument consists of only digits and a single dot.
1008 1mlong22m: argument consists of only digits.
1009 1mstring22m: argument is enclosed in quotation mark or the checks for
1010 double and long failed before.
1012 Valid operands are: ’>’, ’<’, ’>=’, ’<=’, ’==’, ’!=’.
1015 1mif_running (process)0m
1016 if PROCESS is running, display everything $if_running and the
1020 1mif_mounted (mountpoint)0m
1021 if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between $if_mounted
1022 and the matching $endif
1025 1mif_smapi_bat_installed (INDEX)0m
1026 when using smapi, if the battery with index INDEX is installed,
1027 display everything between $if_smapi_bat_installed and the
1031 1mif_up (interface)0m
1032 if INTERFACE exists and is up, display everything between $if_up
1033 and the matching $endif
1036 1mimap_messages (args)0m
1037 Displays the number of messages in your global IMAP inbox by de‐
1038 fault. You can define individual IMAP inboxes seperately by
1039 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
1040 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port
1041 is 143, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
1042 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
1043 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
1046 1mimap_unseen (args)0m
1047 Displays the number of unseen messages in your global IMAP inbox
1048 by default. You can define individual IMAP inboxes seperately by
1049 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
1050 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port
1051 is 143, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
1052 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
1053 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
1056 1mioscheduler disk0m
1057 Prints the current ioscheduler used for the given disk name
1058 (i.e. e.g. "hda" or "sdb")
1061 1mkernel 22mKernel version
1065 The value of /proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode
1069 (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past
1070 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes.
1073 1mloadgraph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradi‐0m
1074 1ment colour 2) (scale)0m
1075 Load1 average graph, similar to xload, with optional colours in
1076 hex, minus the #. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small num‐
1077 bers) when you use "log" instead of "normal".
1081 Displays the number of lines in the given file
1085 Machine, i686 for example
1088 1mmails (mailbox) (interval)0m
1089 Mail count in the specified mailbox or your mail spool if not.
1090 Both mbox and maildir type mailboxes are supported. You can use
1091 a program like fetchmail to get mails from some server using
1092 your favourite protocol. See also new_mails.
1095 1mmboxscan (-n number of messages to print) (-fw from width) (-sw subject0m
1097 Print a summary of recent messages in an mbox format mailbox.
1098 mbox parameter is the filename of the mailbox (can be encapsu‐
1099 lated using ’"’, ie. ${mboxscan -n 10 "/home/brenden/some box"}
1102 1mmem 22mAmount of memory in use
1105 1mmembar (height),(width)0m
1106 Bar that shows amount of memory in use
1109 1mmemgraph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradi‐0m
1110 1ment colour 2) (scale)0m
1111 Memory usage graph. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small num‐
1112 bers) when you use "log" instead of "normal".
1116 Amount of free memory including the memory that is very easily
1117 freed (buffers/cache)
1121 Amount of free memory
1124 1mmemmax 22mTotal amount of memory
1128 Percentage of memory in use
1132 Prints the mixer value as reported by the OS. Default mixer is
1133 "vol", but you can specify one of the following optional argu‐
1134 ments: "vol", "bass", "treble", "synth", "pcm", "speaker",
1135 "line", "mic", "cd", "mix", "pcm2", "rec", "igain", "ogain",
1136 "line1", "line2", "line3", "dig1", "dig2", "dig3", "phin",
1137 "phout", "video", "radio", "monitor". Refer to the definition of
1138 SOUND_DEVICE_NAMES in <linux/soundcard.h> (on Linux), <sound‐
1139 card.h> (on OpenBSD), or <sys/soundcard.h> to find the exact op‐
1140 tions available on your system.
1143 1mmixerbar (device)0m
1144 Displays mixer value in a bar as reported by the OS. See docs
1145 for $mixer for details on arguments.
1149 Prints the right channel mixer value as reported by the OS. See
1150 docs for $mixer for details on arguments.
1153 1mmixerrbar (device)0m
1154 Displays the right channel mixer value in a bar as reported by
1155 the OS. See docs for $mixer for details on arguments.
1159 Prints the left channel mixer value as reported by the OS. See
1160 docs for $mixer for details on arguments.
1163 1mmixerlbar (device)0m
1164 Displays the left channel mixer value in a bar as reported by
1165 the OS. See docs for $mixer for details on arguments.
1169 Current state of MOC; playing, stopped etc.
1173 File name of the current MOC song
1177 Title of the current MOC song
1181 Artist of the current MOC song
1185 The current song name being played in MOC.
1189 Album of the current MOC song
1193 Total length of the current MOC song
1197 Time left in the current MOC song
1201 Current time of the current MOC song
1205 Bitrate in the current MOC song
1209 Rate of the current MOC song
1213 Number of the monitor on which conky is running
1221 Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile
1225 Album in current MPD song
1228 1mmpd_bar (height),(width)0m
1229 Bar of mpd’s progress
1233 Bitrate of current song
1237 Playing, stopped, et cetera.
1240 1mmpd_title (max length)0m
1241 Title of current MPD song
1257 Percent of song’s progress
1261 Random status (On/Off)
1265 Repeat status (On/Off)
1269 Prints the MPD track field
1273 Prints the MPD name field
1277 Prints the file name of the current MPD song
1280 1mmpd_smart (max length)0m
1281 Prints the song name in either the form "artist - title" or file
1282 name, depending on whats available
1286 if mpd is playing or paused, display everything between
1287 $if_mpd_playing and the matching $endif
1290 1mnameserver (index)0m
1291 Print a nameserver from /etc/resolv.conf. Index starts at and
1295 1mnew_mails (mailbox) (interval)0m
1296 Unread mail count in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not.
1297 Both mbox and maildir type mailboxes are supported.
1304 1mnvidia threshold temp gpufreq memfreq imagequality0m
1305 Nvidia graficcard support for the XNVCtrl library. Each option
1306 can be shortened to the least significant part. Temperatures
1307 are printed as float, all other values as integer.
1309 1mthreshold22m: the thresholdtemperature at which the gpu slows down
1310 1mtemp22m: gives the gpu current temperature
1311 1mgpufreq22m: gives the current gpu frequency
1312 1mmemfreq22m: gives the current mem frequency
1313 1mimagequality22m: which imagequality should be choosen by OpenGL ap‐
1317 1moutlinecolor (color)0m
1318 Change outline color
1322 If running on Apple powerbook/ibook, display information on bat‐
1323 tery status. The item parameter specifies, what information to
1324 display. Exactly one item must be specified. Valid items are:
1326 1mstatus22m: Display if battery is fully charged, charging, discharg‐
1327 ing or absent (running on AC)
1328 1mpercent22m: Display charge of battery in percent, if charging or
1329 discharging. Nothing will be displayed, if battery is fully
1331 1mtime22m: Display the time remaining until the battery will be fully
1332 charged or discharged at current rate. Nothing is displayed, if
1333 battery is absent or if it’s present but fully charged and not
1337 1mplatform (dev) type n0m
1338 Platform sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be
1339 omitted if you have only one platform device. Platform type is
1340 either ’in’ or ’vol’ meaning voltage; ’fan’ meaning fan; ’temp’
1341 meaning temperature. Parameter n is number of the sensor. See
1342 /sys/bus/platform/devices/ on your local computer.
1345 1mpop3_unseen (args)0m
1346 Displays the number of unseen messages in your global POP3 inbox
1347 by default. You can define individual POP3 inboxes seperately by
1348 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
1349 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port
1350 is 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
1351 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
1352 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
1355 1mpop3_used (args)0m
1356 Displays the amount of space (in MiB, 2^20) used in your global
1357 POP3 inbox by default. You can define individual POP3 inboxes
1358 seperately by passing arguments to this object. Arguments are:
1359 "host user pass [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r re‐
1360 tries]". Default port is 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and
1361 default number of retries before giving up is 5. If the password
1362 is supplied as ’*’, you will be prompted to enter the password
1366 1mpre_exec shell command0m
1367 Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything
1368 and puts output as text.
1372 Total processes (sleeping and running)
1375 1mrunning_processes0m
1376 Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6
1379 1mscroll length (step) text0m
1380 Scroll ’text’ by ’step’ characters showing ’length’ number of
1381 characters at the same time. The text may also contain vari‐
1382 ables. ’step’ is optional and defaults to 1 if not set. If a var
1383 creates output on multiple lines then the lines are placed be‐
1384 hind each other separated with a ’|’-sign. Do NOT use vars that
1385 change colors or otherwise affect the design inside a scrolling
1386 text. If you want spaces between the start and the end of
1387 ’text’, place them at the end of ’text’ not at the front ("foo‐
1388 bar" and " foobar" can both generate "barfoo" but "foobar " will
1389 keep the spaces like this "bar foo").
1392 1mshadecolor (color)0m
1393 Change shading color
1397 when using smapi, display contents of the /sys/devices/plat‐
1398 form/smapi directory. ARGS are either ’(FILENAME)’ or ’bat (IN‐
1399 DEX) (FILENAME)’ to display the corresponding files’ content.
1400 This is a very raw method of accessing the smapi values. When
1401 available, better use one of the smapi_* variables instead.
1404 1msmapi_bat_bar (INDEX),(height),(width)0m
1405 when using smapi, display the remaining capacity of the battery
1406 with index INDEX as a bar.
1409 1msmapi_bat_perc (INDEX)0m
1410 when using smapi, display the remaining capacity in percent of
1411 the battery with index INDEX. This is a separate variable be‐
1412 cause it supports the ’use_spacer’ configuration option.
1415 1msmapi_bat_power INDEX0m
1416 when using smapi, display the current power of the battery with
1417 index INDEX in watt. This is a separate variable because the
1418 original read out value is being converted from mW. The sign of
1419 the output reflects charging (positive) or discharging (nega‐
1423 1msmapi_bat_temp INDEX0m
1424 when using smapi, display the current temperature of the battery
1425 with index INDEX in degree Celsius. This is a separate variable
1426 because the original read out value is being converted from mil‐
1430 1mstippled_hr (space)0m
1431 Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
1434 1mswapbar (height),(width)0m
1435 Bar that shows amount of swap in use
1438 1mswap 22mAmount of swap in use
1442 Total amount of swap
1446 Percentage of swap in use
1450 System name, Linux for example
1453 1mtcp_portmon port_begin port_end item (index) 4m22m(ip424m 4monly24m 4mat24m 4mpresent)0m
1454 TCP port monitor for specified local ports. Port numbers must be
1455 in the range 1 to 65535. Valid items are:
1457 1mcount 22m- total number of connections in the range
1458 1mrip 22m- remote ip address
1459 1mrhost 22m- remote host name
1460 1mrport 22m- remote port number
1461 1mrservice 22m- remote service name from /etc/services
1462 1mlip 22m- local ip address
1463 1mlhost 22m- local host name
1464 1mlport 22m- local port number
1465 1mlservice 22m- local service name from /etc/services
1467 The connection index provides you with access to each connection
1468 in the port monitor. The monitor will return information for in‐
1469 dex values from 0 to n-1 connections. Values higher than n-1 are
1470 simply ignored. For the "count" item, the connection index must
1471 be omitted. It is required for all other items.
1474 1m${tcp_portmon 6881 6999 count} 22m- displays the number of connec‐
1475 tions in the bittorrent port range
1476 1m${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 0} 22m- displays the remote host ip of the
1477 first sshd connection
1478 1m${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 9} 22m- displays the remote host ip of the
1479 tenth sshd connection
1480 1m${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rhost 0} 22m- displays the remote host name of
1481 the first connection on a privileged port
1482 1m${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rport 4} 22m- displays the remote host port of
1483 the fifth connection on a privileged port
1484 1m${tcp_portmon 1 65535 lservice 14} 22m- displays the local service
1485 name of the fifteenth connection in the range of all ports
1487 Note that port monitor variables which share the same port range
1488 actually refer to the same monitor, so many references to a sin‐
1489 gle port range for different items and different indexes all use
1490 the same monitor internally. In other words, the program avoids
1491 creating redundant monitors.
1493 1mtexeci interval command0m
1494 Runs a command at an interval inside a thread and displays the
1495 output. Same as $execi, except the command is run inside a
1496 thread. Use this if you have a slow script to keep Conky updat‐
1497 ing. You should make the interval slightly longer then the time
1498 it takes your script to execute. For example, if you have a
1499 script that take 5 seconds to execute, you should make the in‐
1500 terval at least 6 seconds. See also $execi.
1504 Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset.
1507 1mrss url delay_in_minutes action item_num0m
1508 Download and parse RSS feeds. Action may be one of the follow‐
1509 ing: feed_title, item_title (with num par), item_desc (with num
1510 par) and item_titles.
1513 1mtab (width, (start))0m
1514 Puts a tab of the specified width, starting from column ’start’.
1517 1mtail logfile lines (interval)0m
1518 Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is
1519 not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky’s interval. Max of 30 lines
1520 can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
1523 1mtemplateN (arg1) (arg2) (arg3 ...)0m
1524 Evaluate the content of the templateN configuration variable
1525 (where N is a value between 0 and 9, inclusively), applying sub‐
1526 stitutions as described in the documentation of the correspond‐
1527 ing configuration variable. The number of arguments is option‐
1528 al, but must match the highest referred index in the template.
1529 You can use the same special sequences in each argument as the
1530 ones valid for a template definition, e.g. to allow an argument
1531 to contain a whitespace. Also simple nesting of templates is
1534 Here are some examples of template definitions:
1537 template1 \1: ${fs_used \2} / ${fs_size \2}
1540 The following list shows sample usage of the templates defined
1541 above, with the equivalent syntax when not using any template at
1544 using template same without template
1545 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1546 ${template0 node name} $nodename
1547 ${template1 root /} root: ${fs_free /} /
1549 ${template1 ${template2\ disk\ root} /} disk root: ${fs_free /} / ${fs_size /}
1553 Local time, see man strftime to get more information about for‐
1558 Display time in UTC (universal coordinate time).
1561 1mtztime (timezone) (format)0m
1562 Local time for specified timezone, see man strftime to get more
1563 information about format. The timezone argument is specified in
1564 similar fashion as TZ environment variable. For hints, look in
1565 /usr/share/zoneinfo. e.g. US/Pacific, Europe/Zurich, etc.
1569 Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and
1570 there doesn’t seem to be a way to know how many times it has al‐
1571 ready done that before conky has started.
1575 This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically,
1576 processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu us‐
1577 age, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name",
1578 "pid", "cpu", "mem", "mem_res", "mem_vsize", and "time". There
1579 can be a max of 10 processes listed.
1582 1mtop_mem type, num0m
1583 Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu
1586 1mtop_time type, num0m
1587 Same as top, except sorted by total CPU time instead of current
1592 Total upload, this one too, may overflow
1595 1mupdates Number of updates0m
1604 Upload speed in KiB with one decimal
1607 1mupspeedgraph ("normal"|"log") (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
1608 1m(gradient colour 2) (scale) (net)0m
1609 Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
1610 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a
1611 logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" in‐
1619 Uptime in a shorter format
1623 Number of users logged in
1627 Lists the names of the users logged in
1631 Lists the consoles in use
1635 Lists how long users have been logged in for
1638 1mvoffset (pixels)0m
1639 Change vertical offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause
1640 text to overlap. See also $offset.
1644 Returns CPU #n’s voltage in mV. CPUs are counted from 1. If
1645 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
1649 Returns CPU #n’s voltage in V. CPUs are counted from 1. If omit‐
1650 ted, the parameter defaults to 1.
1653 1mwireless_essid net0m
1654 Wireless access point ESSID (Linux only)
1657 1mwireless_mode net0m
1658 Wireless mode (Managed/Ad-Hoc/Master) (Linux only)
1661 1mwireless_bitrate net0m
1662 Wireless bitrate (ie 11 Mb/s) (Linux only)
1666 Wireless access point MAC address (Linux only)
1669 1mwireless_link_qual net0m
1670 Wireless link quality (Linux only)
1673 1mwireless_link_qual_max net0m
1674 Wireless link quality maximum value (Linux only)
1677 1mwireless_link_qual_perc net0m
1678 Wireless link quality in percents (Linux only)
1681 1mwireless_link_bar (height), (width) net0m
1682 Wireless link quality bar (Linux only)
1686 Displays the number of words in the given file
1690 Artist in current XMMS2 song
1694 Album in current XMMS2 song
1698 Title in current XMMS2 song
1702 Genre in current XMMS2 song
1706 Comment in current XMMS2 song
1714 Transport plugin used
1718 Full path to current song
1722 Track number in current XMMS2 song
1726 Bitrate of current song
1730 XMMS2 id of current song
1734 Duration of current song
1742 Size of current song
1746 Percent of song’s progress
1750 XMMS2 status (Playing, Paused, Stopped, or Disconnected)
1753 1mxmms2_bar (height),(width)0m
1754 Bar of XMMS2’s progress
1758 Prints the song name in either the form "artist - title" or file
1759 name, depending on whats available
1762 1mif_xmms2_connected0m
1763 Display everything between $if_xmms2_connected and the matching
1764 $endif if xmms2 is running.
1767 1meve api_userid api_key character_id0m
1768 Fetches your currently training skill from the Eve Online API
1769 servers (http://www.eve-online.com/) and displays the skill
1770 along with the remaining training time.
1774 conky 1m-t ’${time %D %H:%M}’ -o -u 300m
1775 Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30
1776 sec update interval.
1778 conky 1m-a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d0m
1779 Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500).
1782 4m~/.conkyrc24m default configuration file
1785 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn’t work with
1786 all window managers. Especially doesn’t work well with Gnome and it has
1787 been reported that it doesn’t work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
1788 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
1789 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in
1790 Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree
1791 useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument
1792 which makes Conky to create its own window. If you do try running Conky
1793 in its own window, be sure to read up on the own_window_type settings
1797 ⟨http://conky.sourceforge.net/⟩
1799 ⟨http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky⟩
1801 #conky on irc.freenode.net
1804 Copyright (c) 2005-2008 Brenden Matthews, Philip Kovacs, et. al. Any
1805 original torsmo code is licensed under the BSD license (see LICENSE.BSD
1806 for a copy). All code written since the fork of torsmo is licensed un‐
1807 der the GPL (see LICENSE.GPL for a copy), except where noted different‐
1808 ly (such as in portmon code, timed thread code, and audacious code
1809 which are LGPL, and prss which is an MIT-style license).
1812 The Conky dev team (see AUTHORS for a full list of contributors).