Random astronomy picture of the day

Question

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)

Answer 1

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)