cowclock(1)
COWCLOCK(1) CoW Manual COWCLOCK(1)

cowclock - analogue clock for CoW

cowclock [-c path] [-h]

cowclock is a resizable analogue clock.

The system configuration is loaded first. Unless -c is used, cowclock then loads $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cow/cowclock.conf or $HOME/.config/cow/cowclock.conf when present. A missing user configuration is not an error, as usable defaults are built in.

Send SIGHUP to reload theme and presentation settings while cowclock is running. The initial size does not resize an already-managed window.

By default, the face background, foreground, and font follow CoW's current theme through the status socket. Explicit font and style settings override the inherited values. If CoW is unavailable, built-in black-on-white defaults are used.

-c path

Load overrides from path instead of the default user configuration.

-h

Print usage and exit.

The configuration is line-oriented. Blank lines and lines beginning with # are ignored. Values containing spaces may be double-quoted.

size width height

Set the requested initial size. Both dimensions must be at least 64.

minimum-size width height

Set the minimum dimensions advertised to the compositor. The default is 120 by 120 pixels.

aspect-ratio true|false

Preserve the ratio given by size during interactive resize. This is enabled by default. Maximized and fullscreen dimensions are still obeyed.

padding pixels

Set the gap between the dial and the closest window edge.

font description

Set the Pango font used for numerals. Its configured size applies at the initial size and scales proportionally with the dial.

timezone name

Display name from the system timezone database, such as Europe/London or America/New_York. Use local for the process's original local timezone.

date-format format

Draw optional date text below the centre using an strftime(3) format. An empty string disables it.

numerals roman|arabic|none

Select Roman numerals, Arabic numerals, or no numerals. Roman four is rendered as IIII, matching traditional clock faces and xarclock.

direction clockwise|anticlockwise

Set the direction of the hands and the order of the numerals.

ticks true|false

Enable or disable minute and hour marks.

second-mode tick|smooth|none

Select a once-per-second hand, a smoothly moving hand, or no second hand. With none, the display wakes only at minute boundaries.

hand hour|minute|second length width

Set a hand's length and total width as percentages of the dial radius.

tick major|minor length width

Set tick length and width as percentages of the dial radius.

numeral-radius percent

Set the distance of numerals from the centre as a percentage of the dial radius.

centre-size percent

Set the centre pin radius as a percentage of the dial radius. Zero hides the pin.

face-outline percent

Set the circular face-outline width as a percentage of the dial radius. Zero disables the outline.

style element colour

Set an element colour. element is one of background, foreground, ticks, numerals, hour, minute, second, centre, or outline. foreground supplies every unset foreground element; a more specific style takes precedence. Colours use CoW's RGB or RGBA syntax.

size 300 300
font "serif 12"
numerals roman
direction anticlockwise
second-mode smooth
timezone Europe/London
date-format "%a %d %b"
face-outline 0.8

style background 0x202020ff
style foreground 0xe0e0e0ff
style second     0xff4040ff
style outline    0x808080ff

cow(1)

2026-08-28 0.2-34-ge7151ab