Wallutils

• Detect monitor resolutions and set the desktop wallpaper, for any window manager (please file an issue if your window manager is not supported yet).
• Supports GNOME timed wallpapers, and includes a utility that can run an event loop for changing them (also supports cross fading).
• Introduces a new file format for timed wallpapers: The Simple Timed Wallpaper format: Web | Markdown | PDF

Timed Wallpapers

The Mojave timed wallpaper and other timed wallpapers can be set with the settimed command, and will cross fade from image to image as the day progresses:

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Included utilities

• getdpi, for retrieving the average DPI, for all monitors (supports -l for both X and Y DPI).
• lscollection, for listing installed wallpaper collections (supports -l).
• timedinfo, for showing more information about installed GNOME timed wallpapers.
• lsmon lists the connected monitors and resolutions.
• lstimed for listing installed GNOME timed wallpapers.
• lswallpaper, for listing all installed wallpapers.
• setcollection, for setting a suitable (in terms of resolution) wallpaper from a wallpaper collection.
• setrandom, for setting a random wallpaper.
• settimed, for setting GNOME timed wallpapers (will continue to run, to handle time events).
• setwallpaper can be used for setting a wallpaper (works both over X and the Wayland protocol).
• wayinfo shows detailed information about the connected monitors, via Wayland.
• xinfo shows detailed information about the connected monitors, via X.
• xml2stw for converting GNOME timed wallpapers to the Simple Timed Wallpaper format.

Example use of the lsmon utility

$ lsmon
0: 1920x1200
1: 1920x1200
2: 1920x1200

Building and installing utilities

Using make, for building and installing all included utilities:

make
make install

Using Go 1.11 or later, for a single utility:

go get -u github.com/xyproto/wallutils/cmd/settimed

On Arch Linux:

Install wallutils from AUR, or:

sudo pacman -Syu git go libxcursor libxmu wayland xbitmaps xorgproto
git clone https://github.com/xyproto/wallutils
cd wallutils
make
sudo make install

On Ubuntu:

sudo apt get update
sudo apt get install libxcursor-dev libxmu-dev libx11-dev git golang-go
git clone https://github.com/xyproto/wallutils
cd wallutils
make
sudo make install

Example use of settimed

settimed mojave-timed

Example use of setwallpaper

setwallpaper /path/to/background/image.png

Example use of setrandom

setrandom /usr/share/pixmaps

Example use of the Go package

Retrieve monitor resolution(s)

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"os"

	"github.com/xyproto/wallutils"
)

func main() {
	// Retrieve a slice of Monitor structs, or exit with an error
	monitors, err := wallutils.Monitors()
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "%s\n", err)
		os.Exit(1)
	}
	// For every monitor, output the ID, width and height
	for _, monitor := range monitors {
		fmt.Printf("%d: %dx%d\n", monitor.ID, monitor.Width, monitor.Height)
	}
}

Change the wallpaper

fmt.Println("Setting background image to: " + imageFilename)
if err := wallutils.SetWallpaper(imageFilename); err != nil {
	return err
}

Build requirements

• Go 1.11 or later.
• A working C compiler (tested with GCC 8.2.1).
• Header files for Wayland and X.

Runtime requirements

• libwayland-client.so, for Wayland support.
• libX11.so, for X support.

General info

• Author: Alexander F. Rødseth <xyproto@archlinux.org>
• License: MIT
• Version: 5.2.1