Format Conky output from tail or head variables

[demontager]

I don't have a problem actually, but want to ask about one feature if it exist in Conky. I'm using Conky variable ${tail} or ${head} to list content of log files. So, for instance I got file with such content:

load: 75
disc: 45
files: 100

And for example ${head} outputs file as is all in one color, but i want to supply ${color} option to digits to be more distinguishable from main text. Is it possible with Conky to do so ?

[stinkeye]

You could use sed to insert color variables.
This works if your output from the log file is always of the form text: digits.

eg

glen@Raring:~$ cat ~/test.txt
load: 75
disc: 45
files: 100


Then use sed to add ${color} to the start of each line and replace ":" with ":${color red}"

glen@Raring:~$ cat ~/test.txt | sed 's/^/${color}/' | sed 's/:/:${color red}/g'
${color}load:${color red} 75
${color}disc:${color red} 45
${color}files:${color red} 100

Then in conky use the execpi command to parse the inserted variables.
eg

${execpi 300 cat ~/test.txt | sed 's/^/${color}/' | sed 's/:/:${color red}/g'}


From man conky....

execp command
Executes a shell command and displays the output in conky. warning: this takes a lot more resources than other variables. I'd recommend coding wanted behaviour in C and posting a patch. This differs from $exec in that it parses the output of the command, so you can insert things like ${color red}hi!${color} in your script and have it correctly parsed by Conky. Caveats: Conky parses and evaluates the output of $execp every time Conky loops, and then destroys all the objects. If you try to use anything like $execi within an $execp statement, it will functionally run at the same interval that the $execp statement runs, as it is created and destroyed at every interval.

execpi interval command
Same as execp but with specific interval. Interval can't be less than update_interval in configuration. Note that the output from the $execpi command is still parsed and evaluated at every interval.

[demontager]

That exactly what i wanted to know, awesome! Many many thanks!