makeastheme.pl, installastheme.pl - manage themes in the Afterstep windows manager.

makeastheme.pl [--theme <theme_name>] [--no_wharf] [--no_pager] [--no_winlist] [--no_background]

installastheme.pl [--theme <theme_name>] [--no_wharf] [--no_pager] [--no_winlist] [--no_background]

This bundle of two Perl scripts is used to implement themes in the AfterStep window manager for X (http://www.afterstep.org).

At this time, these scripts are becoming solid beta quality. I would still highly recommend you to backup your configuration files in the ~/GNUstep/Library/Afterstep dir. The easiest way to undo a theme is to simply restore your old files.

This theme pack currently supports the following modules and options:

Wharf:                  Pager:
        BgColor                 Align
        Pixmap                  Back
        TextureColor            BalloonBack
        TextureType             BalloonBorderColor
                                BalloonBorderWidth
WinList:                        BalloonFore
        Font                    DesktopImage
        Fore                    Font
        Back                    Hilight
        Justify                 Image
        Pixmap (AS 1.5b6 pl2)   SmallFont

Of course, the look file and desktop background is supported. Also, any images specified in the look file or the module options above are also carried with the theme that is built.

This theme pack expects to find the ~/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/desktop/themes directory. Each theme should be a subdirectory from there. When you download a theme, untar it in the themes dir. Also, when you build a theme, if you want to bundle any unique icons for use in the database file, put them in the specific subir of the themes dir.

Also, the theme pack will only look in ~/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep for module configuration files. That means when building a theme, it only takes modifications from that dir. If the config files aren't there, makeastheme.pl will ignore that module. When installing a theme, will only edit files in ~/GNUstep/Library/Afterstep. If it doesn't find any modules there, it will skip that module. At a minimum, you should have 'wharf', 'pager', and 'winlist' files in the ~/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep dir.

Both installastheme.pl and makeastheme.pl take the same command line, which can be in any order. The directory from which the scripts are called is irrelevant. All directory paths are coded into the scripts and double-checked at runtime. After running installastheme.pl, you will need to manually restart AfterStep for the changes to take place.

When making the themes, you simply run makeastheme.pl with the --theme <theme_name> argument and any of the other command line arguments you might want to use. This script will grab all the config files necessary and all images specified within those config files. It then creates the theme in your '~/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/desktop/themes'

--theme

this option is used to specify the theme to install. With installastheme.pl it is mandatory. With makeastheme.pl if unspecified, the $USER environmental variable will be used instead.

--no_wharf, --no_pager, --no_winlist, --no_background

Each of these options tell the scripts to skip processing for each of these modules. For makeastheme.pl it is similar to saying, "I don't have anything interesting in this module, don't store those options in the theme." For installastheme.pl it is similar to saying, "I really like my <module>, don't change any settings in there."

afterstep(1x), Pager(1x), Wharf(1x), WinList(1x),

/usr/share/doc/afterstep/README.theme.handler.gz .

These tools were written by Lathi <alcornd@earthlink.net>.

This manual page was written by Robert Luberda <robert@debian.org>, based on the README.theme.handler file, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).

If you find any, you can email me (mailto:alcornd@earthlink.net) or the AfterStep mailing list (mailto:afterstep@linuxcenter.com). Alternatively, you can also probably find me on EfNet channel #afterstep as Lathi.

And before anyone asks me, Eterm(1) behaves in a funky way with this. If you have Eterms with the --trans option up and running when you reset the theme, the background won't get updated. You can fix this by using the -W (-watch-background) option for Eterm so that it will notice when you change the background.