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 Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding)
367 1mpop3 22mDefault global POP3 server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i
368 interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port is
369 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
370 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
371 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
375 Shortens units to a single character (kiB->k, GiB->G, etc.). De‐
380 Shows the maximum value in scaled graphs.
384 Shows the time range covered by a graph.
388 Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
392 Desired output unit of all objects displaying a temperature.
393 Parameters are either "fahrenheit" or "celsius". The default
394 unit is degree Celsius.
398 Define a template for later use inside TEXT segments. Substitute
399 N by a digit between 0 and 9, inclusively. The value of the
400 variable is being inserted into the stuff below TEXT at the cor‐
401 responding position, but before some substitutions are applied:
406 ’\N’ -> template argument N
410 Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero
411 makes Conky run forever
415 Update interval in seconds
419 Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
423 Adds spaces around certain objects to stop them from moving oth‐
424 er things around. Arguments are left, right, and none (default).
425 The old true/false values are deprecated and default to
426 right/none respectively. Note that this only helps if you are
427 using a mono font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
431 Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
435 Alpha of Xft font. Must be a value at or between 1 and 0.
442 1mTEXT 22mAfter this begins text to be formatted on screen
446 Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them:
447 /usr/share/X11/rgb.txt. Also, ⟨http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html⟩.
448 Color can be also in #rrggbb format (hex).
451 IP address for an interface, or "No Address" if no address is
456 IP addresses for an interface (if one - works like addr). Linux
461 ACPI ac adapter state.
469 ACPI temperature in C.
473 CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
477 Fan speed from therm_adt746x
481 Right-justify text, with space of N
489 Display APM AC adapter status (FreeBSD only)
493 Display APM battery life in percent (FreeBSD only)
497 Display remaining APM battery life in hh:mm:ss or "unknown" if
498 AC adapterstatus is on-line or charging (FreeBSD only)
501 1maudacious_bar (height),(width)0m
505 1maudacious_bitrate0m
506 Bitrate of current tune
509 1maudacious_channels0m
510 Number of audio channels of current tune
513 1maudacious_filename0m
514 Full path and filename of current tune
517 1maudacious_frequency0m
518 Sampling frequency of current tune
522 Total length of current tune as MM:SS
525 1maudacious_length_seconds0m
526 Total length of current tune in seconds
529 1maudacious_playlist_position0m
530 Playlist position of current tune
533 1maudacious_playlist_length0m
534 Number of tunes in playlist
537 1maudacious_position0m
538 Position of current tune (MM:SS)
541 1maudacious_position_seconds0m
542 Position of current tune in seconds
546 Player status (Playing/Paused/Stopped/Not running)
549 1maudacious_title (max length)0m
550 Title of current tune with optional maximum length specifier
553 1maudacious_main_volume0m
554 The current volume fetched from Audacious
558 Battery status and remaining percentage capacity of ACPI or APM
559 battery. ACPI battery number can be given as argument (default
563 1mbattery_bar (height),(width) (num)0m
564 Battery percentage remaining of ACPI battery in a bar. ACPI bat‐
565 tery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
568 1mbattery_percent (num)0m
569 Battery percentage remaining for ACPI battery. ACPI battery num‐
570 ber can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
573 1mbattery_time (num)0m
574 Battery charge/discharge time remaining of ACPI battery. ACPI
575 battery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
579 Artist in current BMPx track
583 Album in current BMPx track
587 Title of the current BMPx track
591 Track number of the current BMPx track
595 Bitrate of the current BMPx track
599 URI of the current BMPx track
603 Amount of memory buffered
606 1mcached 22mAmount of memory cached
610 Change drawing color to color
613 1mcolorN 22mChange drawing color to colorN configuration option, where N is
614 a digit between 0 and 9, inclusively.
626 CPU architecture Conky was built for
630 CPU usage in percents. For SMP machines, the CPU number can be
631 provided as an argument. ${cpu cpu0} is the total usage, and
632 ${cpu cpuX} (X >= 1) are individual CPUs.
635 1mcpubar (cpu number) (height),(width)0m
636 Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bar’s height in pixels. See
637 $cpu for more info on SMP.
640 1mcpugraph normal|log (cpu number) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
641 1m(gradient colour 2)0m
642 CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. See
643 $cpu for more info on SMP. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see
644 small numbers) when you use "log" instead of "normal".
648 Displays current disk IO. Device is optional, and takes the form
649 of sda for /dev/sda. Individual partitions are allowed.
652 1mdiskiograph normal|log (device) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
653 1m(gradient colour 2) (scale)0m
654 Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is
655 non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a logarithmic
656 scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" instead of "nor‐
660 1mdiskio_read (device)0m
661 Displays current disk IO for reads. Device as in diskio.
664 1mdiskiograph_read normal|log (device) (height),(width) (gradient colour0m
665 1m1) (gradient colour 2) (scale)0m
666 Disk IO graph for reads, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
667 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Device as
668 in diskio. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when
669 you use "log" instead of "normal".
672 1mdiskio_write (device)0m
673 Displays current disk IO for writes. Device as in diskio.
676 1mdiskiograph_write normal|log (device) (height),(width) (gradient colour0m
677 1m1) (gradient colour 2) (scale)0m
678 Disk IO graph for writes, colours defined in hex, minus the #.
679 If scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Device
680 as in diskio. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small numbers)
681 when you use "log" instead of "normal".
684 1mdisk_protect device0m
685 Disk protection status, if supported (needs kernel-patch).
686 Prints either "frozen" or "free " (note the padding).
690 Download speed in KiB
694 Download speed in KiB with one decimal
697 1mdownspeedgraph normal|log net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1)0m
698 1m(gradient colour 2) (scale)0m
699 Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
700 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a
701 logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" in‐
705 1melse 22mText to show if any of the above are not true
709 Current entropy available for crypto freaks
712 1mentropy_bar (height),(width)0m
713 Normalized bar of available entropy for crypto freaks
717 Total size of system entropy pool for crypto freaks
721 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn‐
722 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I’d
723 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch.
727 Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value be‐
728 tween 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for the
729 bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future.
732 1mexecgraph (normal|log) command0m
733 Same as execbar, but graphs values. Uses a logaritmic scale when
734 the log option is given (to see small numbers). Values still
735 have to be between 0 and 100.
738 1mexeci interval command0m
739 Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval can’t be less
740 than update_interval in configuration. See also $texeci
743 1mexecibar interval command0m
744 Same as execbar, except with an interval
747 1mexecigraph interval command0m
748 Same as execgraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values
752 Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warn‐
753 ing: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I’d
754 recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch. This
755 differs from $exec in that it parses the output of the command,
756 so you can insert things like ${color red}hi!${color} in your
757 script and have it correctly parsed by Conky. Caveats: Conky
758 parses and evaluates the output of $execp every time Conky
759 loops, and then destroys all the objects. If you try to use any‐
760 thing like $execi within an $execp statement, it will function‐
761 ally run at the same interval that the $execp statement runs, as
762 it is created and destroyed at every interval.
765 1mexecpi interval command0m
766 Same as execp but with specific interval. Interval can’t be less
767 than update_interval in configuration. Note that the output from
768 the $execpi command is still parsed and evaluated at every in‐
773 Specify a different font. This new font will apply to the cur‐
774 rent line and everything following. You can use a $font with no
775 arguments to change back to the default font (much like with
780 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in MHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If
781 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
785 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in GHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If
786 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
790 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in MHz (defaults to 1), but is calcu‐
791 lated by counting to clock cycles to complete an instruction.
792 Only available for x86/amd64.
796 Returns CPU #n’s frequency in GHz (defaults to 1), but is calcu‐
797 lated by counting to clock cycles to complete an instruction.
798 Only available for x86/amd64.
801 1mfs_bar (height),(width) fs0m
802 Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height
803 is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system.
807 Free space on a file system available for users.
810 1mfs_free_perc (fs)0m
811 Free percentage of space on a file system available for users.
823 File system used space
826 1mgoto x 22mThe next element will be printed at position ’x’.
830 Displays the default route’s interface or "multiple"/"none" ac‐
834 1mgw_ip 22mDisplays the default gateway’s IP or "multiple"/"none" accord‐
838 1mhddtemp dev, (host,(port))0m
839 Displays temperature of a selected hard disk drive as reported
840 by the hddtemp daemon running on host:port. Default host is
841 127.0.0.1, default port is 7634.
844 1mhead logfile lines (interval)0m
845 Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval
846 is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky’s interval. Max of 30
847 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
851 Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels
854 1mhwmon (dev) type n0m
855 Hwmon sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be omit‐
856 ted if you have only one hwmon device. Parameter type is either
857 ’in’ or ’vol’ meaning voltage; ’fan’ meaning fan; ’temp’ meaning
858 temperature. Parameter n is number of the sensor. See
859 /sys/class/hwmon/ on your local computer.
862 1miconv_start codeset_from codeset_to0m
863 Convert text from one codeset to another using GNU iconv. Needs
864 to be stopped with iconv_stop.
868 Stop iconv codeset conversion.
872 I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be omitted
873 if you have only one I2C device. Parameter type is either ’in’
874 or ’vol’ meaning voltage; ’fan’ meaning fan; ’temp’ meaning tem‐
875 perature. Parameter n is number of the sensor. See
876 /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer.
880 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
881 whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to
882 human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by
887 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
888 the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k.
891 1mi8k_buttons_status0m
892 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
893 the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k.
897 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
898 the cpu temperature in Celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k.
902 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
903 the left fan’s rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
904 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
908 1mi8k_left_fan_status0m
909 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
910 the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-
911 readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in re‐
915 1mi8k_right_fan_rpm0m
916 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
917 the right fan’s rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as
918 listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans
922 1mi8k_right_fan_status0m
923 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
924 the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to hu‐
925 man-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in
930 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
931 your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k.
935 If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays
936 the version formatting of /proc/i8k.
940 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the fan speed.
944 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the temperatures from the IBM
945 temperature sensors (N=0..7) Sensor 0 is on the CPU, 3 is on the
950 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the "master" volume, con‐
951 trolled by the volume keys (0-14).
955 If running the IBM ACPI, displays the brigtness of the laptops’s
960 if conky variable VAR is empty, display everything between
961 $if_empty and the matching $endif
964 1mif_gw 22mif there is at least one default gateway, display everything be‐
965 tween $if_gw and the matching $endif
968 1mif_running (process)0m
969 if PROCESS is running, display everything $if_running and the
973 1mif_existing file (string)0m
974 if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the
975 matching $endif. The optional second paramater checks for FILE
976 containing the specified string and prints everything between
977 $if_existing and the matching $endif.
980 1mif_mounted (mountpoint)0m
981 if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between $if_mounted
982 and the matching $endif
985 1mif_smapi_bat_installed (INDEX)0m
986 when using smapi, if the battery with index INDEX is installed,
987 display everything between $if_smapi_bat_installed and the
991 1mif_up (interface)0m
992 if INTERFACE exists and is up, display everything between $if_up
993 and the matching $endif
996 1mimap_messages (args)0m
997 Displays the number of messages in your global IMAP inbox by de‐
998 fault. You can define individual IMAP inboxes seperately by
999 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
1000 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port
1001 is 143, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
1002 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
1003 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
1006 1mimap_unseen (args)0m
1007 Displays the number of unseen messages in your global IMAP inbox
1008 by default. You can define individual IMAP inboxes seperately by
1009 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
1010 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port
1011 is 143, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
1012 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
1013 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
1016 1mioscheduler disk0m
1017 Prints the current ioscheduler used for the given disk name
1018 (i.e. e.g. "hda" or "sdb")
1021 1mkernel 22mKernel version
1025 The value of /proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode
1029 (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past
1030 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes.
1033 1mloadgraph normal|log (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient0m
1035 Load1 average graph, similar to xload, with optional colours in
1036 hex, minus the #. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small num‐
1037 bers) when you use "log" instead of "normal".
1041 Displays the number of lines in the given file
1045 Machine, i686 for example
1048 1mmails (mailbox) (interval)0m
1049 Mail count in the specified mailbox or your mail spool if not.
1050 Both mbox and maildir type mailboxes are supported. You can use
1051 a program like fetchmail to get mails from some server using
1052 your favourite protocol. See also new_mails.
1055 1mmboxscan (-n number of messages to print) (-fw from width) (-sw subject0m
1057 Print a summary of recent messages in an mbox format mailbox.
1058 mbox parameter is the filename of the mailbox (can be encapsu‐
1059 lated using ’"’, ie. ${mboxscan -n 10 "/home/brenden/some box"}
1062 1mmem 22mAmount of memory in use
1065 1mmembar (height),(width)0m
1066 Bar that shows amount of memory in use
1069 1mmemgraph normal|log (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient0m
1071 Memory usage graph. Uses a logarithmic scale (to see small num‐
1072 bers) when you use "log" instead of "normal".
1076 Amount of free memory including the memory that is very easily
1077 freed (buffers/cache)
1081 Amount of free memory
1084 1mmemmax 22mTotal amount of memory
1088 Percentage of memory in use
1092 Prints the mixer value as reported by the OS. Default mixer is
1093 "vol", but you can specify one of the following optional argu‐
1094 ments: "vol", "bass", "treble", "synth", "pcm", "speaker",
1095 "line", "mic", "cd", "mix", "pcm2", "rec", "igain", "ogain",
1096 "line1", "line2", "line3", "dig1", "dig2", "dig3", "phin",
1097 "phout", "video", "radio", "monitor". Refer to the definition of
1098 SOUND_DEVICE_NAMES in <linux/soundcard.h> (on Linux), <sound‐
1099 card.h> (on OpenBSD), or <sys/soundcard.h> to find the exact op‐
1100 tions available on your system.
1103 1mmixerbar (device)0m
1104 Displays mixer value in a bar as reported by the OS. See docs
1105 for $mixer for details on arguments.
1109 Prints the right channel mixer value as reported by the OS. See
1110 docs for $mixer for details on arguments.
1113 1mmixerrbar (device)0m
1114 Displays the right channel mixer value in a bar as reported by
1115 the OS. See docs for $mixer for details on arguments.
1119 Prints the left channel mixer value as reported by the OS. See
1120 docs for $mixer for details on arguments.
1123 1mmixerlbar (device)0m
1124 Displays the left channel mixer value in a bar as reported by
1125 the OS. See docs for $mixer for details on arguments.
1129 Current state of MOC; playing, stopped etc.
1133 File name of the current MOC song
1137 Title of the current MOC song
1141 Artist of the current MOC song
1145 The current song name being played in MOC.
1149 Album of the current MOC song
1153 Total length of the current MOC song
1157 Time left in the current MOC song
1161 Current time of the current MOC song
1165 Bitrate in the current MOC song
1169 Rate of the current MOC song
1173 Number of the monitor on which conky is running
1181 Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile
1185 Album in current MPD song
1188 1mmpd_bar (height),(width)0m
1189 Bar of mpd’s progress
1193 Bitrate of current song
1197 Playing, stopped, et cetera.
1200 1mmpd_title (max length)0m
1201 Title of current MPD song
1217 Percent of song’s progress
1221 Random status (On/Off)
1225 Repeat status (On/Off)
1229 Prints the MPD track field
1233 Prints the MPD name field
1237 Prints the file name of the current MPD song
1240 1mmpd_smart (max length)0m
1241 Prints the song name in either the form "artist - title" or file
1242 name, depending on whats available
1246 if mpd is playing or paused, display everything between
1247 $if_mpd_playing and the matching $endif
1250 1mnameserver (index)0m
1251 Print a nameserver from /etc/resolv.conf. Index starts at and
1255 1mnew_mails (mailbox) (interval)0m
1256 Unread mail count in the specified mailbox or mail spool if not.
1257 Both mbox and maildir type mailboxes are supported.
1264 1mnvidia threshold temp gpufreq memfreq imagequality0m
1265 Nvidia graficcard support for the XNVCtrl library. Each option
1266 can be shortened to the least significant part. Temperatures
1267 are printed as float, all other values as integer.
1269 1mthreshold22m: the thresholdtemperature at which the gpu slows down
1270 1mtemp22m: gives the gpu current temperature
1271 1mgpufreq22m: gives the current gpu frequency
1272 1mmemfreq22m: gives the current mem frequency
1273 1mimagequality22m: which imagequality should be choosen by OpenGL ap‐
1277 1moutlinecolor (color)0m
1278 Change outline color
1282 If running on Apple powerbook/ibook, display information on bat‐
1283 tery status. The item parameter specifies, what information to
1284 display. Exactly one item must be specified. Valid items are:
1286 1mstatus22m: Display if battery is fully charged, charging, discharg‐
1287 ing or absent (running on AC)
1288 1mpercent22m: Display charge of battery in percent, if charging or
1289 discharging. Nothing will be displayed, if battery is fully
1291 1mtime22m: Display the time remaining until the battery will be fully
1292 charged or discharged at current rate. Nothing is displayed, if
1293 battery is absent or if it’s present but fully charged and not
1297 1mplatform (dev) type n0m
1298 Platform sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). Parameter dev may be
1299 omitted if you have only one platform device. Platform type is
1300 either ’in’ or ’vol’ meaning voltage; ’fan’ meaning fan; ’temp’
1301 meaning temperature. Parameter n is number of the sensor. See
1302 /sys/bus/platform/devices/ on your local computer.
1305 1mpop3_unseen (args)0m
1306 Displays the number of unseen messages in your global POP3 inbox
1307 by default. You can define individual POP3 inboxes seperately by
1308 passing arguments to this object. Arguments are: "host user pass
1309 [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r retries]". Default port
1310 is 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and default number of re‐
1311 tries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as ’*’,
1312 you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
1315 1mpop3_used (args)0m
1316 Displays the amount of space (in MiB, 2^20) used in your global
1317 POP3 inbox by default. You can define individual POP3 inboxes
1318 seperately by passing arguments to this object. Arguments are:
1319 "host user pass [-i interval] [-p port] [-e command] [-r re‐
1320 tries]". Default port is 110, default interval is 5 minutes, and
1321 default number of retries before giving up is 5. If the password
1322 is supplied as ’*’, you will be prompted to enter the password
1326 1mpre_exec shell command0m
1327 Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything
1328 and puts output as text.
1332 Total processes (sleeping and running)
1335 1mrunning_processes0m
1336 Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6
1339 1mscroll length (step) text0m
1340 Scroll ’text’ by ’step’ characters showing ’length’ number of
1341 characters at the same time. The text may also contain vari‐
1342 ables. ’step’ is optional and defaults to 1 if not set. If a var
1343 creates output on multiple lines then the lines are placed be‐
1344 hind each other separated with a ’|’-sign. Do NOT use vars that
1345 change colors or otherwise affect the design inside a scrolling
1346 text. If you want spaces between the start and the end of
1347 ’text’, place them at the end of ’text’ not at the front ("foo‐
1348 bar" and " foobar" can both generate "barfoo" but "foobar " will
1349 keep the spaces like this "bar foo").
1352 1mshadecolor (color)0m
1353 Change shading color
1357 when using smapi, display contents of the /sys/devices/plat‐
1358 form/smapi directory. ARGS are either ’(FILENAME)’ or ’bat (IN‐
1359 DEX) (FILENAME)’ to display the corresponding files’ content.
1360 This is a very raw method of accessing the smapi values. When
1361 available, better use one of the smapi_* variables instead.
1364 1msmapi_bat_bar (INDEX),(height),(width)0m
1365 when using smapi, display the remaining capacity of the battery
1366 with index INDEX as a bar.
1369 1msmapi_bat_perc (INDEX)0m
1370 when using smapi, display the remaining capacity in percent of
1371 the battery with index INDEX. This is a separate variable be‐
1372 cause it supports the ’use_spacer’ configuration option.
1375 1msmapi_bat_power INDEX0m
1376 when using smapi, display the current power of the battery with
1377 index INDEX in watt. This is a separate variable because the
1378 original read out value is being converted from mW. The sign of
1379 the output reflects charging (positive) or discharging (nega‐
1383 1msmapi_bat_temp INDEX0m
1384 when using smapi, display the current temperature of the battery
1385 with index INDEX in degree Celsius. This is a separate variable
1386 because the original read out value is being converted from mil‐
1390 1mstippled_hr (space)0m
1391 Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
1394 1mswapbar (height),(width)0m
1395 Bar that shows amount of swap in use
1398 1mswap 22mAmount of swap in use
1402 Total amount of swap
1406 Percentage of swap in use
1410 System name, Linux for example
1413 1mtcp_portmon port_begin port_end item (index) 4m22m(ip424m 4monly24m 4mat24m 4mpresent)0m
1414 TCP port monitor for specified local ports. Port numbers must be
1415 in the range 1 to 65535. Valid items are:
1417 1mcount 22m- total number of connections in the range
1418 1mrip 22m- remote ip address
1419 1mrhost 22m- remote host name
1420 1mrport 22m- remote port number
1421 1mrservice 22m- remote service name from /etc/services
1422 1mlip 22m- local ip address
1423 1mlhost 22m- local host name
1424 1mlport 22m- local port number
1425 1mlservice 22m- local service name from /etc/services
1427 The connection index provides you with access to each connection
1428 in the port monitor. The monitor will return information for in‐
1429 dex values from 0 to n-1 connections. Values higher than n-1 are
1430 simply ignored. For the "count" item, the connection index must
1431 be omitted. It is required for all other items.
1434 1m${tcp_portmon 6881 6999 count} 22m- displays the number of connec‐
1435 tions in the bittorrent port range
1436 1m${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 0} 22m- displays the remote host ip of the
1437 first sshd connection
1438 1m${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 9} 22m- displays the remote host ip of the
1439 tenth sshd connection
1440 1m${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rhost 0} 22m- displays the remote host name of
1441 the first connection on a privileged port
1442 1m${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rport 4} 22m- displays the remote host port of
1443 the fifth connection on a privileged port
1444 1m${tcp_portmon 1 65535 lservice 14} 22m- displays the local service
1445 name of the fifteenth connection in the range of all ports
1447 Note that port monitor variables which share the same port range
1448 actually refer to the same monitor, so many references to a sin‐
1449 gle port range for different items and different indexes all use
1450 the same monitor internally. In other words, the program avoids
1451 creating redundant monitors.
1453 1mtexeci interval command0m
1454 Runs a command at an interval inside a thread and displays the
1455 output. Same as $execi, except the command is run inside a
1456 thread. Use this if you have a slow script to keep Conky updat‐
1457 ing. You should make the interval slightly longer then the time
1458 it takes your script to execute. For example, if you have a
1459 script that take 5 seconds to execute, you should make the in‐
1460 terval at least 6 seconds. See also $execi.
1464 Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset.
1467 1mrss url delay_in_minutes action item_num0m
1468 Download and parse RSS feeds. Action may be one of the follow‐
1469 ing: feed_title, item_title (with num par), item_desc (with num
1470 par) and item_titles.
1473 1mtab (width, (start))0m
1474 Puts a tab of the specified width, starting from column ’start’.
1477 1mtail logfile lines (interval)0m
1478 Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is
1479 not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky’s interval. Max of 30 lines
1480 can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
1483 1mtemplateN (arg1) (arg2) (arg3 ...)0m
1484 Evaluate the content of the templateN configuration variable
1485 (where N is a value between 0 and 9, inclusively), applying sub‐
1486 stitutions as described in the documentation of the correspond‐
1487 ing configuration variable. The number of arguments is option‐
1488 al, but must match the highest referred index in the template.
1489 You can use the same special sequences in each argument as the
1490 ones valid for a template definition, e.g. to allow an argument
1491 to contain a whitespace. Also simple nesting of templates is
1494 Here are some examples of template definitions:
1497 template1 \1: ${fs_used \2} / ${fs_size \2}
1500 The following list shows sample usage of the templates defined
1501 above, with the equivalent syntax when not using any template at
1504 using template same without template
1505 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1506 ${template0 node name} $nodename
1507 ${template1 root /} root: ${fs_free /} /
1509 ${template1 ${template2\ disk\ root} /} disk root: ${fs_free /} / ${fs_size /}
1513 Local time, see man strftime to get more information about for‐
1518 Display time in UTC (universal coordinate time).
1521 1mtztime (timezone) (format)0m
1522 Local time for specified timezone, see man strftime to get more
1523 information about format. The timezone argument is specified in
1524 similar fashion as TZ environment variable. For hints, look in
1525 /usr/share/zoneinfo. e.g. US/Pacific, Europe/Zurich, etc.
1529 Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and
1530 there doesn’t seem to be a way to know how many times it has al‐
1531 ready done that before conky has started.
1535 This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically,
1536 processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu us‐
1537 age, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name",
1538 "pid", "cpu", "mem", "mem_res", "mem_vsize", and "time". There
1539 can be a max of 10 processes listed.
1542 1mtop_mem type, num0m
1543 Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu
1547 Total upload, this one too, may overflow
1550 1mupdates Number of updates0m
1559 Upload speed in KiB with one decimal
1562 1mupspeedgraph normal|log net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gra‐0m
1563 1mdient colour 2) (scale)0m
1564 Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If
1565 scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph. Uses a
1566 logarithmic scale (to see small numbers) when you use "log" in‐
1574 Uptime in a shorter format
1578 Number of users logged in
1582 Lists the names of the users logged in
1586 Lists the consoles in use
1590 Lists how long users have been logged in for
1593 1mvoffset (pixels)0m
1594 Change vertical offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause
1595 text to overlap. See also $offset.
1599 Returns CPU #n’s voltage in mV. CPUs are counted from 1. If
1600 omitted, the parameter defaults to 1.
1604 Returns CPU #n’s voltage in V. CPUs are counted from 1. If omit‐
1605 ted, the parameter defaults to 1.
1608 1mwireless_essid net0m
1609 Wireless access point ESSID (Linux only)
1612 1mwireless_mode net0m
1613 Wireless mode (Managed/Ad-Hoc/Master) (Linux only)
1616 1mwireless_bitrate net0m
1617 Wireless bitrate (ie 11 Mb/s) (Linux only)
1621 Wireless access point MAC address (Linux only)
1624 1mwireless_link_qual net0m
1625 Wireless link quality (Linux only)
1628 1mwireless_link_qual_max net0m
1629 Wireless link quality maximum value (Linux only)
1632 1mwireless_link_qual_perc net0m
1633 Wireless link quality in percents (Linux only)
1636 1mwireless_link_bar (height), (width) net0m
1637 Wireless link quality bar (Linux only)
1641 Displays the number of words in the given file
1645 Artist in current XMMS2 song
1649 Album in current XMMS2 song
1653 Title in current XMMS2 song
1657 Genre in current XMMS2 song
1661 Comment in current XMMS2 song
1669 Transport plugin used
1673 Full path to current song
1677 Track number in current XMMS2 song
1681 Bitrate of current song
1685 XMMS2 id of current song
1689 Duration of current song
1697 Size of current song
1701 Percent of song’s progress
1705 XMMS2 status (Playing, Paused, Stopped, or Disconnected)
1708 1mxmms2_bar (height),(width)0m
1709 Bar of XMMS2’s progress
1713 Prints the song name in either the form "artist - title" or file
1714 name, depending on whats available
1717 1mif_xmms2_connected0m
1718 Display everything between $if_xmms2_connected and the matching
1719 $endif if xmms2 is running.
1722 1meve api_userid api_key character_id0m
1723 Fetches your currently training skill from the Eve Online API
1724 servers (http://www.eve-online.com/) and displays the skill
1725 along with the remaining training time.
1729 conky 1m-t ’${time %D %H:%M}’ -o -u 300m
1730 Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30
1731 sec update interval.
1733 conky 1m-a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d0m
1734 Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500).
1737 4m~/.conkyrc24m default configuration file
1740 Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn’t work with
1741 all window managers. Especially doesn’t work well with Gnome and it has
1742 been reported that it doesn’t work with KDE either. Nautilus can be
1743 disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck
1744 show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in
1745 Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree
1746 useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument
1747 which makes Conky to create its own window. If you do try running Conky
1748 in its own window, be sure to read up on the own_window_type settings
1752 ⟨http://conky.sourceforge.net/⟩
1754 ⟨http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky⟩
1756 #conky on irc.freenode.net
1759 Copyright (c) 2005-2008 Brenden Matthews, Philip Kovacs, et. al. Any
1760 original torsmo code is licensed under the BSD license (see LICENSE.BSD
1761 for a copy). All code written since the fork of torsmo is licensed un‐
1762 der the GPL (see LICENSE.GPL for a copy), except where noted different‐
1763 ly (such as in portmon code, timed thread code, and audacious code
1764 which are LGPL, and prss which is an MIT-style license).
1767 The Conky dev team (see AUTHORS for a full list of contributors).