Neofetch configuration

Table of Contents

1 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. First, let’s insert the Emacs config header in order to specify the mode to open the file with.

# -*- mode: sh -*-

2 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
  line_break Insert a blank line
  title Username and hostname
  line_break Insert a blank line
  cols System theme
  line_break Insert a blank line
OS 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

Hence, the function looks like so:

print_info() {
    info line_break
    info title
    info line_break
    info cols
    info line_break
    info "OS" 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

}

Each of these modules can be tuned with the variables presented below.

3 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.

3.1 Software

3.1.1 OS

3.1.1.1 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"
3.1.1.2 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"
3.1.1.3 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"

3.1.2 Uptime shorthand

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"

3.1.3 Shell

3.1.3.1 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"
3.1.3.2 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"

3.1.4 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.

3.1.4.1 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"
3.1.4.2 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"
3.1.4.3 Enable or disable theming display for GTK3

The same variable as above is also available for GTK3.

Default value
"on"
Values
  • ""
  • ""
Flag
""
Supports
Examples
on
~~
off
~~

Default value
""
Values
  • ""
  • ""
Flag
""
Supports
Examples
on
~~
off
~~

3.2 Hardware

3.2.1 CPU

3.2.1.1 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"
3.2.1.2 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"
3.2.1.3 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"
3.2.1.4 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"
3.2.1.5 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"
3.2.1.6 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"

3.2.2 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.

3.2.2.1 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"
3.2.2.2 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
dedicated
GPU1: AMD HD 7950
integrated
GPU1: Intel Integrated Graphics
gpu_type="all"

3.2.3 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"

Author: Lucien Cartier-Tilet

Email: lucien@phundrak.com

Created: 2020-04-21 mar. 15:02