Neofetch configuration

1. Introduction
2. The print_info functions
3. Information settings
- 3.1. Software
- 3.2. Hardware

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"

Neofetch configuration

Table of Contents

1 Introduction

2 The print_info functions

3 Information settings

3.1 Software

3.1.1 OS

3.1.1.1 Kernel

3.1.1.2 Distro

3.1.1.3 OS Architecture

3.1.2 Uptime shorthand

3.1.3 Shell

3.1.3.1 Shell path

3.1.3.2 Shell version

3.1.4 Theming

3.1.4.1 Shorten output

3.1.4.2 Enable or disable theming display for GTK2

3.1.4.3 Enable or disable theming display for GTK3

3.2 Hardware

3.2.1 CPU

3.2.1.1 CPU brand

3.2.1.2 CPU speed

3.2.1.3 CPU speed type

3.2.1.4 CPU speed shorthand

3.2.1.5 CPU cores

3.2.1.6 CPU temperature

3.2.2 GPU

3.2.2.1 GPU brand

3.2.2.2 Which GPU to display

3.2.3 Resolution

2 The `print_info` functions