Macchina

Fast, minimal and customizable system information frontend. Linux • macOS • Windows • NetBSD • FreeBSD • OpenWrt • Android

Table of Contents

• About
• What's new in v4.0
• Performance
• Features
• Configuration
• Customization
• Runtime dependencies
• Installation
• Contributors

💬 About

macchina lets you view system information, like your kernel version, uptime, memory usage, processor load and much more.

If you're interested in the library macchina uses to fetch system information, have a look at libmacchina; fetching-related issues should be filed on that repository.

✨ What's new in v4.0

Complying with the XDG base directory specification

The themes location has moved from $XDG_DATA_HOME/macchina/themes to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/macchina/themes.

Why?

$XDG_DATA_HOME is not meant for anything configuration/customization related.

Command-line flags

We have deprecated many, if not most command-line flags after having ported them to theme files.

Why?

• In previous versions, themes clashed with the main configuration file, and their purpose might have seemed to many as unknown.
• There are just way too many flags for a system information fetcher, running --help ends up confusing you rather than actually helping you out.
• We wanted to simplify and distinguish between the configuration file and themes, eliminating redundance.

Where can I see the updated list?

In our wiki, follow this link.

Themes

Themes have transitioned from JSON to TOML.

Why?

• Because no one can read that JSON stuff.
• Because we want there to be continuity between the configuration and theme files, even though they serve completely different purposes.

Where can I view the new format?

Take a look at the provided example theme file.

⚡️ Performance

macchina is lightning fast, see for yourself:

• Execution time is measured using hyperfine

🐧 Linux

This benchmark was performed using an Intel® Core™ i5-3350P CPU @ 3.10GHz

| Command | Mean [ms] | Min [ms] | Max [ms] | | :--------- | --------: | -------: | -------: | | macchina | 4.8 ± 0.4 | 4.5 | 8.1 |

🍏 macOS

| Command | Mean [ms] | Min [ms] | Max [ms] | | :--------- | --------: | -------: | -------: | | macchina | 5.0 ± 0.2 | 4.7 | 5.9 |

🚩 NetBSD

This benchmark was performed inside a virtual machine using an Intel® Core™ i5-8265U CPU @ 1.60GHz

| Command | Mean [ms] | Min [ms] | Max [ms] | | :--------- | ---------: | -------: | -------: | | macchina | 17.7 ± 1.6 | 16.8 | 27.2 |

💻 Windows

| Command | Mean [ms] | Min [ms] | Max [ms] | | :--------- | --------: | -------: | -------: | | macchina | 9.0 ± 0.4 | 8.2 | 11.7 |

🚀 Features

Themes

macchina comes equipped with built-in themes that style their readouts, bars and separators differently. You can see the list with the --list-themes flag and use the one you like with --theme <name>. Did you know that you can make your own?

Themes live outside the configuration file, so you can create a bunch of them, and switch between them at any time.

Bars

Bars provide a way to visualize data, through symbols rather than numbers, and they can be enabled using the --bar flag.

Doctor

libmacchina can sometimes fail to fetch certain readouts, and macchina has a feature in place that allows you to see why they failed, this is done through the --doctor flag.

🔧 Configuration

The configuration file define the behavior of macchina, it does not allow for much customization. See macchina.toml for an example configuration file.

In order for macchina to be able to read the configuration file, you need to place macchina.toml in: - $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/macchina on Linux and the BSDs. - $HOME/Library/Application Support/macchina on macOS. - {FOLDERID_RoamingAppData}/macchina on Windows.

🎨 Customization

Themes define the look, layout and styling of macchina. See Carbon.toml for an example theme.

In order for macchina to be able to find your themes, you need to place them in: - $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/macchina/themes on Linux and the BSDs. - $HOME/Library/Application Support/macchina/themes on macOS. - {FOLDERID_RoamingAppData}/macchina/themes on Windows.

Note: Avoid using the names of built-in themes.

To start using your theme:

1. Run macchina --list-themes to verify that macchina has listed your theme.
2. Add that same name you see in your terminal to the theme option in macchina.toml
3. You're good to go! macchina will start using your theme.

📦️ Runtime dependencies

These dependencies are not required, but they extend what macchina can show.

Linux:

• wmctrl
• Gentoo: portage-utils

NetBSD:

• wmctrl

🏗️ Installation

Cargo

cargo install macchina

Pkgsrc

pkgin install macchina

Homebrew

brew install macchina

Termux

pkg install macchina

Windows

scoop install macchina

Arch Linux

• Use the AUR package that pulls and installs the latest release:

bash git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/macchina.git cd macchina makepkg -si

• Or use the AUR package that pulls and builds from upstream:

bash git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/macchina-git.git cd macchina makepkg -si

Nix

• Where <channel> is nixpkgs or nixos:

bash nix-env -iA <channel>.macchina

The installation wiki page lists some other ways you can install the program or the steps to compile from source.

You might prefer running the prebuilt binary that corresponds with your operating system.

Contributors

macchina, like many other open-source projects, would not be where it is right now without the help of its contributors, thank you all so much!

• Support for NetBSD would not have been possible without the help and testing of NetBSD/pkgsrc package maintainer pin
• Support for macOS and Windows would not have been possible without the help, testing and major contributions of 123marvin123
• Support for OpenWrt and Android was made possible through the many contributions of uttarayan21

ASCII Art

Some of the ASCII art displayed in macchina is not our own.

If you (the artist) are not okay with us using your ASCII art, please contact me.

• FreeBSD ASCII art (small variant) was taken from Dylan Araps' pfetch
• macOS ASCII art (big variant) was taken from Dylan Araps' Neofetch
• macOS ASCII art (small variant) was made by Joan Stark (jgs)
• Linux ASCII art (big variant) was made by Joan Stark (jgs)
• Linux ASCII art (small variant) was taken from Christopher Johnson's ASCII art collection (unknown artist)