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https://github.com/alba4k/albafetch

Faster neofetch alternative, written in C. Still improving :)
https://github.com/alba4k/albafetch

archlinux fetch fetcher linux neofetch

Last synced: about 1 month ago
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Faster neofetch alternative, written in C. Still improving :)

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README 

        
# albafetch ~by alba4k



#### Note: to prevent merge conflicts, please open your pull requests to the "development" branch, and check that one out before doing anything. Master is more stagnant and only updated when I know what I'm currently working on works as expected (most of the time).



![intro](images/albafetch.png)



albafetch is a simple and fast program to display a lot of system information in a neofetch-like layout in way less than a second. I decided to make this as a challenge for myself and since I found neofetch too slow (which is understandable given that we're talking about a 10k+ lines shell script).



Preview

This is what albafetch will likely look like by default:



![default](images/albafetch_demo_default.png)



And this is what [my configuration](https://github.com/alba4k/.dotfiles/blob/master/.config/albafetch/albafetch.conf) looks like

![custom](images/albafetch_demo.png)



Here is a time comparison (exact execution times change between machines and runs):



Time comparison



![neofetch](images/time_neofetch.png)

![albafetch](images/time_albafetch.png)



You will find a lot of useful usage and configuration related info inside of the [user manual](MANUAL.md) and a small list of the things I changed since the last release in the [changelog](CHANGELOG.md).



It currently supports a lot of GNU/Linux distributions, macOS (both x64 and arm64 macs) and even Android (only tested in Termux).

Feel free to test any other platform :)



## Table of contents

1. [Dependencies](#dependencies)

	* [For building](#build-dependencies)

	* [At runtime](#runtime-dependencies)

2. [Compilation](#compilation)

	* [make](#using-the-makefile)

	* [meson](#using-meson)

	* [nix](#using-nix)

3. [Installation](#installation)

	* [Arch BTW](#for-arch-linux)

	* [NixOS](#for-nixos)

  * [MacPorts](#for-older-macos-versions)

	* [Manually](#manual-installation)

4. [Configuration](#configuration)

	> [example config](albafetch.conf)

5. [Contributing](#contributing)



# Dependencies



## Build dependencies

These will also install the relative runtime dependencies



* libpci:

	- On Arch Linux, [pciutils](https://archlinux.org/packages/core/x86_64/pciutils)

	- On Debian, [libpci-dev](https://packages.debian.org/buster/libpci-dev)

	- On Fedora, [pciutils-devel](https://packages.fedoraproject.org/pkgs/pciutils/pciutils-devel)

	- On Alpine Linux, [pciutils-dev](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/package/edge/main/x86_64/pciutils-dev)

* libc (should already be installed):

	- On Alpine Linux, [musl-dev](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/package/edge/main/x86_64/musl-dev)

* A build system:

	- Make and meson are already set up, more details are found [here](#compilation).



## Runtime dependencies

I would like to eventually remove those, by checking at runtime if they are installed and not use them if not so.

Also, in case albafetch was unable to get the info using libpci libraries, it'll fall back to `lspci` (as system shell commands).



* libpci (for dynamically linked binaries):

	- On Arch Linux, [pciutils](https://archlinux.org/packages/core/x86_64/pciutils)

	- On Debian, [libpci3](https://packages.debian.org/buster/libpci3)

	- On Fedora, [pciutils-libs](https://packages.fedoraproject.org/pkgs/pciutils/pciutils-libs)

* there must be a `sh` binary in your PATH. This should already be satisfied on any UNIX-like system



# Compilation



## Using the Makefile



This will need you to have a C compiler installed and will still use meson under the hood.



```shell

$ git clone https://github.com/alba4k/albafetch

$ cd albafetch

$ make

```



An executable file should appear as `build/albafetch` if the compilation succeeds.



### Debug builds

It is possible to build a debug binary (`build/debug`) that will test every single function and make sure it runs correctly. This can be done by running



```sh

$ make debug

```



## Using meson



If you prefer to build with meson/ninja, you can use these commands:



```sh

$ meson setup build

$ meson compile -C build

$ build/debug

```



## Using nix



Building with nix can make compiling in some ways much easier, such as when compiling statically

or cross compiling. A few convenience outputs are included:



```sh

nix build .#albafetch # regular, dynamically linked build

nix build .#albafetch-static # statically linked build (only available on linux)

nix build .#albafetch-arm # cross compiling from x86_64 to arm (only available on x86_64)

```



# Installation



## For Arch Linux

An AUR package is available, [albafetch-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/albafetch-git).

There are three packages on the AUR that provide albafetch:

* [albafetch](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/albafetch-) will compile the source code of the latest release

* [albafetch-bin](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/albafetch-bin) will install a pre-compiled binary from the latest release

* [albafetch-git](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/albafetch-git) will compile the source of the latest commit in master



You can find more information on how to install packages from the AUR in the [Arch Wiki](https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_User_Repository#Installing_and_upgrading_packages)



## For Debian

You can create a DEB package from the repo itself



This can be done via a guided procedure



```

$ git clone https://github.com/alba4k/albafetch

$ cd albafetch



$ make deb

```



This will create a deb package for you and ask if you want to install it.



## For NixOS



`nix profile`:



```sh

$ nix profile install .#albafetch

```



`nix-env`:



```sh

$ nix-env -iA packages..albafetch # platform examples: x86_64-linux, aarch64-linux, aarch64-darwin

```



Using the overlay (Flake):



```nix

{

  inputs = {

    nixpkgs.url = "nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";

    albafetch = {

      url = "github:alba4k/albafetch";

      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";

    };

  };



  outputs = {nixpkgs, albafetch, ...}: {

    nixosConfigurations.host = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {

      system = "x86_64-linux";

      modules = [

        ./configuration.nix

        {

          nixpkgs.overlays = [albafetch.overlays.default];

          environment.systemPackages = [pkgs.albafetch];

        }

      ];

    };

  };

}

```



Using the overlay (`builtins.fetchTarball`):



```nix

{pkgs, ...}: {

  nixpkgs.overlays = [(import (builtins.fetchTarball "https://github.com/alba4k/albafetch/master.tar.gz")).overlays.default];

  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [

    albafetch

  ];

}

```



## For older macOS versions



On older macOS (~11 and lower) versions, albafetch likely won't build natively.



You can, however, install albafetch on those using the [package](https://ports.macports.org/port/albafetch) on MacPorts



This can be easily done with the following

```

# port install albafetch 

```



## Manual installation



What if your OS is not included in the ones mentioned?

In this case, you can either compile the source code yourself and install albafetch manually, or you can grab an executable from the [latest release](https://github.com/alba4k/albafetch/releases/latest).



Please note that albafetch currently won't run on Windows (despite `albafetch --logo windows` being an option), but I'm planning to eventually add support (sooner or later). Feel free to help :)



```

$ git clone https://github.com/alba4k/albafetch

$ cd albafetch



$ make

# make install

```



`make install` needs elevated privileges on Linux (e.g. `sudo` or a root shell) to write to `/usr/bin`, while `/usr/local/bin` can be accessed as a normal user *on macOS*.



Alternatively, you may prefer meson to perform the installation:



```

$ git clone https://github.com/alba4k/albafetch

$ cd albafetch

$ meson setup build

$ meson compile -C build

$ meson install -C build

```



Meson will install the executable to `/usr/local/bin`, which you may or may not want (executables in this directory are ran instead of ones in `/usr/bin`).



# Configuration



albafetch can be customized using a config file, usually `~/.config/albafetch.conf` for your user or `/etc/xdg/albafetch.conf`.



You can find an example configuration file (which only provides the default values of every option) [here](albafetch.conf).

Although this file includes some short comments on how the various options work, I highly recommend checking out the [user manual](MANUAL.md) for a deeper understanding of the way this config file works.



# Contributing



Almost everything included in this program is written in C.



If you want to, you can directly modify the source code contained in this repository and recompile the program afterwards to get some features you might want or need.



New logos can be added in [`src/logos.h`](src/logos.h) (be careful to follow the format), new infos in `src/info` and [`src/info/info.h`](src/info/info.h). Config options are mainly parsed in [`src/utils.c`](src/utils.c). You will also need to edit [`src/main.c`](src/main.c) afterwards to fully enable the new features.



Don't mind opening a pull request if you think some of the changes you made should be in the public version, just try to follow the coding style that I used in the rest of the project.



Any contribution, even just a fix of a typo, is highly appreciated.



---



###### © Aaron Blasko



###### Initially started in March 2022