Re: Displaying wallpapers in /usr/share/backgrounds/ in settings

[Matteo Settenvini <matteo-ml member fsf org>]

On Fri, Mar 14, 2014 at 10:14:21PM +0000, Michael Ikey Doherty wrote:
> Hi,
>
> As far as I know this isn't possible via dconf. There are a number of
> sources available, via the Grilo backend.
>
> Main ones:
>
> ~/Pictures:
> pictures_path = g_get_user_special_dir (G_USER_DIRECTORY_PICTURES);

Hi,

by the way, some applications do put images intended to be used as a
background in a subdirectory of the Pictures/ XDG dir. 

I think at least Nautilus creates a "Wallpapers" subdirectory when you
right-click on an image and select to set it as a background. Which I
find a very good idea, since I like having backgrounds separated
e.g. from my holiday photos, and I like keeping my Pictures/ folder a
bit more organized than just a random kitchen sink for all images that
can fit on my screen. Kudos to the Nautilus maintainers :-).

However, this means that I don't get access to these images from 
"gnome-control-center background".

Other programs are less well-behaved, and as soon as I press "set as
wallpaper", they copy images in Pictures/, next to my photos. Very
annoying, also because, if the image was already in Pictures/, it will
*copy and rename* it. I think eog does this, but I did not check.

But basically, even for GNOME apps, there is little to no
standardization about how a wallpaper should be set. Some copy a file
in Pictures/, some in Pictures/Wallpapers (my personal favorite),
others do not copy a file at all, and just change a dconf key, ...
and so on.

Wouldn't be worth providing some kind of common API, or some sort of
guideline in this respect?

Cheers,
Matteo

PS. Personally, +1 for whoever proposes to standardise on
Pictures/Wallpapers.