random astronomy picture of the day

deicist · 2009-03-26 16:11:30

Not sure where to put this, I found a script on t'internet for downloading today's APOD and setting it as the gnome background. I then modified it to:

a) fix it to work with gif images as well as jpgs.
b) add xfce4 compatibility
c) get a random image instead of todays image

#!/bin/bash
#Filename: apodwallpaper
#Location: ${HOME}/.bin
#Purposes: Downloads NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day and displays it as the
#          GNOME background 
#Author(s): acvwJosh of Ubuntu Forums, modified by Colin Dean <http://cad.cx>
## Modified by deicist of ARCH linux forums:  added xfce4 support, added .gif support, added random support
## requires athena-jot package from AUR


##random stuff goes here
##start date is a cutoff year to get images after.  I use this because most pre-2000 images are too small to make good desktops
STARTDATE="2000";
NOW=$(date +%Y);
randYear=$(jot -r 1 $STARTDATE $NOW);
randMonth=$(jot -r 1 01 12);
randDay=$(jot -r 1 01 28);
getDate=$(date -d $randYear/$randMonth/$randDay +%y%m%d);

#change this if you want the image to be in a different directory
FILENAME=apodwallpaper
APODWALLPAPER=${HOME}/.${FILENAME}


#remove directory if it exists
rm -rf  ${APODWALLPAPER}
mkdir -p ${APODWALLPAPER} && cd ${APODWALLPAPER}

# download image from apod site
wget -A.gif -A.jpg -R.txt -r -l1 --no-parent -nH http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap$getDate.html

# move image from obscure folder to main folder, rename image
find ./apod -name "*.gif" -or -name "*.jpg" | while read line ; do
mv "$line" "${FILENAME}.jpg"
done

#######uncomment next 3 lines for gnome
#gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "blank.jpg"
#gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename "${APODWALLPAPER}/${FILENAME}.jpg"
#gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_options "zoom"

######uncomment next line for xfce4 -primary display
#xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -p /backdrop/screen0/monitor0/image-path -s ""
#xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -p /backdrop/screen0/monitor0/image-path -s "${APODWALLPAPER}/${FILENAME}.jpg"
#xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -p /backdrop/screen0/monitor0/image-style -s 3

#uncomment next line for xfce4 -secondary display
xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -p /backdrop/screen0/monitor1/image-path -s ""
xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -p /backdrop/screen0/monitor1/image-path -s "${APODWALLPAPER}/${FILENAME}.jpg"
xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -p /backdrop/screen0/monitor1/image-style -s 3

# Uncomment ONE of the following for use with feh (thanks to SkonesMickLoud)
#feh --bg-tile "${APODWALLPAPER}/${FILENAME}.jpg"
#feh --bg-center "${APODWALLPAPER}/${FILENAME}.jpg"
#feh --bg-scale "${APODWALLPAPER}/${FILENAME}.jpg"
#feh --bg-seamless "${APODWALLPAPER}/${FILENAME}.jpg"

#get rid of cruft
rm -rf apod robots.txt

Last edited by deicist (2009-03-26 22:29:14)

brazzmonkey · 2009-03-26 17:14:26

I think Community contributions would be more appropriate. Maybe create a PKGBUILD for AUR?

SkonesMickLoud · 2009-03-26 17:30:12

If you'd like to add it, the following works with feh:

# Uncomment ONE of the following for use with feh:
#feh --bg-tile "${APODWALLPAPER}/${FILENAME}.jpg"
#feh --bg-center "${APODWALLPAPER}/${FILENAME}.jpg"
#feh --bg-scale "${APODWALLPAPER}/${FILENAME}.jpg"
#feh --bg-seamless "${APODWALLPAPER}/${FILENAME}.jpg"

Also, line 26 should read rm -rf ${APODWALLPAPER} as ${APODWALLPAPER} is a dir, and most users would (probably) want to avoid confirming the removal of it every time.

I also get this error, even though everything seems to work:

./apodwallpaper.sh: line 15: jot: command not found
./apodwallpaper.sh: line 16: jot: command not found
./apodwallpaper.sh: line 17: jot: command not found

Jot isn't in the repos or AUR, is there an alternative?

Last edited by SkonesMickLoud (2009-03-26 17:39:51)

deicist · 2009-03-26 19:04:37

Cheers for the pointers

Jot is available in AUR, the package is called 'athena-jot' . The package build needs updating though, as per http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=68415

edit: okay, I reposted in community contributions.

Last edited by deicist (2009-03-26 19:10:56)

Procyon · 2009-03-26 19:16:52

You should get the text too and output it with conky or something over the image.

deicist · 2009-03-26 19:25:50

Procyon wrote:

You should get the text too and output it with conky or something over the image.

I was thinking abou this. Shouldn't be too hard with imagemagick or something similar, just not had time to look into it today.

SkonesMickLoud · 2009-03-26 21:05:42

deicist wrote:

Jot is available in AUR, the package is called 'athena-jot' . The package build needs updating though, as per http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=68415

Haa, so it is. I fail at reading!

deicist · 2009-03-26 22:29:43

added suggested improvements to original post.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-26 16:11:30

random astronomy picture of the day

#2 2009-03-26 17:14:26

Re: random astronomy picture of the day

#3 2009-03-26 17:30:12

Re: random astronomy picture of the day

#4 2009-03-26 19:04:37

Re: random astronomy picture of the day

#5 2009-03-26 19:16:52

Re: random astronomy picture of the day

#6 2009-03-26 19:25:50

Re: random astronomy picture of the day

#7 2009-03-26 21:05:42

Re: random astronomy picture of the day

#8 2009-03-26 22:29:43

Re: random astronomy picture of the day

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