nitrogen - Man Page

X11 background previewer and setter

Examples (TL;DR)

View and set the wallpapers from a specific directory: nitrogen path/to/directory
Set the wallpaper with automatic size settings: nitrogen --set-auto path/to/file
Restore the previous wallpaper: nitrogen --restore

In normal working mode, provides an interface which displays all pictures in the given DIRECTORY. From this interface, it is possible to set the X11 root pixmap either temporarily or set and store the picture, drawing mode, and X display for restoration later. If no directory is specified, it uses the stored directories in your "library" (as of 1.5). See the Preferences dialog.

When the --restore option is passed, nitrogen sets all backgrounds that it has a configuration for and exits immediately, for use in an .xinitrc or .xsession file.

Options

--restore

Restores previously saved pictures to the root displays.

--no-recurse

Do not recurse into subdirectories of DIRECTORY.

--sort=[option]

Sorts the background list by the given option. By default, items are sorted as they are found on the filesystem, giving a quasi-newest first sorting order. Valid options are:

alpha: Alphabetical order.
ralpha: Reverse alphabetical order.
time: Modified time, ascending.
rtime: Modified time, descending.

--set-auto