Variable Arguments () = optional Explanation
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
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.