⚡ zeptofetch

Blazingly fast, ultra-minimal system information tool for Linux

Features • Benchmarks • Installation • Usage • Configuration

🎯 Why zeptofetch?

zeptofetch is a minimal system information tool written in C. It executes in under 1ms* with a 32KB binary—no dependencies, no shell scripts.

Compared to neofetch (~400ms) and fastfetch (~5ms, 200KB+ binary), zeptofetch prioritizes speed and minimal footprint.

_{*Performance varies by hardware and system configuration. See benchmarks for details.}

✨ Features

Performance

• ⚡ ~0.73 ms execution time (553× faster than neofetch)
• 📦 32 KB binary size
• 💾 Zero external dependencies

Design

• 🎨 Customizable colors via config.h at compile time
• 🔒 Security hardening with memory protection and resource limits
• 🐧 Pure C99 with efficient process scanning
• ⚙️ Memory-mapped process cache with secure cleanup

📊 Benchmarks

Tested with hyperfine on the following system:

Test System Specifications

Component	Specification
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 5600 (6-core, 12-thread)
RAM	32 GB DDR4 @ 3200MHz
Kernel	6.17.7-lqx1-1-lqx
OS	Arch Linux
Desktop	KDE Plasma 6.5.2 (Wayland)

Tool	Runtime*	Binary Size	Speed vs neofetch
zeptofetch	732.4µs ± 77.7µs	32 KB	553x faster
fastfetch	6.7ms ± 1.0ms	~200 KB	61x faster
neofetch	405.1ms ± 21.0ms	~50 KB	baseline

_{*Performance varies based on hardware, system load, kernel, desktop environment, and terminal emulator. Benchmarks shown are from a statically-linked zeptofetch v1.9 binary.}

🚀 Installation

Manual Compilation

To build the latest version from source:

git clone https://gitlab.archlinux.org/gurov/zeptofetch.git
cd zeptofetch
make
sudo make install

This builds from the main branch, which may include release candidates. For production use, download a tagged release from the releases page.

Arch Linux (AUR)

paru -S zeptofetch        # Latest stable release
paru -S zeptofetch-git    # Development version

📖 Usage

# Display system information
zeptofetch

# Show version and build information
zeptofetch --version
zeptofetch -v

The --version flag displays:

• Version number and license information
• Build date, time, and compiler used
• Compact configuration stats (Cache size, chain depth, PID max, timeouts)

⚙️ Configuration

Customize colors by editing config.h. Note: Macros use concise naming to match the source code.

#define CR "\033[0m"        // Reset
#define C1 "\033[1;34m"     // Primary Color (Bold Blue)
#define C2 "\033[1;37m"     // Secondary Color (Bold White)
#define C3 "\033[38;5;208m" // Accent Color (Bold Orange)

Rebuild after changes:

make clean && make
sudo make install

🔍 Technical Details

Implementation

• Compact source with minimal symbol overhead
• mmap-based cache for process information (256 entry limit)
• Direct /proc reads without subprocess spawning
• Pre-computed string lengths for O(1) prefix matching
• Stack allocations with compile-time size limits

Detection

• OS: Single-pass /etc/os-release parsing with PRETTY_NAME fallback
• Shell: Process tree walk via /proc/[pid]/exe symlinks with $SHELL fallback
• Terminal: Ancestor scanning with TERM_PROGRAM/TERMINAL environment checks
• WM: /proc scan (PIDs 300-100000, max 1000 checks) with result caching
• WSL: Multi-method detection (WSLENV, /mnt/wsl, binfmt_misc, kernel strings)
• Kernel: uname() syscall with error handling

🐧 Requirements

• Platform: Linux (x86_64)
• Kernel: 2.6.32+ (any modern kernel)
• libc: glibc, musl, or compatible
• Build: GCC or Clang

Supported: Linux, WSL1, WSL2 (Native detection). Not supported: Android, BSD, macOS.

🤝 Contributing

This project is developed on the Arch Linux GitLab:

👉 https://gitlab.archlinux.org/gurov/zeptofetch

The GitHub repository is a read-only mirror for visibility.

How to contribute:

• Report bugs or suggest features
• Improve documentation
• Submit merge requests
• Test on different distributions

All issues and merge requests should be submitted on the Arch Linux GitLab.

📜 License

Licensed under GPL-3.0

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Made with ⚡ by Gurov

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