# Dynamically change your gnome desktop wallpaper


In gnome, you can can use a XML file to have a dynamic wallpaper. It's
not so easy, and you can't just tell: use the pictures in this folder to
do so.

You can have a look to the git repository if you want:
<http://github.com/ametaireau/gnome-background-generator>

Some time ago, I've made a little python script to ease that, and you
can now use it too. It's named "gnome-background-generator", and you can
install it via pip for instance.

``` sourceCode shell
$ pip install gnome-background-generator
```

Then, you have just to use it this way:

``` sourceCode shell
$ gnome-background-generator -p ~/Images/walls -s
/home/alexis/Images/walls/dynamic-wallpaper.xml generated
```

Here is a extract of the \`--help\`:

``` sourceCode shell
$ gnome-background-generator --help
usage: gnome-background-generator [-h] [-p PATH] [-o OUTPUT]
                                  [-t TRANSITION_TIME] [-d DISPLAY_TIME] [-s]
                                  [-b]

A simple command line tool to generate an XML file to use for gnome
wallpapers, to have dynamic walls

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -p PATH, --path PATH  Path to look for the pictures. If no output is
                        specified, will be used too for outputing the dynamic-
                        wallpaper.xml file. Default value is the current
                        directory (.)
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        Output filename. If no filename is specified, a
                        dynamic-wallpaper.xml file will be generated in the
                        path containing the pictures. You can also use "-" to
                        display the xml in the stdout.
  -t TRANSITION_TIME, --transition-time TRANSITION_TIME
                        Time (in seconds) transitions must last (default value
                        is 2 seconds)
  -d DISPLAY_TIME, --display-time DISPLAY_TIME
                        Time (in seconds) a picture must be displayed. Default
                        value is 900 (15mn)
  -s, --set-background  '''try to set the background using gnome-appearance-
                        properties
  -b, --debug
```