Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

  • Star 15 You must be signed in to star a gist
  • Fork 10 You must be signed in to fork a gist
Star You must be signed in to star a gist
Save JoshSchreuder/882668 to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
A BASH script to download National Geographic's picture of the day (http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day) saving and setting as wallpaper automatically.
#!/bin/bash
# Copyright (c) 2011 Josh Schreuder
# http://www.postteenageliving.com
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
# of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
# in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
# to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
# copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
# furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
# AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
# LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
# OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
# THE SOFTWARE.
# ********************************
# *** OPTIONS
# ********************************
# Set this to 'yes' to save a description (to ~/description.txt) from ngeo page
GET_DESCRIPTION="yes"
# Set this to the directory you want pictures saved
PICTURES_DIR=~/Pictures
# ********************************
# *** FUNCTIONS
# ********************************
function get_page {
echo "Downloading page to find image"
wget http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/ --quiet -O- 2> /dev/null |
grep -m 1 http://images.nationalgeographic.com/.*.jpg -o > /tmp/pic_url
}
function clean_up {
# Clean up
echo "Cleaning up temporary files"
if [ -e "/tmp/pic_url" ]; then
rm /tmp/pic_url
fi
}
# ********************************
# *** MAIN
# ********************************
echo "===================="
echo "== NGEO Wallpaper =="
echo "===================="
# Set date
TODAY=$(date +'%Y%m%d')
# If we don't have the image already today
if [ ! -e ~/Pictures/${TODAY}_ngeo.jpg ]; then
echo "We don't have the picture saved, save it"
get_page
# Got the link to the image
PICURL=`/bin/cat /tmp/pic_url`
echo "Picture URL is: ${PICURL}"
echo "Downloading image"
wget --quiet $PICURL -O $PICTURES_DIR/${TODAY}_ngeo.jpg
echo "Setting image as wallpaper"
gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename $PICTURES_DIR/${TODAY}_ngeo.jpg
# Else if we have it already, check if it's the most updated copy
else
get_page
# Got the link to the image
PICURL=`/bin/cat /tmp/pic_url`
echo "Picture URL is: ${PICURL}"
# Get the filesize
SITEFILESIZE=$(wget --spider $PICURL 2>&1 | grep Length | awk '{print $2}')
FILEFILESIZE=$(stat -c %s $PICTURES_DIR/${TODAY}_ngeo.jpg)
# If the picture has been updated
if [ $SITEFILESIZE != $FILEFILESIZE ]; then
echo "The picture has been updated, getting updated copy"
rm $PICTURES_DIR/${TODAY}_ngeo.jpg
# Got the link to the image
PICURL=`/bin/cat /tmp/pic_url`
echo "Downloading image"
wget --quiet $PICURL -O $PICTURES_DIR/${TODAY}_ngeo.jpg
echo "Setting image as wallpaper"
gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename $PICTURES_DIR/${TODAY}_ngeo.jpg
# If the picture is the same
else
echo "Picture is the same, finishing up"
fi
fi
clean_up
@mynameismosa
Copy link

Hello! Nice script, but there is no description where and how to use!?

@knedlyk
Copy link

knedlyk commented Sep 24, 2018

Script is old enough and doesn't work properly.

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment