conky

Name

conky — A system monitor for X originally based on the torsmo code, but more kickass. It just keeps on given'er. Yeah.

Synopsis

conky [options]

Description

Conky is a system monitor for X originally based on the torsmo code. Since it's original conception, Conky has changed a fair bit from it's predecessor. Conky can display just about anything, either on your root desktop or in it's own window. Conky has many built-in objects, as well as the ability to execute programs and scripts, then display the output from stdout.

We are always looking for help, and anyone interested in becoming a developer is welcome. Please use the facilities at SourceForge to make bug reports, feature requests, and submit patches.

Thanks for your interest in Conky.

Compiling

For users compiling from source, make sure you have the X development libraries installed. This should be a package along the lines of "libx11-dev or xorg-x11-dev".

Gentoo users -- Conky is in Gentoo's Portage... simply use "emerge app-admin/conky" for installation. There is also usually an up-to-date ebuild within Conky's package or in CVS.

Debian,etc. users -- Conky will be in Debian's repositories soon (by mid-September, hopefully), and then Ubuntu shortly thereafter. Until then, "dpkg -i" the .deb package to install.

To compile and run Conky with all optional components:

sh autogen.sh # Only required if building from CVS
./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-seti
make
make install # Optional
src/conky

Conky probably doesn't compile with compilers other than gcc and icc. It doesn't compile with C89 compiler and not even with pure C99. It uses a few things that might not exist: strdup(), strcasecmp(), strncasecmp(), optarg variable with getopt() and long long (not in C89). Crashes in file system statistics stuff when compiled with icc, I don't know exactly why.

You can disable 'drawing to own window' feature in case you don't need it by passing --disable-own-window to configure -script.

You Should Know

Conky is generally very good on resources. However, certain objects in Conky are harder on resources then others. In particular, the $tail, $top, $font, and $graph objects are quite costly in comparison to the rest of Conky.

If you do use them, please do not complain about memory or CPU usage, unless you think something's seriously wrong (mem leak, etc.).

An easy way to force Conky to reload your ~/.conkyrc: "killall -SIGUSR1 conky". Saves you the trouble of having to kill and then restart.

IMPORTANT: For previous Conky users, Conky 1.3 no longer supports the metar stuff. mdsplib was causing way too many problems. Hopefully there'll be a better solution in Conky 2.x...

Options

Command line options override configurations defined in configuration file.

-v | -V: Prints version and exits
-a ALIGNMENT: Text alignment on screen, {top,bottom}_{left,right} or none
-b: Use double buffering (eliminates "flicker")
-c FILE: Config file to load instead of $HOME/.conkyrc
-d: Daemonize Conky, aka fork to background
-f FONT: Font to use
-h: Prints command line help and exits
-o: Create own window to draw
-t TEXT: Text to render, remember single quotes, like -t ' $uptime '
-u SECONDS: Update interval
-w WIN_ID: Window id to draw
-x X_COORDINATE: X position
-y Y_COORDINATE: Y position

Configuration Settings

Default configuration file is $HOME/.conkyrc (can be changed from conky.c among other things). See conkyrc.sample. If installing from Debian package, this should be in /usr/share/doc/conky/examples ("gunzip conkyrc.sample.gz" to get conkyrc.sample).

You might want to copy it to $HOME/.conkyrc and then start modifying it. Other configs can be found at http://conky.sf.net

alignment: Aligned position on screen, may be top_left, top_right, bottom_left, bottom_right, or none
background: Boolean value, if true, Conky will be forked to background when started
on_bottom: Set conky on the bottom of all other applications
border_margin: Border margin in pixels
border_width: Border width in pixels
cpu_avg_samples: The number of samples to average for CPU monitoring
default_color: Default color and border color
default_shade_color: Default shading color and border's shading color
default_outline_color: Default outline color
double_buffer: Use the Xdbe extension? (eliminates flicker) It is highly recommended to use own window with this one so double buffer won't be so big.
draw_borders: Draw borders around text?
draw_shades: Draw shades?
draw_outline: Draw outlines?
font: Font name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font
gap_x: Gap between right or left border of screen, same as passing -x at command line
gap_y: Gap between top or bottom border of screen, same as passing -y at command line
no_buffers: Substract (file system) buffers from used memory?
mail_spool: Mail spool for mail checking
maximum_width pixels: Maximum width of window
minimum_size width (height): Minimum size of window
mldonkey_hostname: Hostname for mldonkey stuff, defaults to localhost
mldonkey_port: Mldonkey port, 4001 default
mldonkey_login: Mldonkey login, default none
mldonkey_password: Mldonkey password, default none
mpd_host: Host of MPD server
mpd_port: Port of MPD server
mpd_password: MPD server password
net_avg_samples: The number of samples to average for net data
override_utf8_locale: Force UTF8? requires XFT
own_window: Boolean, create own window to draw?
own_window_transparent: Boolean, set pseudo-transparency?
own_window_colour colour: If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour (defaults to black). Takes either a hex value (#ffffff) or a valid RGB name (see /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt)
pad_percents: Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding)
stippled_borders: Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
total_run_times: Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero makes Conky run forever
update_interval: Update interval in seconds
uppercase: Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
use_spacer: Adds spaces after certain objects to stop them from moving other things around. Note that this only helps if you are using a mono font, such as Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
use_xft: Use Xft (anti-aliased font and stuff)
TEXT: After this begins text to be formatted on screen

Variables

Colors are parsed using XParsecolor(), there might be a list of them: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb.txt. Also, http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html. Color can be also in #rrggbb format (hex). Note that when displaying bytes, power is 1024 and not 1000 so 1M really means 1024*1024 bytes and not 1000*1000.

addr interface: IP address for an interface
acpiacadapter: ACPI ac adapter state.
acpifan: ACPI fan state
acpitemp: ACPI temperature in C.
acpitempf: ACPI temperature in F.
adt746xcpu: CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
adt746xfan: Fan speed from therm_adt746x
alignr (num): Right-justify text, with space of N
alignc (num): Align text to centre
apm_adapter: Display APM AC adapter status (FreeBSD only)
apm_battery_life: Display APM battery life in percent (FreeBSD only)
apm_battery_time: Display remaining APM battery life in hh:mm:ss or "unknown" if AC adapterstatus is on-line or charging (FreeBSD only)
battery (num): Remaining capacity in ACPI or APM battery. ACPI battery number can be given as argument (default is BAT0).
buffers: Amount of memory buffered
cached: Amount of memory cached
color (color): Change drawing color to color
cpu (cpuN): CPU usage in percents. For SMP machines, the CPU number can be provided as an argument. cpu0 is the total usage, and >=cpu1 are individual CPUs.
cpubar (cpu number) (height),(width): Bar that shows CPU usage, height is bar's height in pixels. See $cpu for more info on SMP.
cpugraph (cpu number) (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2): CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex, minus the #. See $cpu for more info on SMP.
diskio: Displays current disk IO.
diskiograph (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2) (scale): Disk IO graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
downspeed net: Download speed in kilobytes
downspeedf net: Download speed in kilobytes with one decimal
downspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2) (scale): Download speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
else: Text to show if any of the above are not true
exec command: Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warning: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I'd recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch.
execbar command: Same as exec, except if the first value return is a value between 0-100, it will use that number for a bar. The size for the bar is currently fixed, but that may change in the future.
execgraph command: Same as execbar, but graphs values.
execi interval command: Same as exec but with specific interval. Interval can't be less than update_interval in configuration. See also $texeci
execibar interval command: Same as execbar, except with an interval
execigraph interval command: Same as execigraph, but takes an interval arg graphs values
font font: Specify a different font. Only applies to one line.
freq: Returns CPU frequency in MHz
freq_g: Returns CPU frequency in GHz
freq_dyn: Returns CPU frequency in MHz, but is calculated by counting to clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for x86/amd64.
freq_dyn_g: Returns CPU frequency in GHz, but is calculated by counting to clock cycles to complete an instruction. Only available for x86/amd64.
fs_bar (height),(width) fs: Bar that shows how much space is used on a file system. height is the height in pixels. fs is any file on that file system.
fs_free (fs): Free space on a file system available for users.
fs_free_perc (fs): Free percentage of space on a file system available for users.
fs_size (fs): File system size
fs_used (fs): File system used space
head logfile lines (interval): Displays first N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
hr (height): Horizontal line, height is the height in pixels
i2c (dev), type, n: I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev may be omitted if you have only one I2C device. type is either in (or vol) meaning voltage, fan meaning fan or temp/tempf (first in C, second in F) meaning temperature. n is number of the sensor. See /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on your local computer.
i8k_ac_status: If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays whether ac power is on, as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-readable). Beware that this is by default not enabled by i8k itself.
i8k_bios: If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the bios version as listed in /proc/i8k.
i8k_buttons_status: If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the volume buttons status as listed in /proc/i8k.
i8k_cpu_temp: If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the cpu temperature in celsius, as reported by /proc/i8k.
i8k_cpu_tempf: If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the cpu temperature in farenheit, as reported by /proc/i8k.
i8k_left_fan_rpm: If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the left fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in reverse order.
i8k_left_fan_status: If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the left fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in reverse order.
i8k_right_fan_rpm: If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the right fan's rate of rotation, in revolutions per minute as listed in /proc/i8k. Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in reverse order.
i8k_right_fan_status: If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the right fan status as listed in /proc/i8k (translated to human-readable). Beware, some laptops i8k reports these fans in reverse order.
i8k_serial: If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays your laptop serial number as listed in /proc/i8k.
i8k_version: If running the i8k kernel driver for Inspiron laptops, displays the version formatting of /proc/i8k.
if_running (process): if PROCESS is running, display everything if_running and the matching $endif
if_existing (file): if FILE exists, display everything between if_existing and the matching $endif
if_mounted (mountpoint): if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between if_mounted and the matching $endif
kernel: Kernel version
linkstatus interface: Get the link status for wireless connections
loadavg: (1,2,3)> System load average, 1 is for past 1 minute, 2 for past 5 minutes and 3 for past 15 minutes.
machine: Machine, i686 for example
mails: Mail count in mail spool. You can use program like fetchmail to get mails from some server using your favourite protocol. See also new_mails.
mem: Amount of memory in use
membar (height),(width): Bar that shows amount of memory in use
memmax: Total amount of memory
memperc: Percentage of memory in use
ml_upload_counter: total session upload in mb
ml_download_counter: total session download in mb
ml_nshared_files: number of shared files
ml_shared_counter: total session shared in mb, buggy in some mldonkey versions
ml_tcp_upload_rate: tcp upload rate in kb/s
ml_tcp_download_rate: tcp download rate in kb/s
ml_udp_upload_rate: udp upload rate in kb/s
ml_udp_download_rate: udp download rate in kb/s
ml_ndownloaded_files: number of completed files
ml_ndownloading_files: number of downloading files
mpd_artist: Artist in current MPD song must be enabled at compile
mpd_album: Album in current MPD song
mpd_bar (height),(width): Bar of mpd's progress
mpd_bitrate: Bitrate of current song
mpd_status: Playing, stopped, et cetera.
mpd_title: Title of current MPD song
mpd_vol: MPD's volume
mpd_elapsed: Song's elapsed time
mpd_length: Song's length
mpd_percent: Percent of song's progress
mpd_random: Random status (On/Off)
mpd_repeat: Repeat status (On/Off)
mpd_track: Prints the MPD track field
new_mails: Unread mail count in mail spool.
nodename: Hostname
outlinecolor (color): Change outline color
pre_exec shell command: Executes a shell command one time before conky displays anything and puts output as text.
processes: Total processes (sleeping and running)
running_processes: Running processes (not sleeping), requires Linux 2.6
shadecolor (color): Change shading color
stippled_hr (space): Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
swapbar (height),(width): Bar that shows amount of swap in use
swap: Amount of swap in use
swapmax: Total amount of swap
swapperc: Percentage of swap in use
sysname: System name, Linux for example
texeci interval command: Runs a command at an interval inside a thread and displays the output. Same as $execi, except the command is run inside a thread. Use this if you have a slow script to keep Conky updating. You should make the interval slightly longer then the time it takes your script to execute. For example, if you have a script that take 5 seconds to execute, you should make the interval at least 6 seconds. See also $execi.
offset (pixels): Move text over by N pixels. See also $voffset.
tail logfile lines (interval): Displays last N lines of supplied text text file. If interval is not supplied, Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval. Max of 30 lines can be displayed, or until the text buffer is filled.
time (format): Local time, see man strftime to get more information about format
totaldown net: Total download, overflows at 4 GB on Linux with 32-bit arch and there doesn't seem to be a way to know how many times it has already done that before conky has started.
top type, num: This takes arguments in the form:top (name) (number) Basically, processes are ranked from highest to lowest in terms of cpu usage, which is what (num) represents. The types are: "name", "pid", "cpu", and mem". There can be a max of 10 processes listed.
top_mem type, num: Same as top, except sorted by mem usage instead of cpu
totalup net: Total upload, this one too, may overflow
updates Number of updates: for debugging
upspeed net: Upload speed in kilobytes
upspeedf net: Upload speed in kilobytes with one decimal
upspeedgraph net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2) (scale): Upload speed graph, colours defined in hex, minus the #. If scale is non-zero, it becomes the scale for the graph.
uptime: Uptime
uptime_short: Uptime in a shorter format
seti_prog: Seti@home current progress
seti_progbar (height),(width): Seti@home current progress bar
seti_credit: Seti@home total user credit
voffset (pixels): Change verticle offset by N pixels. Negative values will cause text to overlap. See also $offset.

Examples

conky -t '${time %D %H:%m}' -o -u 30: Start Conky in its own window with date and clock as text and 30 sec update interval.
conky -a top_left -x 5 -y 500 -d: Start Conky to background at coordinates (5, 500).

Files

~/.conkyrc default configuration file

Bugs

Drawing to root or some other desktop window directly doesn't work with all window managers. Especially doesn't work well with Gnome and it has been reported that it doesn't work with KDE either. Nautilus can be disabled from drawing to desktop with program gconf-editor. Uncheck show_desktop in /apps/nautilus/preferences/. There is -w switch in Conky to set some specific window id. You might find xwininfo -tree useful to find the window to draw to. You can also use -o argument which makes Conky to create its own window.

Authors

The Conky dev team. What's up now!