Home Command line utilities Neofetch – Display Linux system Information In Terminal

Neofetch – Display Linux system Information In Terminal

By sk
Published: Last Updated on 66.9K views

This guide explains how to display Linux system information using Neofetch. Neofetch is a cross-platform, open source command line system information utility written in Bash. It gathers information about your system's software and hardware and displays the result in the Terminal.

By default, the system information will be displayed alongside your operating system's logo. However, you can further customize it to use an ascii image or any image of your choice instead of the current OS logo. You can also configure Neofetch to display which information, where and when that information should be displayed.

Neofetch is mainly developed to be used in screenshots of your system. It currently supports 150+ operating systems including Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, iOS, and Windows.

Install Neofetch in Linux and FreeBSD

Neofetch is available in the default repositories of most Linux distributions.Install Neofetch in Alpine Linux using command:
$ sudo apk add neofetch
On Arch Linux and its variants, install Neofetch using command:
$ sudo pacman -S neofetch
On Debian Sid / 11 /10 / 9:
$ sudo apt install neofetch
On Fedora 30 and newer::
$ sudo dnf install neofetch
On RHEL 8, CentOS 8, Almalinux 8, and Rocky Linux 8:Make sure you have enabled EPEL Repository:
# dnf install epel-relase
Install Neofetch using command:
# dnf install neofetch
On CentOS 7:Enable EPEL Repository:
# dnf install epel-relase
Fetch the neofetch repository:
# curl -o /etc/yum.repos.d/konimex-neofetch-epel-7.repo https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/konimex/neofetch/repo/epel-7/konimex-neofetch-epel-7.repo
Then, install Neofetch:
# yum install neofetch
On Ubuntu 17.04 and newer versions:
$ sudo apt install neofetch
On Ubuntu 16.10 and older versions:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dawidd0811/neofetch
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install neofetch
On NixOS:
$ nix-env -i neofetch
On openSUSE:
$ sudo zypper install neofetch
On Void Linux:
$ sudo xbps-install -S neofetch
On FreeBSD:
$ sudo pkg install neofetch
For other distributions, refer the official Neofetch installation guide.

Display Linux system information using Neofetch in terminal

To display your Linux system information, simply run the following command from the Terminal:

$ neofetch
Sample output from Ubuntu 20.04 LTS desktop:
            .-/+oossssoo+/-.               sk@ostechnix 
        `:+ssssssssssssssssss+:`           ------------ 
      -+ssssssssssssssssssyyssss+-         OS: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS x86_64 
    .ossssssssssssssssssdMMMNysssso.       Host: Inspiron N5050 
   /ssssssssssshdmmNNmmyNMMMMhssssss/      Kernel: 5.4.0-37-generic 
  +ssssssssshmydMMMMMMMNddddyssssssss+     Uptime: 5 hours, 46 mins 
 /sssssssshNMMMyhhyyyyhmNMMMNhssssssss/    Packages: 2378 (dpkg), 7 (flatpak), 11 (snap) 
.ssssssssdMMMNhsssssssssshNMMMdssssssss.   Shell: bash 5.0.16 
+sssshhhyNMMNyssssssssssssyNMMMysssssss+   Resolution: 1366x768 
ossyNMMMNyMMhsssssssssssssshmmmhssssssso   DE: GNOME 
ossyNMMMNyMMhsssssssssssssshmmmhssssssso   WM: Mutter 
+sssshhhyNMMNyssssssssssssyNMMMysssssss+   WM Theme: Adwaita 
.ssssssssdMMMNhsssssssssshNMMMdssssssss.   Theme: Yaru-light [GTK2/3] 
 /sssssssshNMMMyhhyyyyhdNMMMNhssssssss/    Icons: ubuntu-mono-light [GTK2/3] 
  +sssssssssdmydMMMMMMMMddddyssssssss+     Terminal: deepin-terminal 
   /ssssssssssshdmNNNNmyNMMMMhssssss/      Terminal Font: Ubuntu Mono 12 
    .ossssssssssssssssssdMMMNysssso.       CPU: Intel i3-2350M (4) @ 2.300GHz 
      -+sssssssssssssssssyyyssss+-         GPU: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family 
        `:+ssssssssssssssssss+:`           Memory: 2736MiB / 7869MiB 
            .-/+oossssoo+/-.
                                                                   
Display Linux system Information Using Neofetch

Display Linux system Information Using Neofetch

As you can see in the above output, Neofetch is displaying the following details of my Ubuntu 20.04 LTS desktop:
  • Name of the installed operating system,
  • Laptop make and model,
  • Kernel details,
  • System uptime,
  • Number of installed packages by default and other package managers,
  • Default Shell,
  • Screen resolution,
  • Desktop environment,
  • Window manager,
  • Window manager's theme,
  • System theme,
  • System Icons,
  • Default Terminal,
  • Terminal font
  • CPU type,
  • GPU type,
  • Installed memory (RAM).

Sample output from Arch Linux desktop:

Display Arch Linux system Information Using Neofetch

Display Linux system information using Neofetch

Neofetch has plenty of other options too. We will explore some of them.

Display any operating systems' logo with Neofetch input

As I mentioned already, Neofetch will display the logo of your current OS alongside the system information. However, we can make it to display any other distributions' logo. It doesn't matter whether the intended OS is installed or not.For example, let us display the logo of Alpine OS using command:
$ neofetch --ascii_distro alpine
Display alpine os logo using neofetch

Display alpine os logo using neofetch

See? My current OS is Ubuntu 20.04, but Alpine OS logo is displayed in the above output.Similarly, you can display other OSes logo as well.
$ neofetch --ascii_distro alpine
$ neofetch --ascii_distro android
$ neofetch --ascii_distro archlinux
$ neofetch --ascii_distro bunsenlabs
$ neofetch --ascii_distro centos
$ neofetch --ascii_distro crux
$ neofetch --ascii_distro debian
$ neofetch --ascii_distro fedora
$ neofetch --ascii_distro gentoo
$ neofetch --ascii_distro gobolinux
$ neofetch --ascii_distro macos
$ neofetch --ascii_distro nixos
$ neofetch --ascii_distro opensuse
$ neofetch --ascii_distro slackware
$ neofetch --ascii_distro solus
$ neofetch --ascii_distro ubuntu
$ neofetch --ascii_distro voidlinux
$ neofetch --ascii_distro windows
Here is a visual demo of Nefetch output with different OSes logos:

How to use custom images in Neofetch output?

Not just the OS logo, we can also display a custom image of our choice as well.To display display images with netfetch output, your Linux system should have the following dependencies installed:
  1. w3m-img (It is required to display images. w3m-img is sometimes bundled together with w3m package),
  2. Imagemagick (required for thumbnail creation),
  3. A terminal that supports \033[14t or xdotool or xwininfo + xprop or xwininfo + xdpyinfo.
W3m-img and ImageMagick packages are available in the default repositories of most Linux distributions. So you can install them using your distribution's default package manager.For instance, run the following command to install w3m-img and ImageMagick on Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint:
$ sudo apt install w3m-img imagemagick
Here is the list of Terminal Emulators with w3m-img support:
  1. Gnome-terminal,
  2. Konsole,
  3. st,
  4. Terminator,
  5. Termite,
  6. URxvt,
  7. Xfce4-Terminal,
  8. Xterm
If you have kitty, Terminology and iTerm terminal emulators on your system, you don't need to install w3m-img.Now, run the following command to display your system's information with a custom image:
$ neofetch --w3m /home/sk/Pictures/ostechnix.png
Or,
$ neofetch --w3m --source /home/sk/Pictures/ostechnix.png
Sample output:
Neofetch output with custom logo

Neofetch output with custom logo

Replace the image path in the above command with your own.Alternatively, you can point a directory that contains the images like below.
$ neofetch --w3m <path-to-directory>

Autostart Neofetch

If you want to automatically run Neofetch whenever you open a terminal session, edit ~/.bashrc file:
$ nano ~/.bashrc
Add the following line at the end:
neofetch
Save and close the file.Apply the changes using command:
$ source ~/.bashrc
From now on, neofetch will automatically run and display your system information when you open a new terminal window or tab.

Neofetch options

Neofetch has various options that allows the users to customize the neofetch output.
Disable info name:
You can exclude some details from output. For example, the following command will exclude the CPU details:
$ neofetch --disable cpu
If you want to exclude multiple information, just specify them with space-separated like below:
$ neofetch --disable cpu memory
Hide/Show OS architecture:
$ neofetch --os_arch off
$ neofetch --os_arch on
Enable/Disable CPU brand:
$ neofetch --cpu_brand on
$ neofetch --cpu_brand off
Display number CPU cores:
$ neofetch --cpu_cores logical
$ neofetch --cpu_cores physical
Hide/Show cpu speed:
$ neofetch --cpu_speed off
$ neofetch --cpu_speed on
Hide/Show cpu temperature:
Display CPU temperature in celsius (C):
$ neofetch --cpu_temp C
Display temperature in fahrenheit (F):
$ neofetch --cpu_temp F
Show/Hide GPU brand:
To enable or disable GPU brand (intel, amd), run:
$ neofetch --gpu_brand on
$ neofetch --gpu_brand off
Show/Hide SHELL path:
$ neofetch --shell_path on
$ neofetch --shell_path off
Show/Hide SHELL version:
$ neofetch --shell_version on
$ neofetch --shell_version off
There are many other options available. To view the complete list of options, refer the help section:
$ neofetch --help
Configure Neofetch
When we run the Neofetch for the first time, It will create a per-user configuration file at $HOME/.config/neofetch/config.conf by default. You can tweak this file to tell Neofetch which details should be displayed, removed and/or modified.You can also keep this configuration file between versions. Meaning - just customize it once as per your liking and use the same settings after upgrading to newer version. You can even share this file to your friends and colleagues to have the same settings as yours.

As far as I tested Neofetch, It worked perfectly in Arch Linux and Ubuntu OS as expected. It is a nice handy tool to easily and quickly print the details of your system in the Terminal.


Related read:

Resource:

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9 comments

FreshMan June 14, 2016 - 3:49 pm

thank you !!!

Reply
Mauricio June 18, 2016 - 4:29 pm

What’s the difference with screenfetch?

Reply
SK June 18, 2016 - 7:58 pm

Not much, only the name is different. Both tools does the same job.

Reply
Mauricio June 20, 2016 - 5:24 pm

Thank you.

Reply
Papigoe January 26, 2019 - 11:03 pm

Can Neofetch be set to display on launching the terminal by default?

Reply
Kaostronomi March 1, 2019 - 5:30 am

Add this line in your .bashrc

neofetch

Reply
Jalal June 26, 2020 - 12:25 pm

Hi,
Thanks a lot

Reply
Cristian Molina September 19, 2020 - 5:28 am

I think there is a typo in the pacman command line: “netofetch”

> $ sudo pacman -S netofetch

Reply
sk September 19, 2020 - 9:59 am

Fixed. Thank you.

Reply

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