wallpaper.sh

wallpaper.sh is a rudimentary bash script that searches for and downloads photos from Unsplash and then sets them as your desktop wallpaper. Currently, it only supports desktop installations of Ubuntu.

Warning

The Unsplash API explicitly prohibits the use of their API for wallpaper applications. wallpaper.sh is intended for personal use only and at your own peril.

Installation

wallpaper.sh is super easy to install and use. The following command verifies that you're running a supported version of Ubuntu, then installs any required dependencies, and finally presents a step-by-step setup wizard to configure and install wallpaper.sh. Just copy and paste the following command into your terminal to get started.

curl -fsL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/siddhantvinchurkar/wallpaper.sh/refs/heads/master/wallpaper.sh" | bash

During the installation process, you'll be prompted to enter an Unsplash API key. If you don't have one, you can create a free account on the Unsplash website and generate an API key from the developer section.

Get your Unsplash API key

Usage

wallpaper.sh configures an alias on your system during the installation process. You can use the wp command to bring up the wallpaper.sh interface.

wp

Since wp is just an alias for the installation command, you can also run the script directly with the following command.

curl -fsL "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/siddhantvinchurkar/wallpaper.sh/refs/heads/master/wallpaper.sh" | bash

If you want to quickly change your wallpaper without going through the entire interface, you can use the following command.

[ -f $HOME/.wallpaper.sh.profile ] && WFL=0 source $HOME/.wallpaper.sh.profile

Features

During the installation process, wallpaper.sh writes a list of search terms to a configuration file. You can customize these search terms to find wallpapers that suit your taste.

Use any text editor of your choice to modify the configuration file.

nano $HOME/.wallpaper.sh.keywords

Each line should contain a single search term. For example:

nature
cars
summer
abstract
wildlife
urban
sea
perspective
winter
autumn
spring
monsoon
rain
landscape
unhinged
blur
aerial
earth
pastel
travel
minimalist
textures
girls
cityscape
bangalore
black
space
universe
night
sunrise
sunset
trees
dark
lonely
colorful

Uninstallation

If you ever need to uninstall wallpaper.sh, just choose the "Uninstall wallpaper.sh" option from the main menu.

You can also manually uninstall it by removing the files and configurations created by wallpaper.sh if you no longer wish to use it. Use the following commands to uninstall wallpaper.sh manually.

rm -f $HOME/.wallpaper.sh.config
rm -f $HOME/.wallpaper.sh.profile
rm -f $HOME/.wallpaper.sh.keywords
sudo rm -f /var/log/wallpaper.json
grep -q 'source $HOME/.wallpaper.sh.profile' $HOME/.profile; [ $? -eq 0 ] && sed -i '/source $HOME\/.wallpaper.sh.profile/d' $HOME/.profile
grep -q 'alias wp=' $HOME/.bash_aliases; [ $? -eq 0 ] && sed -i '/alias wp=/d' $HOME/.bash_aliases
crontab -l | grep -v -F "WLF=0 $HOME/.wallpaper.sh.profile" | crontab -
unset CWFI CWUK WFI WUK WSQ WLF WLC
source $HOME/.profile

Logging

wallpaper.sh is designed to fail silently in order to avoid cluttering the user's terminal with error messages. I have not implemented any logging functionality yet and don't plan to either. You're welcome to submit a pull request if you'd like to add this feature though!

That being said, there is a file that stores information about the last wallpaper that was set. You can find it at /var/log/wallpaper.json.

To view the contents of this file, you can use the following command:

cat /var/log/wallpaper.json | jq -r

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you have suggestions for improvements or new features, please open an issue or submit a pull request.