fetch

A donut.c-inspired fetch tool that spins your distro logo in 3D with live-updating system info.

Takes any ASCII/Unicode distro logo, turns each character into a point cloud based on its visual density, and renders it as a rotating 3D relief with Blinn-Phong shading. System info is gathered natively – no external dependencies required. Works on Linux and macOS.

Based on gentoo.c.

Build & run

make
./fetch

Press any key to stop – the keypress passes through to the shell, so it works as a startup fetch. Ctrl-C works too.

Install

sudo make install

PREFIX=~/.local make install if you don't want it system-wide.

Package managers

Arch Linux (AUR)

You can install fetch-git from the AUR using your favorite AUR helper:

yay -S fetch-git

or

paru -S fetch-git

The fetch-git AUR package was not compromised in the AUR package hack. It is maintained and up to date.

Nix

Fetch is available in nixpkgs unstable, or as a flake.

Try out fetch!

nix-shell -p fetch

Add to your configuration.nix or home.nix.

environment.systemPackages = [
  ...
  pkgs.fetch
  ...
];

Homebrew (macOS)

brew tap areofyl/fetch
brew install fetch-git

Fedora Linux

You can install fetch from COPR:

sudo dnf copr enable realorangekun/fetch
sudo dnf install fetch

Or build an RPM package locally:

sudo dnf install @development-tools
rpmbuild -ba fetch.spec
sudo dnf install ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/*/fetch-*.rpm

openSUSE

You can install fetch from the Open Build Service:

sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:RealOrangeKun/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/home:RealOrangeKun.repo
sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper install fetch

Or build an RPM package locally:

sudo zypper install -t pattern devel_basis
rpmbuild -ba fetch.spec
sudo zypper install ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/*/fetch-*.rpm

Ubuntu / Debian

You can install fetch from the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:realorangekun/fetch
sudo apt update
sudo apt install fetch

Or build a .deb package locally:

sudo apt install build-essential devscripts debhelper
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -b
sudo apt install ../fetch_*.deb

Gentoo Linux (GURU)

You can install fetch from the GURU repository using:

eselect repository enable guru
emaint sync -r guru
emerge -a app-misc/fetch

As for all GURU packages, you will have to add the package in your package.accept\_keywords directory if ~arch is not already set.

Logos

By default it auto-detects your distro and grabs the logo from fastfetch (if installed) with its original per-character colors preserved. Works with any of fastfetch's 500+ distro logos!

You can also specify one directly:

./fetch -l arch
./fetch -l NixOS
./fetch -l asahi

Or drop a custom logo in ~/.config/fetch/logo.txt:

# distro: gentoo
         -/oyddmdhs+:.
     -odNMMMMMMMMNNmhy+-`
...

Without fastfetch, the built-in Gentoo logo is used.

System info

All system info is gathered natively – no fastfetch or neofetch needed:

• OS - /etc/os-release
• Host - /proc/device-tree/model or /sys/class/dmi/id/product_name
• Kernel - uname()
• Uptime - /proc/uptime
• Packages - emerge, pacman, dpkg, rpm, xbps, apk
• Shell - parent process detection (not just $SHELL)
• Display - per-connector DRM enumeration (multi-monitor)
• WM - process scanning + DE-to-WM mapping
• Theme/Icons/Font - ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini (Linux), defaults read (macOS)
• CPU - /proc/cpuinfo, device-tree (Apple Silicon), or sysctl (macOS)
• GPU - DRM + lspci for full names (Linux), system_profiler (macOS)
• Memory/Swap - /proc/meminfo (Linux), vm_stat (macOS)
• Disk - statvfs() + /proc/mounts (Linux), getmntinfo (macOS) – supports multiple mount points via config
• Battery - energy_now/energy_full (Linux), IOKit (macOS)
• Packages - emerge, pacman, dpkg, rpm/dnf, xbps, apk, flatpak, brew
• Local IP - getifaddrs()

Stats like memory, battery, and uptime update in real-time while the logo spins.

Config

Create ~/.config/fetch/config to customize:

# fields – list to show, in this order
# remove or comment out to hide
os
host
kernel
uptime
packages
shell
display
wm
theme
icons
font
terminal
cpu
gpu
memory
swap
disk
ip
battery
locale
colors

# extra disks (add more mount points)
# disk=/home
# disk=/data

# appearance
# label_color=magenta   (red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white)
# separator=─           (character for the title separator)
# shading=.,-~:;=!*#$@  (characters for 3D shading, supports UTF-8)
# box=0                 (adds a box around the system-data, 0 = off, 1 = on)

# logo colors (override distro defaults)
# logo_outer=magenta    (outer/heavy character color)
# logo_inner=white      (inner/light character color)

# 3d
# light=top-left        (top-left, top-right, top, left, right, front, bottom-left, bottom-right)
# spin=xy               (x, y, or xy)
# speed=1.0             (rotation speed)
# size=1.0              (logo scale, e.g. 2.0 for double size)
# depth=1.0             (3D extrusion depth, e.g. 3.0 for chunkier look)
# height=36             (override render height in rows)

Options

Flag	Description
-l, --logo <name>	Use a logo from fastfetch by name
--rotate-x	Lock rotation to X axis only
--rotate-y	Lock rotation to Y axis only
-s, --speed <float>	Speed multiplier (default 1.0)
--size <float>	Scale the logo (e.g. 2.0 for double size)
--depth <float>	Scale the 3D depth (default 1.0)
--height <n>	Override render height in rows
--no-info	Just the logo, no system info
--no-color	Disable coloring
--frames <n>	Stop after n frames
--infinite	Run forever
--shading-chars <str>	Custom shading ramp, supports UTF-8
-h, --help	Show help

CLI flags override config file settings.

Contributing

PRs are welcome! If you want to add a feature, fix a bug, or package fetch for your distro, go for it. I try to keep the codebase small and easy to understand, so smaller PRs are easier to merge than big ones.

If you want to chat about ideas before writing code, reach out on Reddit or open an issue.

How it works

1. Logo loading – reads ASCII/Unicode art from ~/.config/fetch/logo.txt or grabs a distro logo via fastfetch. ANSI color codes are parsed and preserved per-character.

2. Heightmap – each character gets a weight based on visual density (@ is heavy, . is light, █ is full, ░ is thin). The weight becomes a Z height, turning the flat logo into a 3D relief map. Logos with low height variance (uniform characters) get their depth auto-scaled so they don't look flat.

3. Point cloud – the heightmap is sampled into 3D points. Interior cells get multiple Z layers for a solid extrusion, edge cells get only front and back faces to keep outlines clean.

4. Surface normals – computed from the height gradient at each cell using finite differences, giving each point a direction for lighting.

5. Rotation + projection – every frame, all points are rotated around X/Y axes, then perspective-projected onto the terminal grid with a z-buffer to handle occlusion.

6. Shading – Blinn-Phong lighting (diffuse + specular) maps each visible point to a character from a shading ramp (.,-~:;=!*#$@ by default). The original logo colors are applied via ANSI escapes.

7. Rendering – the entire frame is written in a single write() syscall to avoid flicker. System info is displayed alongside the animation and fast-changing fields (uptime, memory, swap) update live every second.

Single file C, no dependencies beyond libm.