13 KiB
Neofetch
Neofetch
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.
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
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"
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"
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 these 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 showing sorter CPU speed with fewer 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 Celsius or Fahrenheit
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"