16 KiB
Neofetch configuration
Introduction
Neofetch is a CLI utility used to display system information. It was written in
Bash, and thus its configuration file is written as a Bash script too. This
document was written with org-mode, and my configuration file is tangled from
the source blocks you will see below to ~/.config/neofetch/config.conf
. This
configuration will only contain what I need. For any further information, please
refer to the original repository and its documentation.
The print_info
functions
The print_info
function is the function called by Neofetch in order to print
the system information it could fetch. In this function, we’ll choose what to
display, and how. This function looks like this:
print_info() {
# Print information here…
}
Generally, what we will display will be shown through the info
function,
redefined inside Neofetch (this is not info(1)
). This info
function accepts
one or two arguments. With one argument, such as with info memory
, we can get
a result that looks like 5136MiB / 15873MiB
, while calling it with two
arguments will treat the first one as a prefix and the second one as the
interesting information; info "Memory" memory
will look like
Memory: 5136MiB / 15873MiB
. Here is what we want to display:
Prefix | Information | What it does |
---|---|---|
title | Username and hostname | |
line_break | Insert a blank line | |
cols | System theme | |
line_break | Insert a blank line | |
Distro | distro | Distribution name |
Kernel | kernel | Kernel version |
Uptime | uptime | Machine uptime |
Packages | packages | Number of installed packages |
Shell | shell | User’s default shell |
WM | wm | User’s Window Manager |
Terminal | term | Default terminal |
CPU | cpu | CPU information |
GPU | gpu | GPU information |
Memory | memory | RAM information |
(mapconcat (lambda (x)
(let ((prefix (car x))
(information (cadr x)))
(format "info %s%s"
(if (not (string= prefix ""))
(format "\"%s\" " prefix)
"")
information)))
table
"\n")
info title info line_break info cols info line_break info "Distro" distro info "Kernel" kernel info "Uptime" uptime info "Packages" packages info "Shell" shell info "WM" wm info "Terminal" term info "CPU" cpu info "GPU" gpu info "Memory" memory
Hence, the function looks like so:
print_info() {
<<info-elements-gen()>>
}
Each of these modules can be tuned with the variables presented below.
Information settings
Each of the following variable tunes a function that can be called in
print_info
described above. It is possible to tune them by modifying this
document or the configuration file itself, and they can be overridden by the
command line with flags passed to neofetch
. I will divide these variables in
two main categories: hardware and software-related properties.
Software
OS
Distro
This variable can shorten the output of the distro
function.
- Default value
"on"
- Values
-
"on"
"off"
- Flag
--distro_shorthand
- Supports
- Everything except Windows and Haiku
- Examples
-
- on
Arch Linux
- off
Arch
distro_shorthand="off"
It is possible to display when the distro has been installed on the computer.
Distro art or image
By default, Neofetch will display ascii art next to our system information
representing our distro’s logo. We’ll customize it a bit. First, let’s change
the backend
value. Note that most of them (except off
of course) support
shorthands such as --kitty
when passed as arguments from the command line. In
my case, I will use the Kitty backend since it is the native backend of the
terminal emulator I use.
- Default value
"ascii"
- Values
-
ascii
caca
catimg
chafa
jp2a
iterm2
off
pot
termpix
pixterm
tycat
w3m
kitty
ueberzug
viu
- flag
--backend
image_backend="kitty"
Now, since I indicated I wanted an image engine, I’ll indicate neofetch which
image to find. Note that auto
will pick the best image source for whatever
image backend is used. In ascii mode, distro ascii art will be used and in an
image mode, your wallpaper will be used.
- Default value
auto
- Values
-
auto
ascii
wallpaper
/path/to/img
/path/to/ascii
/path/to/dir/
command output (neofetch --ascii "$(fortune | cowsay -W 30)")
- Flag
--source
image_source="$HOME/org/config/img/leon.png"
The default image size will probably not be correct since it is half the terminal width and I have an ultrawide monitor, so I’ll need to set it manually.
- Default value
auto
- Values
-
auto
00px
00%
none
- Flag
--image-size
or--size
image_size="224px"
Kernel
The variable below can shorten the output ofh the kernel
function.
- Default value
"on"
- Values
-
"on"
"off"
- Flag
--kernel_shorthand
- Supports
- Everything except *BSDs (except PacBSD and PC-BSD)
- Examples
-
- on
4.8.9-1-ARCH
- off
Linux 4.8.9-1-ARCH
kernel_shorthand="off"
OS Architecture
This variable can show or hide the OS architecture in the distro
output.
- Default value
"off"
- Values
-
"on"
"off"
- Flag
--os_arch
- Examples
-
- on
Arch Linux x86_64
- off
Arch Linux
os_arch="off"
Packages
It is possible to show or hide Package Manager names.
- Default
'tiny'
- Values
'on'
/'tiny'
/'off'
- Flag
--package_managers
- Example
-
- on
'998 (pacman), 8 (flatpak), 4 (snap)'
- tiny
'908 (pacman, flatpak, snap)'
- off
'908'
package_managers="on"
Shell
Shell path
This allows to show either the path of the user’s shell, or simply its name.
- Default value
"off"
- Values
-
"on"
"off"
- Flag
--shell_path
- Examples
-
- on
/bin/bash
- off
bash
shell_path="off"
Shell version
This allows to show the shell’s version in the output of shell
.
- Default value
"on"
- Values
-
"on"
"off"
- Flag
--shell_version
- Examples
-
- on
bash 4.4.5
- off
bash
shell_version="off"
Uptime
This variable can shorten the output of the uptime
function. on
shortens
it a bit, while tiny
shortens it greatly.
- Default value
"on"
- Values
-
"on"
"tiny"
"off"
- Flag
--uptime_shorthand
- Examples
-
- on
2 days, 10 hours, 3 mins
- off
2 days, 10 hours, 3 minutes
- tiny
2d 10h 3m
uptime_shorthand="on"
IP address
It is possible to display the machine’s public IP address with the function
ip
. The value below allows the user to change the website used to fetch it.
- Default value
"http://ident.me"
- Value
"url"
- Flag
--ip_host
public_ip_host="http://ident.me"
- Default value
""
- Values
-
""
""
- Flag
""
- Supports
- Examples
-
- on
- ~~
- off
- ~~
Theming
This section will allow the user to modify what Neofetch can and cannot display about the machine’s theming —by this, I mean its GTK theme, its icons and its default font.
Shorten output
With this value, it is possible to shorten the output of the computer’s theming.
- Default value
"off"
- Values
-
"on"
"off"
- Flag
--gtk_shorthand
- Examples
-
- on
Numix, Adwaita
- off
Numix [GTK2], Adwaita [GTK3]
gtk_shorthand="on"
Enable or disable theming display for GTK2
It is possible to explicitely show or hide the computer’s theming with GTK2 with this variable.
- Default value
"on"
- Values
-
"on"
"off"
- Flag
--gtk2
- Examples
-
- on
Numix [GTK2], Adwaita [GTK3]
- off
Adwaita [GTK3]
gtk2="off"
Enable or disable theming display for GTK3
The same variable as above is also available for GTK3.
- Default value
"on"
- Values
-
"on"
"off"
- Flag
--gtk3
- Examples
-
- on
Numix [GTK2], Adwaita [GTK3]
- off
Numix [GTK2]
gtk3="off"
Hardware
CPU
CPU brand
With this variables, it is possible to show or hide the brand of a CPU in the
cpu
output.
- Default value
"on"
- Values
-
"on"
"off"
- Flag
--cpu_brand
- Examples
-
- on
Intel i7-6500U
- off
i7-6500U
cpu_brand="off"
CPU speed
With this variable, it is possible to show or hide the speed of the CPU.
- Default value
"on"
- Values
-
"on"
"off"
- Flag
--cpu_speed
- Examples
-
- on
Intel i7-6500U (4) @ 3.1GHz
- off
Intel i7-6500U (4)
cpu_speed="off"
CPU speed type
This allows Neofetch to know what type of speed it has to fetch regarding the
machine’s CPU. Any file in /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq
can be used as
a value.
- Default value
"bios_limit"
- Values
-
"scaling_cur_freq"
"scaling_min_freq"
"scaling_max_freq"
"bios_limit"
- Flag
--speed_type
- Supports
- Linux with
cpufreq
speed_type="bios_limit"
CPU speed shorthand
This value allows to show sorter CPU speed with less digits. This flag is not supported in systems with CPU speed below 1GHz.
- Default value
"off"
- Values
-
"on"
"on"
- Flag
--speed_shorthand
- Examples
-
- on
i7-6500U (4) @ 3.1GHz
- off
i7-6500U (4) @ 3.100GHz
speed_shorthand="on"
CPU cores
With this variable, it is possible to display the number of cores that are available in the CPU.
- Default value
"logical"
- Values
-
"logical"
"physical"
"off"
- Flag
--cpu_cores
- Supports
physical
does not work on BSD.- Examples
-
- logical
Intel i7-6500U (4) @ 3.1GHz
(All virtual cores)- physical
Intel i7-6500U (2) @ 3.1GHz
(All physical cores)- off
Intel i7-6500U @ 3.1GHz
cpu_cores="off"
CPU temperature
This variable allows the user to hide or show the CPU’s temperature, and if
shown, the user can display it in Celcius or Farenheit degrees. For FreeBSD and
NetBSD-based systems, you’ll need to enable the coretemp
kernel module. This
only supports newer Intel processors.
- Default value
"off"
- Values
-
"C"
"F"
"off"
- Flag
--cpu_temp
- Supports
- Linux, BSD
- Examples
-
- C
Intel i7-6500U (4) @ 3.1GHz [27.2°C]
- F
Intel i7-6500U (4) @ 3.1GHz [82.0°F]
- off
Intel i7-6500U (4) @ 3.1GHz
cpu_temp="off"
GPU
The function responsible for displaying information regarding the GPUs is gpu
.
It will try to list all available GPUs and display what it knows about them.
GPU brand
This value allows the user to hide or show the brand of their GPU in the output
of gpu
.
- Default value
"on"
- Values
-
"on"
"off"
- Flag
--gpu_brand
- Supports
- Examples
-
- on
AMD HD 7950
- off
HD 7950
gpu_brand="off"
Which GPU to display
This allows the user to choose which GPU appears in the output of the function
gpu
.
- Default value
"all"
- Values
-
"all"
"dedicated"
"integrated"
- Flag
--gpu_type
- Supports
- Linux
- Examples
-
- all
-
GPU1: AMD HD 7950 GPU2: Intel Integrated Graphics
- dedicated
GPU1: AMD HD 7950
- integrated
GPU1: Intel Integrated Graphics
gpu_type="all"
Resolution
This will try to list all the connected screens and display their resolution individually. It is possible to display the refresh rate or to hide it.
- Default value
"off"
- Values
-
"on"
"off"
- Flag
--refresh_rate
- Supports
- Does not work on Windows
- Examples
-
- on
1920x1080 @ 60Hz
- off
1920x1080
refresh_rate="off"