conky/README

conky(1)							      conky(1)



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.

       Example	to  compile  and  run Conky with all optional components (note
       that some configure options may differ for your system):

       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-xft	 --enable-seti	 --enable-dou‐
       ble-buffer    --enable-own-window   --enable-proc-uptime	  --enable-mpd
       --enable-mldonkey --enable-x11 --enable-portmon

       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(),	 strn‐
       casecmp(),  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	("gun‐
       zip 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,  bot‐
	      tom_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 recom‐
	      mended 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)


       min_port_monitors
	      Allow  for the creation of at least this number of port monitors
	      (if 0 or not set, default is 16)


       min_port_monitor_connections
	      Allow each port monitor to track at least this many  connections
	      (if 0 or not set, default is 256)


       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
       [http://sedition.com/perl/rgb.html].  Color can be also in #rrggbb for‐
       mat (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. warn‐
	      ing: 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


       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


       tcp_portmon port_begin port_end item (index) (ip4 only at present)
	      TCP port monitor for specified local ports. Port numbers must be
	      in the range 1 to 65535. Valid items are:

	      count - total number of connections in the range

	      rip - remote ip address

	      rhost - remote host name

	      rport - remote port number

	      lip - local ip address

	      lhost - local host name

	      lservice - local service name from /etc/services

	      The connection index provides you with access to each connection
	      in  the  port  monitor.  The monitor will return information for
	      index values from 0 to n-1 connections. Values higher  than  n-1
	      are  simply  ignored. For the "count" item, the connection index
	      must be omitted. It is required for all other items.

	      Examples:

	      ${tcp_portmon 6881 6889 count} - displays the number of  connec‐
	      tions in the bittorrent port range

	      ${tcp_portmon  22 22 rip 0} - displays the remote host ip of the
	      first sshd connection

	      ${tcp_portmon 22 22 rip 9} - displays the remote host ip of  the
	      tenth sshd connection

	      ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rhost 0} - displays the remote host name of
	      the first connection on a privileged port

	      ${tcp_portmon 1 1024 rport 4} - displays the remote host port of
	      the fifth connection on a privileged port

	      ${tcp_portmon  1 65535 lservice 14} - displays the local service
	      name of the fifteenth connection in the range of all ports

	      Note that port monitor variables which share the same port range
	      actually refer to the same monitor, so many references to a sin‐
	      gle port range for different items and different indexes all use
	      the  same monitor internally. In other words, the program avoids
	      creating redundant monitors.

       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	updat‐
	      ing.  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  for‐
	      mat


       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.

SEE ALSO
       http://conky.sourceforge.net [http://conky.sourceforge.net]

       http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/conky	   [http://www.source‐
       forge.net/projects/conky]

       #conky on irc.freenode.net

AUTHORS
       The Conky dev team. What’s up now!



				   2005-11-1			      conky(1)