[solved] How to get dmenu to read pywal colors from Xresources?

bowlin · 2025-03-24 18:50:38

Been pondering this for a while after I patched dmenu. I'm under the assumption that it should just work.

Running:

wal -i /path/to/image

Doesn't change dmenu's colors. Also tried running xrdb -merge on both .Xresources and .cache/wal/colors.Xresources.

After running the merge I ran:

xrdb -query | grep -i color

And it's showing proper output, so I'm guessing it should work? Any help highly appreciated, first time properly using Xresources.

Last edited by bowlin (2025-03-26 08:45:37)

seth · 2025-03-24 20:49:04

https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/patches/
Which patch(es) and are color resources otherwise read when not written by pywal?

bowlin · 2025-03-25 06:24:40

Currently have center and border patches (and Xresources) applied, removed the alpha patch due to it colliding with the Xresources patch.

Set this in my .Xresources: *dmenu.border: #3c3836 and ran xrdb -merge .Xresources. Did xrdb -query | grep dmenu and it showed it.

For clarification this is my config.def.h, and at the same time my config.h: https://bpa.st/TIKQ

--- Edit ---

Woops, turns out it wasn't the correct syntax. Changed it to:

*dmenu.background : #3c3836
*dmenu.foreground : #3c3836
*dmenu.selbackground : #3c3836
*dmenu.selforeground : #3c3836

And now it changes it. So it comes down to pywal.

Last edited by bowlin (2025-03-25 06:31:50)

seth · 2025-03-25 07:31:48

I meant which patch you're using to mainpulate the colors, https://github.com/dylanaraps/pywal/blo … al-dmenu.h looks more like https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/patches/xtheme/

bowlin · 2025-03-25 09:42:53

Aha, this one: https://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/patches/xresources/

seth · 2025-03-25 15:51:31

Did you test the xtheme patch?
Cause it doesn't look like pywal writes xrdb for dmenu at all?

bowlin · 2025-03-25 17:26:49

Will give it a go and report back!

Was confused since the xresources patch for st worked. Although it was the one with signal-reloading.

-- Edit --

But pywal does have a file: .cache/wal/colors.Xresources

And the main motivator for all this is that I don't have to recompile it every time I change the colorscheme.

Last edited by bowlin (2025-03-25 17:52:16)

seth · 2025-03-25 20:57:28

But pywal does have a file: .cache/wal/colors.Xresources

And does it set the dmenu resources there?
What does the file look like?

https://man.archlinux.org/man/extra/dmenu/dmenu.1.en supports setting colors via the commandline, if you can extract the relevant ones from somewhere (incl. "xrdb -q") you can set them this way on invocation.

bowlin · 2025-03-26 06:57:38

This is the file: https://bpa.st/3SSA
It isn't a big deal if I have to compile dmenu alone though. Just thought that I'd work just like that I know:

wal -i $image -o ~/.Xresources

Would write straight to .Xresources, but it says no permissions when I do it and I don't think that is the correct way to do it anyways. Looking at the other file: https://bpa.st/42SA (.cache/wal/colors-wal-dmenu.h), it definitely looks different than the Xresources one.
That one works and is indeed referenced in github, just deleting the color array and adding an include line makes it work. But that again, requires me to recompile it everytime.

seth · 2025-03-26 07:25:20

read DMENU_NB DMENU_NF DMENU_SB DMENU_SF < <(awk -F '"' '/SchemeNorm/{print $2" "$4}; /SchemeSel/{print $2" " $4}' ~/.cache/wal/colors-wal-dmenu.h)
dmenu -nb $DMENU_NB -nf $DMENU_NF …

bowlin · 2025-03-26 08:45:13

Turns out I made it more complicated than it should've been I got kinda fixated on the whole notion of using Xresources, when I could've just used an alias... :

#!/bin/sh

# Import the colors
. "${HOME}/.cache/wal/colors.sh"

dmenu_run -nb "$color0" -nf "$color15" -sb "$color1" -sf "$color15"

Thanks anyways!

Arch Linux

#1 2025-03-24 18:50:38

[solved] How to get dmenu to read pywal colors from Xresources?

#2 2025-03-24 20:49:04

Re: [solved] How to get dmenu to read pywal colors from Xresources?

#3 2025-03-25 06:24:40

Re: [solved] How to get dmenu to read pywal colors from Xresources?

#4 2025-03-25 07:31:48

Re: [solved] How to get dmenu to read pywal colors from Xresources?

#5 2025-03-25 09:42:53

Re: [solved] How to get dmenu to read pywal colors from Xresources?

#6 2025-03-25 15:51:31

Re: [solved] How to get dmenu to read pywal colors from Xresources?

#7 2025-03-25 17:26:49

Re: [solved] How to get dmenu to read pywal colors from Xresources?

#8 2025-03-25 20:57:28

Re: [solved] How to get dmenu to read pywal colors from Xresources?

#9 2025-03-26 06:57:38

Re: [solved] How to get dmenu to read pywal colors from Xresources?

#10 2025-03-26 07:25:20

Re: [solved] How to get dmenu to read pywal colors from Xresources?

#11 2025-03-26 08:45:13

Re: [solved] How to get dmenu to read pywal colors from Xresources?

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