o1911
January 5th, 2010, 01:24 AM
Hi there,
After spending a couple of weeks tinkering (and simultaneously learning bash) with the script found here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4213525#post4213525) (the second script, and many thanks to the authors), I can now enjoy the "Astronomy Picture of the Day" (APoD) as my wallpaper fetched daily with zero effort. I thought it would be nice to share with other interested people out there.
The APoD website is here (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html) if you would like to see what it's all about.
If you would like this script setup on your system, follow these steps:
1) Download the script I've helped modify. Save it anywhere you like and call it whatever you want, just remember where it is. I've called mine apodwallpaper and by default it saves the APoD pictures to ~/Pictures/APoD/, although this is easily changed.
#!/bin/bash
#Filename: apodwallpaper
#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>, o1911
# change this if you want the image to be in a different directory
DIRECTORY=$HOME/Pictures/APoD
cd $DIRECTORY
# fetch the apod site's text, to determine the latest apod
SITE=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/index.html
if $(wget $SITE); then
# the prefix of the filename is to be the current date
FILENAME=$(cat $(echo $SITE | rev | cut -d "/" -f -1 | rev) | grep $(date +%Y) | head -1)
# format this date to have underscores instead of spaces
FILENAME=$(echo $FILENAME | tr " " "_")
# check if today's file exists
if [ ! -f $FILENAME* ]; then
# if not, download image from apod site
wget -A.jpg,.JPG -R.txt -r -l1 --no-parent -nH $SITE
# find largest file (biggest res. picture)
BIGFILESIZE=$(find apod/ -printf '%s\n' | sort -nr | head -1)
# check if biggest file is a dir (no picture today)
if [ $BIGFILESIZE == 4096 ]; then
## there is no picture for today
# set today's picture to be yesterday's
YESTERDAY=$(( $(date +%s) - 86400 )) # 86400 seconds in a day
ln -sf "$(find $DIRECTORY/ | grep -i $(date -d "@$YESTERDAY" +%Y_%B_%d))" "$HOME/wallpaper"
## set today's picture to be a random one
#NUMBEROFFILES=$(find . | wc -l)
#NUMBER=$(( $RANDOM % $NUMBEROFFILES ))
#ln -sf "$DIRECTORY/$(ls | tail -$NUMBEROFFILES | head -$NUMBER | tail -1)" $HOME/wallpaper
rm -rf ap* *.apod robots.txt* index.html*
exit 0
fi
## we have a picture for today
# get its relative path for movement to ${DIRECTORY}
BIGGESTFILE=$(find apod/ -size ${BIGFILESIZE}c)
# also get its base filename to append
BIGGESTFILENAME=$(find apod/ -size ${BIGFILESIZE}c -printf '%f\n')
# declare our final filename for today's picture
WALLPAPER=$FILENAME-$BIGGESTFILENAME
# move it to the proposed directory
mv $BIGGESTFILE $DIRECTORY/$WALLPAPER
else
WALLPAPER=$(find $DIRECTORY/ -name $FILENAME* -printf "%f\n")
fi
else # wget failed. internet up?
exit 1
fi
# as cron cannot set the wallpaper on its own, use a symbolic link to be a pointer to the background
rm $HOME/wallpaper
ln -sf "$DIRECTORY/$WALLPAPER" $HOME/wallpaper
# get rid of cruft
rm -rf ap* *.apod robots.txt* index.html*
exit 0
2) Setup your crontab to make this script run automatically. You can edit your crontab with the command "crontab -e". If you are unfamiliar with text-editors, nano will be the easiest to use. More about crontab here (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CronHowto). To give a clue as how your crontab should look, this is what calls my apod script:
# m h dom mon dow command
*/30 * * * * /home/username/bin/apodwallpaper
3) Get your GNOME session to use the wallpaper as your background- do the usual right-click desktop, change desktop background, add, and point to the 'wallpaper' file in your home ($HOME) directory. Everytime cron runs apodwallpaper and downloads a new picture, your desktop will now automatically update to it.
The reason I've my script called at many times in the day is just so I might still get the picture if my computer is off for a period there. I've made the script so that it won't redownload the picture every time so calling it many times is not a problem.
Hopefully that's enough to get most people setup. If you can think of how to make this script even better, please say so or even do so and post back here. Cheers!
edit: script wasn't working... fixed now.
edit again: made the script much better; now there is no dependence on your local timezone.
After spending a couple of weeks tinkering (and simultaneously learning bash) with the script found here (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4213525#post4213525) (the second script, and many thanks to the authors), I can now enjoy the "Astronomy Picture of the Day" (APoD) as my wallpaper fetched daily with zero effort. I thought it would be nice to share with other interested people out there.
The APoD website is here (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html) if you would like to see what it's all about.
If you would like this script setup on your system, follow these steps:
1) Download the script I've helped modify. Save it anywhere you like and call it whatever you want, just remember where it is. I've called mine apodwallpaper and by default it saves the APoD pictures to ~/Pictures/APoD/, although this is easily changed.
#!/bin/bash
#Filename: apodwallpaper
#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>, o1911
# change this if you want the image to be in a different directory
DIRECTORY=$HOME/Pictures/APoD
cd $DIRECTORY
# fetch the apod site's text, to determine the latest apod
SITE=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/index.html
if $(wget $SITE); then
# the prefix of the filename is to be the current date
FILENAME=$(cat $(echo $SITE | rev | cut -d "/" -f -1 | rev) | grep $(date +%Y) | head -1)
# format this date to have underscores instead of spaces
FILENAME=$(echo $FILENAME | tr " " "_")
# check if today's file exists
if [ ! -f $FILENAME* ]; then
# if not, download image from apod site
wget -A.jpg,.JPG -R.txt -r -l1 --no-parent -nH $SITE
# find largest file (biggest res. picture)
BIGFILESIZE=$(find apod/ -printf '%s\n' | sort -nr | head -1)
# check if biggest file is a dir (no picture today)
if [ $BIGFILESIZE == 4096 ]; then
## there is no picture for today
# set today's picture to be yesterday's
YESTERDAY=$(( $(date +%s) - 86400 )) # 86400 seconds in a day
ln -sf "$(find $DIRECTORY/ | grep -i $(date -d "@$YESTERDAY" +%Y_%B_%d))" "$HOME/wallpaper"
## set today's picture to be a random one
#NUMBEROFFILES=$(find . | wc -l)
#NUMBER=$(( $RANDOM % $NUMBEROFFILES ))
#ln -sf "$DIRECTORY/$(ls | tail -$NUMBEROFFILES | head -$NUMBER | tail -1)" $HOME/wallpaper
rm -rf ap* *.apod robots.txt* index.html*
exit 0
fi
## we have a picture for today
# get its relative path for movement to ${DIRECTORY}
BIGGESTFILE=$(find apod/ -size ${BIGFILESIZE}c)
# also get its base filename to append
BIGGESTFILENAME=$(find apod/ -size ${BIGFILESIZE}c -printf '%f\n')
# declare our final filename for today's picture
WALLPAPER=$FILENAME-$BIGGESTFILENAME
# move it to the proposed directory
mv $BIGGESTFILE $DIRECTORY/$WALLPAPER
else
WALLPAPER=$(find $DIRECTORY/ -name $FILENAME* -printf "%f\n")
fi
else # wget failed. internet up?
exit 1
fi
# as cron cannot set the wallpaper on its own, use a symbolic link to be a pointer to the background
rm $HOME/wallpaper
ln -sf "$DIRECTORY/$WALLPAPER" $HOME/wallpaper
# get rid of cruft
rm -rf ap* *.apod robots.txt* index.html*
exit 0
2) Setup your crontab to make this script run automatically. You can edit your crontab with the command "crontab -e". If you are unfamiliar with text-editors, nano will be the easiest to use. More about crontab here (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CronHowto). To give a clue as how your crontab should look, this is what calls my apod script:
# m h dom mon dow command
*/30 * * * * /home/username/bin/apodwallpaper
3) Get your GNOME session to use the wallpaper as your background- do the usual right-click desktop, change desktop background, add, and point to the 'wallpaper' file in your home ($HOME) directory. Everytime cron runs apodwallpaper and downloads a new picture, your desktop will now automatically update to it.
The reason I've my script called at many times in the day is just so I might still get the picture if my computer is off for a period there. I've made the script so that it won't redownload the picture every time so calling it many times is not a problem.
Hopefully that's enough to get most people setup. If you can think of how to make this script even better, please say so or even do so and post back here. Cheers!
edit: script wasn't working... fixed now.
edit again: made the script much better; now there is no dependence on your local timezone.