500px-osx-background

Easily set your Mac background to a random image on 500px website

Description

This script allows you to dynamically change your macOS background, taking images from 500px.

Dependencies

xmllint
shuf
curl
mktemp
openssl

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/phdesign/500px-osx-background.git

Configure the script, by opening it and setting configuration data as preferred
Optionally, you can test the correct working of the script, by opening the Terminal app and running the following command:
```
sh 500px-osx-background.sh OUTPUT_PATH
```

Scheduling with crontab

Put the script on your crontab, by opening the Terminal app and running the following command:
```
crontab -e
```
Now you have to append the following line (press i button to insert data):
```
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin

00 12 * * * sh /directory_path/500px-osx-background.sh /path/to/save/image
```
where /directory_path/ identifies the path of the directory containing the script, /path/to/save/image is the folder to save the selected image, and 00 12 specifies the program has to be called every day at noon. setting the PATH is required to allow us to use user binaries
Hit :wq to close, saving the file

Scheduling with launchd

Create a file at ~/Library/LaunchAgents/500px-osx-background.agent.plist
Enter the following to schedule it to run 12pm daily

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
	<dict>
		<key>Label</key>
		<string>500px-osx-background</string>
		<key>ProgramArguments</key>
		<array>
			<string>/bin/sh</string>
			<string>/path/to/500px-osx-background.sh</string>
			<string>/path/to/save/image</string>
		</array>
		<key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
		<dict>
			<key>PATH</key>
			<string>/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin</string>
		</dict>
		<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
		<dict>
			<key>Hour</key>
			<integer>12</integer>
			<key>Minute</key>
			<integer>0</integer>
		</dict>
		<key>StandardOutPath</key>
		<string>/tmp/500px-osx-background.log</string>
		<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
		<string>/tmp/500px-osx-background.log</string>
	</dict>
</plist>

Testing using

$ launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/500px-osx-background.agent.plist 
$ launchctl start 500px-osx-background

If you make changes you need to unload first.

$ launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/500px-osx-background.agent.plist

Notes

In order to immediately set the new background, the Dock program has to be killed. If you don't want to kill it, you can comment the relative line on the script.

It's also available a Reddit version of this program, with support to Gnome based Linux systems.

External contributions

Thanks to theiwaz for his suggestions on multi monitor support
Thanks to miladkdz for his suggestions on macOS Sierra support
Thanks to vitovalov for his better implementation of the background change procedures
Thanks to ctissier for the randomization trick to solve macOS cache issues
Thanks to duongvu89 for the provided bug fixes
Thanks to stefanskotte for the provided bug fix

phdesign / 500px-osx-background