Fastfetch: a C system information tool for people who outgrew neofetch

The problem fastfetch solves, and who actually has that problem

Neofetch is the reference point here, and the fastfetch README answers the comparison question directly rather than dodging it. Its stated reasons are that fastfetch is actively maintained, faster, has more features, is more configurable, is more polished in number formatting, and is more accurate. The formatting example is concrete: neofetch prints 555 MiB in the Memory module and 23 G in the Disk module, while fastfetch prints 555.00 MiB and 22.97 GiB. The accuracy example is that neofetch never actually supported the Wayland protocol.

So the audience is narrower than "anyone who likes terminal screenshots". It is people who already run a fetch tool on shell startup, who have hit a module that reports the wrong thing, and who are willing to edit a config file to fix it. The README notes the author runs it on shell startup across several VMs and uses the Local IP module to avoid typing ip addr before SSHing in. That is a real workflow, not decoration.

The second audience is packagers and script authors. Fastfetch is written mainly in C, builds through CMake, and exposes a JSON output mode. Those two facts matter more than the ASCII logo for anyone wiring it into a provisioning script or a support checklist.

How the module, config and output layers fit together

The architecture visible from the repository is a small C core plus a large set of modules, driven by a JSONC configuration file. JSONC means JSON with comments, so you can annotate your own config without stripping it before use. The README points at the Wiki for configuration details and at the presets directory for working examples of the syntax.

The module system is the load-bearing part. By default only a few modules are enabled, which is why a fresh fastfetch run looks sparse compared to the screenshots. Running with the all.jsonc preset turns on every supported module so you can see what is available and then cut back. Modules are also addressable individually, and the same selector syntax appears in three places: enabling modules, generating a config, and dumping data.

Output is not fixed to the pretty layout. The --format json flag prints detected data as JSON, which is the piece that turns fastfetch from a screenshot generator into something a script can consume. Logos are a separate customization layer with their own documentation page, so the visual side and the data side can be changed independently.

One design consequence worth naming: the README warns that fastfetch supports a Command module that can run arbitrary shell commands. That is a deliberate capability, not an oversight, and it is the reason the README tells you to review a config before using it.

Installing fastfetch and running a first real configuration

Installation is mostly a package manager line. The README lists per-distribution commands, and the safest general advice it gives is to prefer the latest version because older versions receive no support. On Debian and Ubuntu the plain package is only current on Debian 13 or newer and Ubuntu 25.04 or newer; on older releases the README points at a PPA for Ubuntu 22.04 or newer.

apt install fastfetch

That is the README's command for Debian 13 or newer and Ubuntu 25.04 or newer. After installing, running fastfetch with no arguments uses the default configuration, which enables only a few modules.

fastfetch

Expect a compact output. To see everything the build supports, load the all preset that ships in the repository.

fastfetch -c all.jsonc

That run is the discovery step. To dump the data fastfetch detects for specific modules as JSON, the README gives this form.

fastfetch -s <module1>[:<module2>][:<module3>] --format json

The -s flag takes one or more modules separated by colons. To write a starting config instead of writing JSONC from scratch, the README documents --gen-config with an optional path.

fastfetch [-s <module1>[:<module2>]] --gen-config [</path/to/config.jsonc>]

If you would rather start from something visual, the presets directory holds the configs used for the screenshots, and -c <filename> loads one.

On macOS and Windows the install lines are equally short: brew install fastfetch or sudo port install fastfetch, and scoop install fastfetch, choco install fastfetch or winget install fastfetch respectively. For a machine where fastfetch is not packaged or the packaged build is old, the README offers linuxbrew as an alternative via brew install fastfetch.

Where fastfetch gets awkward: config trust, platform testing and packaging lag

The Command module is the sharpest limitation in the documentation, and the README treats it as a warning rather than a footnote. A config file from an untrusted source can contain commands that harm your system or compromise your privacy. Sharing a fastfetch config is therefore not like sharing a color scheme. If you adopt fastfetch across a team, the config becomes executable content and needs the review that implies.

Platform support is broad on paper and narrower in practice. The README lists Linux, macOS, Windows 8.1+, Android, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly, Haiku and SunOS, then adds a note that fastfetch is only actively tested on x86-64 and aarch64. It may work elsewhere, but the project does not guarantee it. On a less common architecture you are the tester.

Packaging is the third friction point, and the README is unusually blunt about it: some distributions package outdated versions, and older versions receive no support. That means a bug report against a distribution build may simply be a bug that was fixed upstream, and the first diagnostic step is checking which version you actually have.

Finally, the default experience is deliberately minimal. A user who installs fastfetch expecting the dense output from the project's screenshots will be disappointed until they load all.jsonc or a preset. That is a documentation gap in the README itself: it mentions the default is sparse, but the gap between a bare run and a screenshot is easy to misread.

Fastfetch against neofetch, and against doing nothing

The obvious alternative is neofetch, and the difference is not cosmetic. Neofetch is a shell script; fastfetch is mainly C with a CMake build. That single difference explains most of the rest: a compiled binary starts faster, and a compiled binary has to be packaged per platform, which is why fastfetch maintains a long list of package manager commands while neofetch is a file you drop somewhere.

The second difference is the configuration model. Neofetch configuration is a shell config file you source and edit as shell. Fastfetch uses JSONC, which is data rather than code, with the notable exception of the Command module. Data configs are easier to generate programmatically, which is why fastfetch can offer --gen-config and an online configuration generator.

The third difference is module coverage and correctness. The README claims a greater number of features and calls out Wayland support as something neofetch never actually had. If your machine runs Wayland and your fetch tool misreports the session, that is the practical argument.

The alternative to both is not running a fetch tool at all. If the goal is a support script rather than a login banner, fastfetch --format json is the more defensible use, because the output is machine-readable and the visual layer is irrelevant.

Maintenance cadence, licence and the cost of upgrading

Fastfetch is not archived, and the last push to the repository was on 2026-08-14. Releases in the visible window are 2.67.1 on 2026-08-14, 2.67.0 on 2026-08-06 and 2.66.0 on 2026-07-10, which is a steady cadence rather than a burst. The default branch is dev, not main, which is worth knowing if you build from source or pin a git reference: the branch you clone by default is the development branch.

The upgrade cost is low in the normal case, because the package manager handles it and the config format is JSONC read at runtime. The real cost is version skew. If your distribution ships an old build, you either accept the old behaviour or switch to a newer channel such as the Ubuntu PPA, linuxbrew, or a release archive. The README's stance that older versions receive no support means the upgrade is effectively mandatory for bug reports.

On licensing, fastfetch is MIT. That is permissive: you can redistribute it and ship it inside a larger product, provided you keep the copyright notice and licence text. It says nothing about the configs you write or the Command module entries you put in them, and it says nothing about the licences of the tools your config invokes. Check those separately; this is not legal advice.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt fastfetch if you want a system info fetcher you can shape with a JSONC file and that ships in the package manager you already use. Skip it if you need a guaranteed build on a CPU architecture the project does not test, or if you want a zero-configuration one-liner you never touch again. Before you commit, check the version your distribution actually packages, because the README warns that some distributions ship outdated versions that receive no support, and confirm whether the module you care about appears when you run fastfetch -c all.jsonc.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Official README
2. Project repository
3. Release notes