PROCMETERRC(5)

💖 PROCMETERRC(5) 💖

okay bestie, gather round, we're reading the manual page for procmetetrc — that's the procmeterrc config file, and it's the vibe-setter for procmeter3, procmeter3-xaw, gprocmeter3, procmeter3-gtk1, procmeter3-gtk2, procmeter3-gtk3, procmeter3-log and procmeter3-lcd. all of them. the whole squad. 🫶

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

so this file? it's literally where all the run-time options live for procmeter3, procmeter3-xaw, gprocmeter3, procmeter3-gtk1, procmeter3-gtk2, procmeter3-gtk3, procmeter3-log and procmeter3-lcd. like, which outputs get shown, the colours and fonts (for the X window outputs bestie, don't get it twisted), the LCDproc server (that one's the procmeter-lcd version's thing) and a whole bunch of other program options. it's giving ✨ customizable ✨

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so here's the tea: the resources for ProcMeter version 3.x are stored in the .procmeterrc file instead of using X resources. why? because it gives you more flexibility and makes customisation so much simpler. slay. 💅

when procmeter3, procmeter3-xaw, gprocmeter3, procmeter3-gtk1, procmeter3-gtk2, procmeter3-gtk3, procmeter3-log or procmeter3-lcd start up, the .procmeterrc file gets searched for in:

1. the current directory
2. the current user's home directory
3. the system default installation directory (named procmeterrc)

and whichever one of these locations matches first? that's the one that gets used. first come first served, no cap. 👑

the format of .procmeterrc is a bunch of sections, and the section names are marked in []. as well as the fixed sections (described below, keep scrolling bestie) there's a section for each module, named using the name that the module reports itself to be. then there's even more sections for each of the possible outputs of each module. iconic, honestly.

heads up: the names of the sections and parameters are not case sensitive, but the values that they're given may be. so watch out. 🙈

lines beginning with the characters ; or # are comments, and continuation using the \ character at the end of a line is allowed. periodt.

below is listed the resource values and the sections of the .procmeterrc file that they can exist in. 🎀

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📚 library SECTION 📚

this section contains the info about the ProcMeter modules that are available. this one applies to all versions of the program, bestie. everybody gets it.

• path=... — the pathname of the library that contains the compiled ProcMeter modules. (defaults to the program's compiled-in installation location.)
• others=... — a list of other modules to be loaded (full pathnames separated by spaces).

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🚀 startup SECTION 🚀

this section controls how the ProcMeter window should look when the program is started. main character energy fr.

• order=... — a list of the outputs that are to be started up, in the order that they are to be displayed (separated by spaces). and if command line options are also specified, then they appear after those specified here. 👑

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🎨 resources SECTION 🎨

this section contains the general program display resources. not all of the options apply to all of the versions of the program — the specific versions that each option applies to are specified below. read carefully bestie, i'm not repeating myself. 😌

• horizontal=... — a Boolean to indicate that the outputs are stacked horizontally instead of the default, which is vertically. (For X versions of ProcMeter only.)
• background=... — the colour to use as the default background for all outputs. (An X11 colour name or an RGB value in hex as #RRGGBB; for X versions of ProcMeter only.)
• foreground=... — the colour to use as the default foreground for all outputs. (An X11 colour name or an RGB value in hex as #RRGGBB; for X versions of ProcMeter only.)
• label-font=... — the font to use for the label that describes the output. (An X11 font name, also known as an X Logical Font Description; for Xaw and GTK1/2 versions of ProcMeter only.)
• label-font-pango=... — the font to use for the label that describes the output. (A Pango font name; for GTK3 version of ProcMeter only.)
• label-foreground=... — the colour to use as the foreground for the label. (An X11 colour name or an RGB value in hex as #RRGGBB; for X versions of ProcMeter only.)
• label-position=... — the position of the label relative to the body of the output. (Either top, bottom or none; for X versions of ProcMeter only.)
• grid-foreground=... — the colour to use for the grid lines. (An X11 colour name or an RGB value in hex as #RRGGBB; for X versions of ProcMeter only.)
• graph-solid=... — a boolean to indicate if the graph should be solid (the default) or a single line. (yes or no, true or false, 0 or 1; for X versions of ProcMeter only.)
• grid-min=... — the minimum number of grid lines to display on a graph or bar chart. (An integer; for X and LCD versions of ProcMeter only.) this one is particularly important with the bar chart, because if you set it too low the bar will always be the same length on screen and the number of grid lines will change with the data. not the vibe. 😭
• grid-max=... — the maximum number of grid lines to display on a graph or bar chart. (An integer; for X and LCD versions of ProcMeter only.)
• text-font=... — the font to use for the textual outputs. (An X11 font name, also known as an X Logical Font Description; for Xaw and GTK1/2 versions of ProcMeter only.)
• text-font-pango=... — the font to use for the textual outputs. (A Pango font name; for GTK3 version of ProcMeter only.)
• menu-foreground=... — the colour to use as the foreground for the menus. (An X11 colour name or an RGB value in hex as #RRGGBB; for Xaw version of ProcMeter only.)
• menu-background=... — the colour to use as the background for the menus. (An X11 colour name or an RGB value in hex as #RRGGBB; for Xaw and GTK3 versions of ProcMeter only; the background of all items on the same menu must be the same.)
• menu-font=... — the font to use for the menus. (An X11 font name, also known as an X Logical Font Description; for Xaw version of ProcMeter only.)
• update=... — the update interval for the output in seconds (an integer).

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🖥️ LCD SECTION 🖥️

this section contains parameters that are only used by the procmeter3-lcd version of the program. exclusive club, iykyk. 🦋

• host=... — the name of the host that the LCDd daemon is running on.
• port=... — the port number that the LCDd daemon is running on.
• duration=... — the length of time that all of the ProcMeter outputs are displayed on the LCD display for, before cycling to the next.
• priority=... — the priority of all of the ProcMeter outputs when they are displayed on the LCD display. this value should be a numeric value for LCDd versions before 0.5, or priority names for later versions.

⚠️ okay listen: using numeric values will likely fail for LCDd versions after 0.5, due to a bug in LCDd. the safest solution is not to use this option unless you are sure what value to use. fr fr, be careful. 💀

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🧩 MODULE SECTION 🧩

the name of the section is the name of the ProcMeter module (see the help, procmeter3 -h), for example: ProcMeter

these can contain any of the resource values, which will then apply to all outputs of this module. there are also extra options that can be applied to the module itself and as defaults for all of the outputs of that module. so many layers, we love a modular queen. 👑

• options=... — a string containing options that are passed to the module at startup. different modules have different options, see the procmeter3_modules(1) manual page.
• graph-scale=... — the scaling of the graph or bar chart: the number of units between each of the grid lines. (An integer; for X versions of ProcMeter only.)
• run=... — a string that specifies a program that can be run by selecting it from the menu for the left mouse button. (For X versions of ProcMeter only.) the way that the command is run can be specified using one of the following abbreviations:
  • XTerm( command ) — to run command in an xterm then exit.
  • XTermWait( command ) — to run command in an xterm and wait for user input before exiting.
  • Shell( command ) — to run command in a shell and exit. this last one is equivalent to using none of these abbreviations.

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🎯 OUTPUT SECTION 🎯

the name of the section is the name of the ProcMeter output (see the help, procmeter3 -h), for example: ProcMeter.Version

the output sections can contain any of the resource or module options (except options) which will then apply only to the specified output. there are also options that can only be applied to individual outputs. special treatment, as she deserves. 💅

• label=... — changes the default label for the output to the specified string.

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🌈 EXAMPLE 🌈

below is an example .procmeterrc file — it's a much reduced version of the system default procmeterrc file. serving as a lil taste test. 🍓

[startup]

# ProcMeter version, clock, CPU graph, load text
order=ProcMeter.Version Date_Time.Time_HM \
      Statistics.CPU-g Processes.Load-t

[resources]

# The outputs, black on white
foreground = black
background = white

# A large-medium size text font.
text-font = 8x13
text-font-pango = Sans 8

# Solid graphs with at least 5 grid lines in grey.
graph-solid = yes
grid-min = 5
grid-foreground = grey50

# Black on white output labels, small font, below the data.
label-font = 5x7
label-font-pango = Sans 5
label-foreground = black
label-position = bottom

# Black on white menu items in a small-medium size font.
menu-foreground = black
menu-background = white
menu-font = 7x13

[ProcMeter.Version]

# A smaller font than normal with no label.
text-font = 6x10
text-font-gtk3 = Sans 6
label-position = none

[Statistics]

[Statistics.CPU]

# The minimum number of grid lines, they are 20% each.
grid-min = 5

[Processes]

run = XTerm(top)

[Network]

# To pick up extra devices not automatically recognised.
#options=ppp0 slip0

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📁 FILES 📁

• ./.procmeterrc
• ~/.procmeterrc
• /usr/local/lib/X11/ProcMeter3/procmeterrc or /usr/lib/X11/ProcMeter3/procmeterrc

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

procmeter3(1), procmeter3-xaw(1), gprocmeter3(1), procmeter3-gtk1(1), procmeter3-gtk2(1), procmeter3-gtk3(1), procmeter3-log(1), procmeter3-lcd(1), procmeter3_modules(1).

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✍️ AUTHOR ✍️

Andrew M. Bishop (c) 1998-2011

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and that's the whole page bestie!! 🎀 this gem dropped on December 30, 2011, living its best life in the File Formats Manual section of the manual. go forth and configure, you absolute icon. 💖✨