conky

lightweight system monitor

TLDR

Start with default configuration

$ conky

Print default config to stdout

$ conky -C

Use a specific configuration file

$ conky -c [path/to/config]

Run as daemon in background

$ conky -d

Set update interval (in seconds)

$ conky -u [2]

Set alignment on desktop

$ conky -a [top_right]

conky is a lightweight system monitor for X11 that displays system information on the desktop root window or in its own window. It provides over 250 built-in monitoring objects and supports extensive customization including fonts, colors, and Lua scripting.

PARAMETERS

-c, --config FILE

Load specified configuration file

-C, --print-config

Print default configuration to stdout

-d, --daemonize

Run as daemon in background

-o, --own-window

Create a separate window

-p, --pause SECONDS

Pause before startup

-t, --text TEXT

Specify text to render

-u, --interval SECONDS

Set update interval

-a, --alignment ALIGNMENT

Set window alignment (topleft, topright, bottomleft, bottomright, etc.)

-x X

Set X position

-y Y

Set Y position

-v, --version

Display version information

CONFIGURATION

~/.config/conky/conky.conf

User-level configuration file with conky.config and conky.text sections.

/etc/conky/conky.conf

System-wide default configuration.

INSTALL

sudo apt install conky-all

sudo dnf install conky

sudo pacman -S conky

sudo apk add conky

sudo zypper install conky

nix profile install nixpkgs#conky

CAVEATS

Configuration uses Lua syntax with two sections: conky.config for settings and conky.text for display content. Send SIGUSR1 to reload configuration without restarting. Requires an X11 or Wayland compositor with X11 support; native Wayland is not supported.

HISTORY

conky is a fork of Torsmo and has become one of the most popular system monitors for Linux desktop environments. It supports monitoring CPU, memory, disk, network, and many other system metrics.