Skip to content

Installation

Jump to bottom
eylles edited this page Mar 14, 2025 · 33 revisions

Table of Contents

Requirements

Dependencies

  • linux or bsd or macOS (iTerm2) or windows (no terminal support)
  • python 3.5+
  • imagemagick
    • Colorscheme generation.
  • pidof (procps)
    • Detection of running programs.
  • xfce, gnome, cinnamon, mate
    • Desktop wallpaper setting.
  • feh, nitrogen, bgs, hsetroot, habak, display
    • Universal wallpaper setting.

Terminal Emulator

To use wal your terminal emulator must support a special type of escape sequence. The command below can be used as a test to see if wal will work with your setup.

Run the command below, does the background color of your terminal become red?

printf "%b" "\033]11;#ff0000\007"

Note: Before the test, clean your current memory's Xresources with xrdb -remove *. The .Xresources file overrides the printf "%b" "\033]11;#ff0000\007" command.

If your terminal's background color is now red, your terminal should work with wal.

Terminals that DON'T work with wal.

Installation

Pip install

System-wide install (sudo) - not reccomended!!!

pip3 install pywal16

User install (No sudo)

old way

pip3 install --user pywal16

# Add local 'pip' to PATH:
# (In your .bashrc, .zshrc etc)
export PATH="${PATH}:${HOME}/.local/bin/"

new way as per PEP668

with pipx

# install pipx from your package manager
# example for debian based distros
sudo apt install pipx

# install with pipx
pipx install pywal16

with venv

# install the venv module from your package manager
# example for debian based distros
sudo apt install python3-venv

# create a virtual environment
python3 -m venv ~/.local/lib/python

# Add the venv after your path
# (In your .bashrc, .zshrc etc)
. ~/.local/lib/python/bin/activate

# finally install as always
pip3 install pywal16

Manual/Git install

git clone https://github.com/eylles/pywal16
cd pywal16
pip3 install --user .

# Add local 'pip' to PATH:
# (In your .bashrc, .zshrc etc)
export PATH="${PATH}:${HOME}/.local/bin/"

Manual/Git branch test

you can test different branches of pywal by either cloning the repo and fetching the branch to do a manual install, or clone the branch directly then do a manual install if you have not done a clone of the repo previously.

Clone and fetch:

git clone https://github.com/eylles/pywal16
cd pywal16
git fetch <branch>:<destination> # destination should be same name as remote branch
git switch <branch> # checkout may not have an easy time finding the branch
pip3 install --user .

Branch clone:

git clone -b <branch> https://github.com/eylles/pywal16
cd pywal16
pip3 install --user .

Remember to DO replace the text and the angle brackets <> (chevrons) surronding it with the branch name, so for example a branch clone of the branch shade_16-ref would be like this:

git clone -b shade_16-ref https://github.com/eylles/pywal16

Note

none of these installations will provide the backends or binaries like imagemagick, however for python based backends you can append the desired backend name to your pip call, for example:

pip install "pywal16[colorthief]"

for all python based backends we have the all shortcut:

pip install "pywal16[all]"

Same story when you install from source or when checking out a branch for development:

No dependencies, MUST provided native executables:

python -m pip install -e .

Install colorthief backend along:

python -m pip install -e ".[colorthief]"

Install all python based backends:

python -m pip install -e ".[all]"

OS/Distro Packages

Packaging status

Backends

If you want to enable alternative backends, install the supported backend via pip. To install colorz for example:

pip3 install --user colorz
Clone this wiki locally