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NAME

       sensors.conf - libsensors configuration file

DESCRIPTION

       sensors.conf  describes  how  libsensors, and so all programs using it,
       should translate the raw readings from the kernel modules to real-world
       values.

SEMANTICS

       On  a given system, there may be one or more hardware monitoring chips.
       Each chip may have several features. For example, the LM78  monitors  7
       voltage   inputs,  3  fans  and  one  temperature.  Feature  names  are
       standardized. Typical feature names are in0, in1,  in2...  for  voltage
       inputs,  fan1,  fan2,  fan3...  for fans and temp1, temp2, temp3... for
       temperature inputs.

       Each  feature  may  in  turn  have  one  or  more  sub-features,   each
       representing  an attribute of the feature: input value, low limit, high
       limit, alarm, etc. Sub-feature names  are  standardized  as  well.  For
       example,   the   first   voltage   input  (in0)  would  typically  have
       sub-features in0_input (measured value), in0_min (low  limit),  in0_max
       (high  limit)  and  in0_alarm  (alarm  flag).  Which  sub-features  are
       actually present depend on the exact chip type.

       The sensors.conf configuration file will let you configure  each  chip,
       feature and sub-feature in a way that makes sense for your system.

       The  rest  of  this section describes the meaning of each configuration
       statement.

   CHIP STATEMENT
       A chip statement selects for which chips all following compute,  label,
       ignore  and  set  statements  are meant. A chip selection remains valid
       until the next chip statement. Example:

              chip "lm78-*" "lm79-*"

       If a chip matches at least one of the chip descriptions, the  following
       configuration lines are examined for it, otherwise they are ignored.

       A chip description is built from several elements, separated by dashes.
       The first element is the chip type, the second element is the  name  of
       the  bus, and the third element is the hexadecimal address of the chip.
       Such chip descriptions are printed by sensors(1) as the first line  for
       every chip.

       The  name of the bus is either isa, pci, virtual, spi-* or i2c-N with N
       being a bus number as bound with  a  bus  statement.  This  list  isn’t
       necessarily  exhaustive  as support for other bus types may be added in
       the future.

       You may substitute the wildcard operator  *  for  every  element.  Note
       however  that it wouldn’t make any sense to specify the address without
       the bus type, so the address part is plain omitted when  the  bus  type
       isn’t specified.  Here is how you would express the following matches:

       LM78 chip at address 0x2d on I2C bus 1      lm78-i2c-1-2d

       LM78 chip at address 0x2d on any I2C bus    lm78-i2c-*-2d
       LM78 chip at address 0x290 on the ISA bus   lm78-isa-0290
       Any LM78 chip on I2C bus 1                  lm78-i2c-1-*
       Any LM78 on any I2C bus                     lm78-i2c-*-*
       Any LM78 chip on the ISA bus                lm78-isa-*
       Any LM78 chip                               lm78-*
       Any chip at address 0x2d on I2C bus 1       *-i2c-1-2d
       Any chip at address 0x290 on the ISA bus    *-isa-0290

       If  several  chip  statements  match  a  specific  chip,  they  are all
       considered.

   LABEL STATEMENT
       A label statement describes how a feature should  be  called.  Features
       without  a  label  statement  are  just  called  by their feature name.
       Applications can use this to label the readings they present. Example:

              label in3 "+5V"

       The first argument is the feature name.  The  second  argument  is  the
       feature description.

   IGNORE STATEMENT
       An ignore statement is a hint that a specific feature should be ignored
       - probably because it returns bogus values (for example, because a  fan
       or temperature sensor is not connected). Example:

              ignore fan1

       The  only  argument is the feature name. Please note that this does not
       disable anything in the actual sensor chip; it simply hides the feature
       in question from libsensors users.

   COMPUTE STATEMENT
       A  compute  statement  describes  how  a  feature’s raw value should be
       translated to a real-world value, and how a real-world value should  be
       translated  back  to a raw value again. This is most useful for voltage
       sensors, because in general sensor  chips  have  a  limited  range  and
       voltages  outside  this  range must be divided (using resistors) before
       they can be monitored.  Example:

              compute in3 ((6.8/10)+1)*@, @/((6.8/10)+1)

       The example above expresses the fact that the voltage input is  divided
       using two resistors of values 6.8 Ohm and 10 Ohm, respectively. See the
       VOLTAGE COMPUTATION DETAILS section below for details.

       The first argument is the feature  name.  The  second  argument  is  an
       expression  which  specifies  how  a  raw value must be translated to a
       real-world value; ‘@’ stands here  for  the  raw  value.  This  is  the
       formula  which  will  be applied when reading values from the chip. The
       third argument is an expression that specifies how a  real-world  value
       should  be  translated  back  to  a  raw value; ‘@’ stands here for the
       real-world value. This is  the  formula  which  will  be  applied  when
       writing values to the chip. The two formulas are obviously related, and
       are separated by a comma.

       A compute statement applies to all sub-features of the  target  feature
       for  which  it makes sense. For example, the above example would affect
       sub-features in3_min and in3_max (which are  voltage  values)  but  not
       in3_alarm (which is a boolean flag.)

       The following operators are supported in compute statements:
              + - * / ( ) ^ ‘
       ^x means exp(x) and ‘x means ln(x).

       You  may  use  the  name  of sub-features in these expressions; current
       readings are  substituted.  You  should  be  careful  though  to  avoid
       circular references.

       If  at any moment a translation between a raw and a real-world value is
       called for, but no compute statement applies, a one-on-one  translation
       is used instead.

   SET STATEMENT
       A  set  statement  is used to write a sub-feature value to the chip. Of
       course not all sub-feature values can be set that  way,  in  particular
       input  values  and  alarm flags can not. Valid sub-features are usually
       min/max limits.  Example:

              set in3_min  5 * 0.95
              set in3_max  5 * 1.05

       The example above basically configures the chip to allow a 5%  deviance
       for the +5V power input.

       The  first  argument  is  the  feature  name. The second argument is an
       expression which determines the written value. If there is an  applying
       compute statement, this value is fed to its third argument to translate
       it to a raw value.

       You may use the name of  sub-features  in  these  expressions;  current
       readings  are  substituted.  You  should  be  careful  though  to avoid
       circular references.

       Please note that set statements are only executed  by  sensors(1)  when
       you  use  the  -s option. Typical graphical sensors applications do not
       care about these statements at all.

   BUS STATEMENT
       A bus statement binds the description of an I2C or SMBus adapter  to  a
       bus  number.   This  makes  it  possible  to refer to an adapter in the
       configuration file, independent of the  actual  correspondence  of  bus
       numbers  and  actual adapters (which may change from moment to moment).
       Example:

              bus "i2c-0" "SMBus PIIX4 adapter at e800"

       The first argument is the bus number. It  is  the  literal  text  i2c-,
       followed  by  a  number.  As  there is a dash in this argument, it must
       always be quoted.

       The second argument is the adapter name,  it  must  match  exactly  the
       adapter  name  as  it appears in /sys/class/i2c-adapter/i2c-*/name.  It
       should always be quoted as well  as  it  will  most  certainly  contain
       spaces or dashes.

       The   bus   statements   may   be  scattered  randomly  throughout  the
       configuration file; there is no need to place the bus line  before  the
       place  where  its  binding  is  referred to. Still, as a matter of good
       style, we suggest you place all bus statements together at the  top  of
       your configuration file.

       Running sensors --bus-list will generate these lines for you.

       In  the  case where multiple configuration files are used, the scope of
       each bus statement is the configuration file it was  defined  in.  This
       makes  it  possible  to  have bus statements in all configuration files
       which will not unexpectedly interfere with each other.

   STATEMENT ORDER
       Statements can go in any order, however it is recommended to  put  ‘set
       fanX_div’ statements before ‘set fanX_min’ statements, in case a driver
       doesn’t preserve the  fanX_min  setting  when  the  fanX_div  value  is
       changed.  Even  if  the  driver  does,  it’s  still  better  to put the
       statements in this order to avoid accuracy loss.

VOLTAGE COMPUTATION DETAILS

       Most voltage sensors in sensor chips have a range of 0 to 4.08 V.  This
       is  generally  sufficient for the +3.3V and CPU supply voltages, so the
       sensor chip reading is the actual voltage.

       Other supply voltages must be scaled with an external resistor network.
       The  driver  reports  the value at the chip’s pin (0 - 4.08 V), and the
       userspace application must convert this raw value to an actual voltage.
       The compute statements provide this facility.

       Unfortunately   the  resistor  values  vary  among  motherboard  types.
       Therefore you have to figure out the correct resistor values  for  your
       own motherboard.

       For positive voltages (typically +5V and +12V), two resistors are used,
       with the following formula:
               R1 = R2 * (Vs/Vin - 1)

       where:
               R1 and R2 are the resistor values
               Vs is the actual voltage being monitored
               Vin is the voltage at the pin

       This leads to the following compute formula:
               compute inX @*((R1/R2)+1),  @/(((R1/R2)+1)

       Real-world formula for +5V and +12V would look like:
               compute in3 @*((6.8/10)+1), @/((6.8/10)+1)
               compute in4 @*((28/10)+1),  @/((28/10)+1)

       For negative voltages (typically -5V and -12V), two resistors are  used
       as  well,  but  different  boards use different strategies to bring the
       voltage value into the  0  -  4.08  V  range.  Some  use  an  inverting
       amplifier,  others  use  a  positive  reference  voltage. This leads to
       different computation formulas. Note that most users won’t have to care
       because  most modern motherboards make little use of -12V and no use of
       -5V so they do not bother monitoring these voltage inputs.

       Real-world examples for the inverting amplifier case:
               compute in5 -@*(240/60), -@/(240/60)
               compute in6 -@*(100/60), -@/(100/60)

       Real-world examples for the positive voltage reference case:
               compute    in5    @*(1+232/56)    -    4.096*232/56,    (@    +
       4.096*232/56)/(1+232/56)
               compute    in6    @*(1+120/56)    -    4.096*120/56,    (@    +
       4.096*120/56)/(1+120/56)

       Many recent monitoring chips have a  0  -  2.04  V  range,  so  scaling
       resistors are even more needed, and resistor values are different.

       There  are  also  a  few  chips  out  there which have internal scaling
       resistors, meaning that their value is known and  doesn’t  change  from
       one  motherboard  to  the  next.  For  these  chips, the driver usually
       handles the scaling so it is transparent to the  user  and  no  compute
       statements are needed.

TEMPERATURE CONFIGURATION

       On  top  of  the  usual  features,  temperatures  can have two specific
       sub-features:  temperature  sensor  type  (tempX_type)  and  hysteresis
       values (tempX_max_hyst and tempX_crit_hyst).

   THERMAL SENSOR TYPES
       Available thermal sensor types:

       1   PII/Celeron Diode
       2   3904 transistor
       3   thermal diode
       4   thermistor
       5   AMD AMDSI
       6   Intel PECI

       For example, to set temp1 to thermistor type, use:

              set temp1_type 4

       Only  certain  chips support thermal sensor type change, and even these
       usually only support some of the  types  above.  Please  refer  to  the
       specific  driver documentation to find out which types are supported by
       your chip.

       In theory, the BIOS should have configured the sensor types  correctly,
       so you shouldn’t have to touch them, but sometimes it isn’t the case.

   THERMAL HYSTERESIS MECHANISM
       Many  monitoring  chips do not handle the high and critical temperature
       limits as simple limits. Instead, they have two values for each  limit,
       one  which triggers an alarm when the temperature rises and another one
       which clears the alarm  when  the  temperature  falls.  The  latter  is
       typically  a  few  degrees below the former. This mechanism is known as
       hysteresis.

       The reason for implementing things that way is  that  high  temperature
       alarms  typically trigger an action to attempt to cool the system down,
       either by scaling down the CPU frequency, or by  kicking  in  an  extra
       fan.  This should normally let the temperature fall in a timely manner.
       If this was clearing the alarm immediately, then the  system  would  be
       back  to  its  original state where the temperature rises and the alarm
       would immediately trigger again, causing an undesirable tight  fan  on,
       fan  off  loop.  The  hysteresis  mechanism  ensures that the system is
       really cool before the fan stops, so that it will not have to  kick  in
       again immediately.

       So,  in  addition  to  tempX_max, many chips have a tempX_max_hyst sub-
       feature.  Likewise,  tempX_crit  often   comes   with   tempX_max_crit.
       Example:

              set temp1_max      60
              set temp1_max_hyst 56

       The hysteresis mechanism can be disabled by giving both limits the same
       value.

BEEPS

       Some chips  support  alarms  with  beep  warnings.  When  an  alarm  is
       triggered  you  can be warned by a beeping signal through your computer
       speaker. On top of per-feature beep flags, there is  usually  a  master
       beep  control  switch  to  enable  or  disable beeping globally. Enable
       beeping using:

              set beep_enable 1

       or disable it using:

              set beep_enable 0

WHICH STATEMENT APPLIES

       If more than one statement of  the  same  kind  applies  at  a  certain
       moment, the last one in the configuration file is used. So usually, you
       should put more general chip statements at the top, so you can overrule
       them below.

SYNTAX

       Comments  are  introduced by hash marks. A comment continues to the end
       of the line. Empty lines,  and  lines  containing  only  whitespace  or
       comments  are  ignored.  Other lines have one of the below forms. There
       must be whitespace between each element, but the amount  of  whitespace
       is  unimportant.  A line may be continued on the next line by ending it
       with a backslash; this does not work within a comment, NAME or  NUMBER.

              bus NAME NAME NAME
              chip NAME-LIST
              label NAME NAME
              compute NAME EXPR , EXPR
              ignore NAME
              set NAME EXPR

       A   NAME  is  a  string.  If  it  only  contains  letters,  digits  and
       underscores, it does not have to be quoted; in  all  other  cases,  you
       must  use  double  quotes  around  it.   Within quotes, you can use the
       normal escape-codes from C.

       A NAME-LIST is one or more NAME items behind each other,  separated  by
       whitespace.

       A EXPR is of one of the below forms:

              NUMBER
              NAME
              @
              EXPR + EXPR
              EXPR - EXPR
              EXPR * EXPR
              EXPR / EXPR
              - EXPR
              ^ EXPREXPR
              ( EXPR )

       A NUMBER is a floating-point number. ‘10’, ‘10.4’ and ‘.4’ are examples
       of valid floating-point numbers; ‘10.’ or ‘10E4’ are not valid.

FILES

       /etc/sensors3.conf
       /etc/sensors.conf
              The    system-wide     libsensors(3)     configuration     file.
              /etc/sensors3.conf  is  tried  first,  and  if it doesn’t exist,
              /etc/sensors.conf is used instead.

       /etc/sensors.d
              A  directory   where   you   can   put   additional   libsensors
              configuration  files.   Files  found  in  this directory will be
              processed in alphabetical order after the default  configuration
              file. Files with names that start with a dot are ignored.

SEE ALSO

       libsensors(3)

AUTHOR

       Frodo Looijaard and the lm_sensors group http://www.lm-sensors.org/