pacwall changes your wallpaper to the dependency graph of installed
with pacman packages. Each node is a package and each edge represents
a dependency between two packages. pacwall highlights outdated packages,
orphans, and packages with .pacnew files. The highlighting is customizable.
pacwall is bundled with systemd units that provide functionality
such as triggering wallpaper regeneration on package
upgrade/removal/installation, as well as periodical regeneration,
which ensures that the displayed set of available updates is up-to-date.
Installation
Install the pacwall-git AUR package.
pacwall doesn't know how to set a wallpaper by itself. Therefore, pacwall
requires help in the form of shell commands. Such commands are called hook.
There are some example hooks for different setups, one of which you should copy to
your local config.
If you use GNOME, run:
sudo pacman -S --needed imagemagick xorg-xdpyinfo
mkdir -p ~/.config/pacwall
cp /usr/share/pacwall/examples/hook/gsettings ~/.config/pacwall/pacwall.confIf you use KDE Plasma, run:
mkdir -p ~/.config/pacwall
cp /usr/share/pacwall/examples/hook/plasmash ~/.config/pacwall/pacwall.conf
cp /usr/share/pacwall/examples/hook/oneblackpixel.png ~/.config/pacwall/If you use Xorg sans GNOME/KDE, run:
sudo pacman -S --needed hsetroot
mkdir -p ~/.config/pacwall
cp /usr/share/pacwall/examples/hook/hsetroot ~/.config/pacwall/pacwall.confIf you use Sway, run:
mkdir -p ~/.config/pacwall
cp /usr/share/pacwall/examples/hook/swaymsg ~/.config/pacwall/pacwall.confIf you use Hyprland, run:
sudo pacman -S --needed swaybg
mkdir -p ~/.config/pacwall
cp /usr/share/pacwall/examples/hook/swaybg ~/.config/pacwall/pacwall.confFor some setups, e.g. XFCE, there are no example hooks. Furthermore, the example
hooks can have bugs. You can verify that pacwall itself works fine by examining
the image that it has generated at ~/.cache/pacwall/pacwall.png.
If you use the standard hsetroot hook along with a systemd unit listed
below, you may notice that the package graph disappears if the unit triggers
while your screen is turned off (typically due to DPMS timeout). This can be
fixed by using the /usr/share/pacwall/examples/hook/hsetroot-dpms hook
instead of the plain hsetroot one. However, on multi-display systems, this
may cause undesired stretching of the graph over multiple screens.
Usage
Run pacwall.
The circles represent packages, where the area of a circle is proportional to the
size of the package.
The blue circles are manually (explicitly) installed packages, the red ones are
automatically (implicitly) installed packages. The green circles are packages not found
in the official non-testing repositories (e.g. from the AUR). The outlined teal circles
are orphans, the outlined yellow circles are outdated packages. The outlined magenta
circles are packages with unresolved .pacnew files (it's time to run pacdiff).
The dashed edges represent optional dependencies, the normal edges represent strict
(hard, direct) dependencies. The appearance is customizable, see Customization.
If you want the wallpaper to be persistent, run pacwall -ug in the init file
of DE or WM you use. pacwall -ug doesn't regenerate the wallpaper, it just sets
the most recent one.
If you want the wallpaper to be automatically updated when a package is upgraded/removed/installed, run:
systemctl --user enable pacwall-watch-packages.pathNote that this one runs pacwall -u i.e. the displayed set of available updates
can only shrink.
If you want the wallpaper to be refreshed each hour with the up-to-date set of available updates displayed, run:
systemctl --user enable pacwall-watch-updates.timerIf you use Sway, you must run systemctl --user import-environment SWAYLOCK
by the time the systemd units are triggered. They will fail otherwise.
CLI
-u: do not attempt to add entries to the set of available updatesThis flag speed-ups
pacwall. It also puts off some load from the Arch mirrors, though the load is arguably minor.-g: do not regenerate the graphThis flag doesn't prevent from adding entries to the set of available updates, but the entries will not be visible until the graph is regenerated.
-k: do not run the hook
Customization
~/.config/pacwall/pacwall.conf is used to configure pacwall.
The file is in the libconfig format. TL;DR:
# comment
setting: "foo"
group: {
nestedSetting: "bar"
nestedGroup: {
nestedNestedSetting: "baz"
}
}
longSetting: "A sequence of strings "
"is concatenated into "
"one, like in C."
Note that you must use ' in value strings wherever you would normally
use " and vice versa. This avoids tons of ugly escaped \".
List of settings
hook(no default value)The shell commands that are executed after the graph has been generated. The hook is expected to set the wallpaper. The path to the graph image is exported in the
$Wenvironmental variable.shell(default:bash)The shell in which the commands specified in
hookought to be executed.db(default:/var/lib/pacman)The path to the
pacmanpackages database.attributes(group)The group that contains graphviz attributes, which modify the appearance of the graph, nodes, and edges in various ways. See the
GRAPH, NODE AND EDGE ATTRIBUTESsection inman twopi. Beware that attributes specific to layouts other thantwopiwon't work./usr/share/pacwall/examples/attributes/defaultcontains the attributes that are identical to the hardcoded defaults. It may be easier for you to copy them to yourpacwall.confand then further modify instead of writing these settings from scratch. You can also try out the other examples in the directory.graph(default:bgcolor='#00000000')The graph attributes (separated by semicolons).
package(group)common(default:shape=point, height=0.1, fontname=monospace, fontsize=10)The attributes that are applied to all packages (separated by commas).
implicit(default:color='#dc322faa')The attributes that are applied to implicitly (i.e. to satisfy dependencies of some other packages) installed packages (separated by commas).
explicit(default:color='#268bd2aa')The attributes that are applied to explicitly installed packages (separated by commas).
orphan(default:color='#2aa198aa', fontcolor='#2aa198', peripheries=2, xlabel='\\N')The attributes that are applied to packages installed to satisfy some dependencies and not directly required anymore (separated by commas).
unneeded(no default value)The attributes that are applied to orphan packages that are not optionally required either (separated by commas).
outdated(default:color='#b58900aa', fontcolor='#b58900', peripheries=3, xlabel='\\N')The attributes that are applied to outdated packages (separated by commas).
unresolved(default:color='#d33682aa', fontcolor='#d33682', peripheries=4, xlabel='\\N')The attributes that are applied to packages with .pacnew files (separated by commas).
These files are better to deal with immediately.
repository(group) (default:core: "" extra: "" community: "" multilib: "" *: "color='#859900aa'"
)
The group that maps attributes to packages based on the origin repositories. Settings in this group are in the form of
repository: "comma-separated attributes"Only one set of attributes from this group is applied to a package; if a package is present in more than one repository, the first (from top to bottom) set takes precedence.
A special entry in the form of
*: "comma-separated attributes"is supported. The attributes will be applied to packages that are not present in any of the specified repositories. This entry should come last.
dependency(group)common(default:color='#fdf6e30a')The attributes that are applied to all dependencies (separated by commas).
hard(no default value)The attributes that are applied to hard (as opposed to optional) dependencies (separated by commas).
optional(default:arrowhead=empty, style=dashed)The attributes that are applied to optional dependencies (separated by commas).
features(group)The group that contains settings that control optional features.
installed-size(group) (default:enabled: true delta: 2e-5
)
The group that contains settings that control the installed size representation feature. If
enabledis true, theheightandwidthattributes of nodes are overwritten so that the area covered by a node is proportional to the size of the installed package. The formula is:width in inches = height in inches = (installed size in bytes)^(1/2) * delta
Note that values of these settings are not strings and omit the quotes enclosing them.
Tips and tricks
Background image
Via hsetroot
If hsetroot is used as the wallpaper setter, use the built-in multilayer feature, e.g.:
hook: "hsetroot -fill '/path/to/background' -center '$W' > /dev/null"Via imagemagick
Use the convert command, e.g.:
hook: "convert '/path/to/background.png' '$W' -gravity center -compose over -composite '$W';"
"…"The imagemagick package is required.
Pywal
Make use of Pywal User Template Files to integrate pacwall with pywal.
See an example of such template here.
Graph size
Use the dpi graph attribute to scale the whole image.
Alternatively, change node size, font size, and graph size separately via their
respective attributes. Use the ranksep graph attribute instead of size.
Highlighting specific packages
Entries of the form
'package-name' [comma-separated-list-of-attributes];
in the attributes.graph setting add attributes to a specific package.
Web-graph
If you want nice web-graph like on the following image:
Then create the following config:
attributes: {
# Dark background for proper visibility. On bright background
# edges of dependencies would be almost invisible. If you'll
# increase their opacity they'll overlap with text and circles.
graph: "bgcolor='#16161d' ratio=0.58 overlap=false",
package: {
common: "shape=point",
},
dependency: {
# Notice opacity on colors of edges, it's very important.
# Also, width of edges is reduced to make them less bold.
common: "color='#fdf6e30a', arrowhead='dot', arrowsize=0.6, penwidth=0.6"
optional: "color='#fdf6e0f', penwidth=0.4"
}
}
Here the most important property is overlap=false which renders web graph instead
of defalut circled. Also important is ratio=0.58 which you should calculate by
dividing screen height per screen width.
Migrating from v1.*
pacwall v2.* is written in C and is very different from the v1.* one, which is
a Bash script. Migrating should be straightforward, though, unless you don't
run an Arch-based distro. v2.* is pacman-only and will likely remain such.