btwfetch

A fast, modular system information tool written in C with a configuration-driven module pipeline.

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Overview

btwfetch is a lightweight system information utility designed around:

• minimal runtime overhead
• modular detection system
• config-driven module selection and ordering
• direct Linux interface usage (/proc, /sys, getenv, uname)

Only modules listed in the configuration file are executed.

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Picture

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Design Goals

• High performance (low syscall overhead)
• Zero unnecessary module execution
• Deterministic output ordering via config
• Simple, hackable C codebase
• No external runtime dependencies beyond glibc

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Key components

• Module system: function registry mapping string → detector function
• Config parser: reads ordered module list
• Common buffer system: single output buffer to reduce syscalls
• Detection modules: isolated system information collectors

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Configuration

Default config location: project-root/config/default.conf

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Installation

Install from release (recommended)

tar -xzf btwfetch-current-version.tar.gz
cd btwfetch-current-version
make
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
cp btwfetch ~/.local/bin/
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/btwfetch

if you use fish:

set -U fish_user_paths $HOME/.local/bin $fish_user_paths

if not:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

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======= config/default.conf

Example

user os kernel uptime shell terminal de wm theme icons resolution cpu cpu_usage ram memory_usage gpu packages disk battery network locale

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Build

Requirements

• GCC or Clang
• Linux system headers (glibc assumed)

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Compile

make

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Run

./btwfetch

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Limitations

• Linux-only
• partial module implementation
• no caching yet
• no async execution yet
• no ascii art yet

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License

This project is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause License.

Copyright (c) 2026 mattsva

See the LICENSE file for full details.