Configuration Settings

Variable | Explanation
--- | ---
TEXT | After this begins text to be formatted on screen. Backslash (\) escapes newlines in the text section. This can be useful for cleaning up config files where conky is used to pipe input to dzen2.
alignment | Aligned position on screen, may be top_left, top_right, top_middle, bottom_left, bottom_right, bottom_middle, middle_left, middle_middle, 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).
border_outer_margin | Outer border margin in pixels (the margin between the border and the edge of the window).
border_width | Border width in pixels.
colorN | Predefine a color for use inside TEXT segments. Substitute N by a digit 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.
default_bar_size | Specify a default width and height for bars. Example: 'default_bar_size 0 6'. This is particularly useful for execbar and execibar as they do not take size arguments.
default_color | Default color and border color
default_gauge_size | Specify a default width and height for gauges. Example: 'default_gauge_size 25 25'. This is particularly useful for execgauge and execigauge as they do not take size arguments
default_graph_size | Specify a default width and height for graphs. Example: '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.
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_graph_borders | Draw borders around graphs?
draw_outline | Draw outlines?
draw_shades | Draw shades?
extra_newline | Put an extra newline at the end when writing to stdout, useful for writing to awesome's wiboxes.
font | Font name in X, xfontsel can be used to get a nice font
format_human_readable | If enabled, values which are in bytes will be printed in human readable format (i.e., KiB, MiB, etc). If disabled, the number of bytes is printed instead.
gap_x | Gap, in pixels, between right or left border of screen, same as passing -x at command line, e.g. gap_x 10. For other position related stuff, see 'alignment'.
gap_y | Gap, in pixels, between top or bottom border of screen, same as passing -y at command line, e.g. gap_y 10. For other position related stuff, see '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.
if_up_strictness | 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 up, being up and having link or being up, having link and an assigned IP address.
imap | Default global IMAP server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i interval (in seconds)] [-f 'folder'] [-p port] [-e 'command'] [-r retries]". Default port is 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.
imlib_cache_size | Imlib2 image cache size, in bytes. Defaults to 4MiB. Increase this value if you use $image lots. Set to 0 to disable the image cache.
lua_draw_hook_post | This function, if defined, will be called by Conky through each iteration after drawing to the window. Requires X support. Takes any number of 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_draw_hook_pre | This function, if defined, will be called by Conky through each iteration before drawing to the window. Requires X support. Takes any number of 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 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.
lua_startup_hook | 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 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
max_port_monitor_connections | Allow each port monitor to track at most this many connections (if 0 or not set, default is 256)
max_specials | Maximum number of special things, e.g. fonts, offsets, aligns, etc. (default is 512)
max_text_width | When a line in the output contains 'width' chars and the end isn't reached, 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
max_user_text | Maximum size of user text buffer, i.e. layout below TEXT line in config file (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
no_buffers | Subtract (file system) buffers from used memory?
nvidia_display | The display that the nvidia variable will use (defaults to the value of the display variable)
out_to_console | Print text to stdout.
out_to_ncurses | Print text in the console, but use ncurses so that conky can print the text of a new update over the old text. (In the future this will provide more useful things)
out_to_stderr | Print text to stderr.
out_to_x | 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 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".
own_window_colour | If own_window_transparent no, set a specified background colour (defaults 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)
own_window_hints | 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 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".
own_window_argb_visual | Boolean, use ARGB visual? ARGB can be used for real transparency, note that a composite manager is required for real transparency. This option will not work as desired (in most cases) in conjunction with 'own_window_type override'.
own_window_argb_value | When ARGB visuals are enabled, this use this to modify the alpha value used. Valid range is 0-255, where 0 is 0% opacity, and 255 is 100% opacity.
own_window_transparent | Boolean, set transparency? If ARGB visual is enabled, sets background opacity to 0%.
own_window_type | 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 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)
pop3 | Default global POP3 server. Arguments are: "host user pass [-i interval (in seconds)] [-p port] [-e 'command'] [-r retries]". Default port is 110, 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.
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
temperature_unit | Desired output unit of all objects displaying a temperature. Parameters are either "fahrenheit" or "celsius". The default unit is degree Celsius.
templateN | 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: '\n' -> newline '\\' -> backslash '\ ' -> space '\N' -> template argument N
text_buffer_size | 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 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.
times_in_seconds | If true, variables that output times output a number that represents seconds. This doesn't affect $time, $tztime and $utime
top_cpu_separate | If true, cpu in top will show usage of one processor's power. If false, cpu in top will show the usage of all processors' power combined.
top_name_width | Width for $top name value (defaults to 15 characters).
total_run_times | Total number of times for Conky to update before quitting. Zero makes 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
use_spacer | Adds spaces around certain objects to stop them from moving other things around. Arguments are left, right, and none (default). The old true/false 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.