Conky Manual
Conky Manual
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Variable Explanation
After this begins text to be formatted on screen. Backslash (\) escapes
TEXT newlines in the text section. This can be useful for cleaning up config files
where conky is used to pipe input to dzen2.
Aligned position on screen, may be top_left, top_right, top_middle,
bottom_left, bottom_right, bottom_middle, middle_left, middle_middle,
alignment
middle_right, or none (also can be abreviated as tl, tr, tm, bl, br, bm, ml,
mm, mr). See also gap_x and gap_y.
append_file Append the file given as argument.
background Boolean value, if true, Conky will be forked to background when started.
border_inner_margin Inner border margin in pixels (the margin between the border and text).
Outer border margin in pixels (the margin between the border and the
border_outer_margin
edge of the window).
border_width Border width in pixels.
Predefine a color for use inside TEXT segments. Substitute N by a digit
colorN between 0 and 9, inclusively. When specifying the color value in hex, omit
the leading hash (#).
cpu_avg_samples The number of samples to average for CPU monitoring.
Specify a default width and height for bars. Example: 'default_bar_size 0 6'.
default_bar_size This is particularly useful for execbar and execibar as they do not take size
arguments.
default_color Default color and border color
Specify a default width and height for gauges. Example: 'default_gauge_size
default_gauge_size 25 25'. This is particularly useful for execgauge and execigauge as they do
not take size arguments
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Specify a default width and height for graphs. Example: 'default_graph_size
default_graph_size 0 25'. This is particularly useful for execgraph and execigraph as they do
not take size arguments
default_outline_color Default outline color
default_shade_color Default shading color and border's shading color
disable_auto_reload Enable to disable the inotify-based auto config reload feature.
diskio_avg_samples The number of samples to average for disk I/O monitoring.
display Specify an X display to connect to.
Use the Xdbe extension? (eliminates flicker) It is highly recommended to
double_buffer
use own window with this one so double buffer won't be so big.
draw_borders Draw borders around text?
draw_graph_borders Draw borders around graphs?
draw_outline Draw outlines?
draw_shades Draw shades?
Put an extra newline at the end when writing to stdout, useful for writing
extra_newline
to awesome's wiboxes.
font Font name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font
If enabled, values which are in bytes will be printed in human readable
format_human_readable format (i.e., KiB, MiB, etc). If disabled, the number of bytes is printed
instead.
Gap, in pixels, between right or left border of screen, same as passing -x at
gap_x command line, e.g. gap_x 10. For other position related stuff, see
'alignment'.
Gap, in pixels, between top or bottom border of screen, same as passing -y
gap_y at command line, e.g. gap_y 10. For other position related stuff, see
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'alignment'.
hddtemp_host Hostname to connect to for hddtemp objects. Defaults to "127.0.0.1".
hddtemp_port Port to use for hddtemp connections. Defaults to 7634.
How strict should if_up be when testing an interface for being up? The
value is one of up, link or address, to check for the interface being solely
if_up_strictness
up, being up and having link or being up, having link and an assigned IP
address.
Default global IMAP server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i interval (in
seconds)] [-f 'folder'] [-p port] [-e 'command'] [-r retries]". Default port is
imap 143, default folder is 'INBOX', default interval is 5 minutes, and default
number of retries before giving up is 5. If the password is supplied as '*',
you will be prompted to enter the password when Conky starts.
imlib_cache_flush_interval Interval (in seconds) to flush Imlib2 cache.
Imlib2 image cache size, in bytes. Defaults to 4MiB. Increase this value if
imlib_cache_size
you use $image lots. Set to 0 to disable the image cache.
This function, if defined, will be called by Conky through each iteration
after drawing to the window. Requires X support. Takes any number of
lua_draw_hook_post optional arguments. Use this hook for drawing things on top of what Conky
draws. Conky puts 'conky_' in front of function_name to prevent accidental
calls to the wrong function unless you place 'conky_' in front of it yourself.
This function, if defined, will be called by Conky through each iteration
before drawing to the window. Requires X support. Takes any number of
lua_draw_hook_pre optional arguments. Use this hook for drawing things on top of what Conky
draws. Conky puts 'conky_' in front of function_name to prevent accidental
calls to the wrong function unless you place 'conky_' in front of it yourself.
lua_load Loads the Lua scripts separated by spaces.
lua_shutdown_hook This function, if defined, will be called by Conky at shutdown or when the
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configuration is reloaded. Use this hook to clean up after yourself, such as
freeing memory which has been allocated by external libraries via Lua.
Conky puts 'conky_' in front of function_name to prevent accidental calls to
the wrong function unless you place 'conky_' in front of it yourself.
This function, if defined, will be called by Conky at startup or when the
configuration is reloaded. Use this hook to initialize values, or for any
lua_startup_hook run-once applications. Conky puts 'conky_' in front of function_name to
prevent accidental calls to the wrong function unless you place 'conky_' in
front of it yourself.
mail_spool Mail spool for mail checking
Allow each port monitor to track at most this many connections (if 0 or not
max_port_monitor_connections
set, default is 256)
Maximum number of special things, e.g. fonts, offsets, aligns, etc. (default
max_specials
is 512)
When a line in the output contains 'width' chars and the end isn't reached,
max_text_width the next char will start on a new line. If you want to make sure that lines
don't get broken, set 'width' to 0
Maximum size of user text buffer, i.e. layout below TEXT line in config file
max_user_text
(default is 16384 bytes)
maximum_width Maximum width of window
minimum_size Minimum size of window
mpd_host Host of MPD server
mpd_password MPD server password
mpd_port Port of MPD server
music_player_interval Music player thread update interval (defaults to Conky's update interval)
net_avg_samples The number of samples to average for net data
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no_buffers Subtract (file system) buffers from used memory?
The display that the nvidia variable will use (defaults to the value of the
nvidia_display
display variable)
out_to_console Print text to stdout.
Print text in the console, but use ncurses so that conky can print the text of
out_to_ncurses a new update over the old text. (In the future this will provide more useful
things)
out_to_stderr Print text to stderr.
When set to no, there will be no output in X (useful when you also use
things like out_to_console). If you set it to no, make sure that it's placed
out_to_x
before all other X-related setting (take the first line of your configfile to be
sure). Default value is yes
override_utf8_locale Force UTF8? requires XFT
overwrite_file Overwrite the file given as argument.
own_window Boolean, create own window to draw?
own_window_class Manually set the WM_CLASS name. Defaults to "Conky".
If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour (defaults
own_window_colour to black). Takes either a hex value (e.g. ffffff, note the lack of '#') or a valid
RGB name (see /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt)
If own_window is yes, you may use these window manager hints to affect
the way Conky displays. Notes: Use own_window_type desktop as another
own_window_hints way to implement many of these hints implicitly. If you use
own_window_type override, window manager hints have no meaning and
are ignored.
own_window_title Manually set the window name. Defaults to "<hostname> - conky".
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Boolean, use ARGB visual? ARGB can be used for real transparency, note
that a composite manager is required for real transparency. This option will
own_window_argb_visual
not work as desired (in most cases) in conjunction with 'own_window_type
override'.
When ARGB visuals are enabled, this use this to modify the alpha value
own_window_argb_value used. Valid range is 0-255, where 0 is 0% opacity, and 255 is 100%
opacity.
Boolean, set transparency? If ARGB visual is enabled, sets background
own_window_transparent
opacity to 0%.
if own_window is yes, you may specify type normal, desktop, dock, panel or
override (default: normal). Desktop windows are special windows that have
no window decorations; are always visible on your desktop; do not appear
in your pager or taskbar; and are sticky across all workspaces. Panel
own_window_type windows reserve space along a desktop edge, just like panels and taskbars,
preventing maximized windows from overlapping them. The edge is chosen
based on the alignment option. Override windows are not under the control
of the window manager. Hints are ignored. This type of window can be
useful for certain situations.
pad_percents Pad percentages to this many decimals (0 = no padding)
Default global POP3 server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i interval (in
seconds)] [-p port] [-e 'command'] [-r retries]". Default port is 110, default
pop3 interval is 5 minutes, and default number of retries before giving up is 5. If
the password is supplied as '*', you will be prompted to enter the password
when Conky starts.
short_units Shortens units to a single character (kiB->k, GiB->G, etc.). Default is off.
show_graph_range Shows the time range covered by a graph.
show_graph_scale Shows the maximum value in scaled graphs.
stippled_borders Border stippling (dashing) in pixels
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Desired output unit of all objects displaying a temperature. Parameters are
temperature_unit
either "fahrenheit" or "celsius". The default unit is degree Celsius.
Define a template for later use inside TEXT segments. Substitute N by a
digit between 0 and 9, inclusively. The value of the variable is being
inserted into the stuff below TEXT at the corresponding position, but
before some substitutions are applied:
templateN
'\n' -> newline
'\\' -> backslash
'\ ' -> space
'\N' -> template argument N
Size of the standard text buffer (default is 256 bytes). This buffer is used
for intermediary text, such as individual lines, output from $exec vars, and
various other variables. Increasing the size of this buffer can drastically
text_buffer_size
reduce Conky's performance, but will allow for more text display per
variable. The size of this buffer cannot be smaller than the default value of
256 bytes.
If true, variables that output times output a number that represents
times_in_seconds
seconds. This doesn't affect $time, $tztime and $utime
If true, cpu in top will show usage of one processor's power. If false, cpu in
top_cpu_separate
top will show the usage of all processors' power combined.
top_name_width Width for $top name value (defaults to 15 characters).
Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero makes
total_run_times
Conky run forever
update_interval Update interval
update_interval_on_battery Update interval when running on batterypower
uppercase Boolean value, if true, text is rendered in upper case
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Adds spaces around certain objects to stop them from moving other things
around. Arguments are left, right, and none (default). The old true/false
use_spacer
values are deprecated and default to right/none respectively. 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)
xftalpha Alpha of Xft font. Must be a value at or between 1 and 0.
xftfont Xft font to use.
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