backman

Backman is a random/fixed background image setter for wlroots based compositors

Dependencies:

The program depends on swaybg, python3-toml (or python-toml), python3

Installation:

Meet the required dependencies and run the provided "install" script like this:

sudo ./install   

Prepending the install script with "sudo" or executing in super user environment ensures that it is installed system-wide.

If you are using Arch Linux, there is an AUR package, called "backman". You can install by cloning or using an AUR helper.

Configuration

The configuration for backman resides at ~/.config/backman.toml The configuration follows the toml markup. The configuration contains three options:

• mode: this parameter can have two values, "fixed" and "random". The "fixed" option is used to have a single image as your background. The "random" option picks a random picture from your specified directories (defined in next configuration paratemer)
• directories: this paramater is list type. For "random" feature to work, you have to specify directories which would be looked for pictures. Take care that you have to add full path and you can not add such values: "~/Pictures". You have to specify like "/home/user/Pictures"
• fix_bg: this parameter should contain full path to an image. For "fixed" feature to work, you have to specify a fixed image to be set as background each time

Example configuration 1:
mode = "random"
directories = [ "/home/cat/pix/bg", "/usr/share/backgrounds" ]
fix_bg = "/home/cat/pix/bg/btwarch-black.png"

Example configuration 2: mode = "fixed"
directories = [ "/home/cat/pix/bg", "/usr/share/backgrounds" ]
fix_bg = "/home/cat/pix/bg/btwarch-black.png"

Also note that you can also change these configurations without actually editing the configuration file, itself inside the program. See usage for knowing how.

Usage

usage: backman [-h] [--set] [--return-path]
[--change-mode CHANGE_MODE]
[--set-fix-bg SET_FIX_BG] [--add-dir ADD_DIR]
[--rm-dir RM_DIR]

Set backgrounds in sway and other wlroot based compositors,
either random background image or fixed

optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--set, -s Set the background, either random or
fixed (as specified in configuration)
--return-path, -r Return the path of background that would
be set, either random or fixed
--change-mode CHANGE_MODE, -m CHANGE_MODE
--set-fix-bg SET_FIX_BG, -i SET_FIX_BG
--add-dir ADD_DIR
--rm-dir RM_DIR

• The --set flag instructs the program to set the background (either fixed or random, as specified in configuration)
• The --return-path flag instructs the program to return the path of background image to be set (either fixed or random, as specified in configuration)
• The --change-mode parameter can change the modes between fixed and random
  For example, to change the mode to fixed, you can execute:

backman -m fixed   

To change to random, you can execute:

backman -m random   

• The --set-fix-bg paramter can be used to set the fixed background image for "fixed" mode.
  For example, to set the image: /home/user/Pictures/1.jpg as fixed background image, you can execute:

backman -i /home/user/Pictures/1.jpg   

• The --add-dir and --rm-dir can be respectively used to add and remove directories from directories configuration.
  For example, to remove "/home/user/Pictures" directory and add "/usr/share/backgrounds" directory, you can execute:

backman --add-dir /usr/share/backgrounds --rm-dir /home/user/Pictures   

Reminder and tip

The background set by this script (or swaybg) is not persistent across logout and logins. It just disappears after quitting compositor/window manager. To have a persistent feel, add the following command to your autostart script (maybe in your window manager/compositor configuration):

backman -s   

License

This program is licensed under MIT license

Thanks

The project waves out a great thanks to sway team for developing swaybg