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darkman(1) General Commands Manual darkman(1)

NAME

darkman - daemon for dark-mode and light-mode transitions on Unix-like desktops

SYNOPSIS

darkman run
darkman set [light|dark]
darkman get
darkman toggle

DESCRIPTION

darkman runs in the background and turns on dark mode at sundown, and turns it off again at sunrise. darkman is not designed to be used interactively: it's designed to be set up once, and run in the background.

It is also possible to trigger manual transitions and it is also possible to disable automatic transitions entirely.

COMMANDS

run

Runs the darkman service. This command is intended to be executed by a service manager, init script or alike.

set <light|dark>

Sets the current mode.

get

Prints the current mode.

toggle

Toggle the current mode.

INTEGRATIONS

The open source desktop ecosystem is quite heterogeneous and making different applications switch between dark/light different mechanism and techniques.

Darkman seeks to implement the more widely adopted standards, while leaving room for users to hook in custom scripts for other applications.

Custom executables

For any sort of custom integration, executables (including simple shell scripts) can be placed in the following two directories:

  • $XDG_DATA_DIRS/dark-mode.d/: Executed when switching to dark mode.
  • $XDG_DATA_DIRS/light-mode.d/: Executed when switching to light mode.

These scripts or executables can perform any actions required, like telling re-writing configuration files for a PDF reader, or controlling a notification daemon to switch to another theme.

Scripts need to have an executable bit set, or will not be executed.

The variable `$XDG_DATA_DIRS` is defined in the xdg basedir specification, and usually matches the following, amongst others:

  • ~/.local/share/
  • /usr/local/share/
  • /usr/share/

Example scripts (and discussion on how to integrate different applications) are available in the project repository:

https://gitlab.com/WhyNotHugo/darkman

Packages may also drop-in their own scripts into any of these locations, although application developers are encouraged to use the D-Bus API to determine the current mode and listen for changes (see below for details).

XDG Settings portal

Darkman implements the XDG desktop portal's dark mode standard. Applications using this API should switch to dark/light mode based on darkman's current preference. This standard was originally pushed by the GNOME and Elementary teams, and is currently supported by KDE, Firefox and many other projects. You should expect applications from those environment to support it, amongst others.

For more details on this protocol, see:

https://flatpak.github.io/xdg-desktop-portal/docs/doc-org.freedesktop.portal.Settings.html

As for xdg-desktop-portal version 1.17.0, portals MUST be configured with per-user configuration portals.conf(5). To force the usage of darkman for dark/light mode setting, use something like the following:

[preferred]
org.freedesktop.impl.portal.Settings=darkman

When using a desktop-specific configuration (e.g.: swaywm-portals.conf), please keep in mind that the environment variable XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP must be set for the xdg-desktop-portal.

The xdg-desktop-portal should start after darkman has started and is ready. Use --ready-fd for readiness notification. This is likely not relevant on systemd-based setups, where the service manager intermediates in taking the named bus.

For a more in-depth explanation, see this article:

https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2024/04/09/darkman-portal-configuration/

D-Bus API

For custom integrations, darkman exposes a D-Bus API which allows querying and controlling the current mode. The get, set and toggle commands all use this API. Usage of this API is also the recommended approach when writing custom tools (e.g.: switching the current mode based on the input from a light sensor).

Third party integrations

For Emacs users, a third party package exists to integrate darkman with Emacs:

https://github.com/grtcdr/darkman.el

There also exists a plugin for neovim users:

https://github.com/4e554c4c/darkman.nvim

LOCATION

The current location may be specified in the configuration file. The location is used to calculate what time sundown and sunrise happen.

It is also possible for darkman to automatically determine the system's location using geoclue. Geoclue's reliability varies depending on distribution and desktop environment, as an agent often needs to be configured for it to work properly.

If no location is known, automatic transitions are disabled.

CONFIGURATION

A configuration file and all settings are optional. Configuration is read from ~/.config/darkman/config.yaml (or other paths defined in the XDG basedir spec), and has the following format:

lat: 52.3
lng: 4.8
dbusserver: true

The following settings are available:

•
lat, lng: Latitude and longitude respectively. This value will be used at start-up, but will later be superseded by whatever geoclue resolves (if enabled). More than one decimal point is generally not needed, as described in https://xkcd.com/2170/.

•
usegeoclue (true/false): Whether to use a local geoclue instance to determine the current location. On some distributions/setups, this may require setting up a geoclue agent to function properly. Setting this to false without explicitly setting lat and lng disables automatic transitions entirely.

•
dbusserver (true/false): Whether to expose the current mode via darkman's own D-Bus API. The command line tool uses this API to apply changes, so it will not work if this setting is disabled.

•
portal (true/false): Whether to expose the current mode via the XDG settings portal D-Bus API. Many desktop application will read the current mode via the portal and respect what darkman is indicating.

ENVIRONMENT

The following environment variables are also read and will override the configuration file:

DARKMAN_LAT

Overrides the latitude for the current location.

DARKMAN_LNG

Overrides the longitude for the current location.

DARKMAN_DBUSSERVER

Overrides whether to expose the current mode via D-Bus.

XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP

Darkman does not use this variable; it should be defined for the xdg-desktop-portal instead.

PRIVACY

Darkman will trigger a darkmode/lightmode transition at sundown in the current location. Any application that is running locally can record or transmit the time of these transitions and attempt to extrapolate information related the current location.

When a web browser applies this transition at the same time, open websites can record this information too.

A potential stalker or tracker can use the above information to infer that you are likely in a region of the world where sunset happened at a specific time. This region is usually a wide area spanning tens of thousands of kilometers, but can be smaller for certain geographical locations.

The author of this tool uses a manually configured location with an integer latitude and longitude to achieve a sensible balance between privacy and convenience.

DEVELOPMENT

For issues and general development inquiries, see the project home currently hosted at GitLab:

https://gitlab.com/WhyNotHugo/darkman

DEBUGGING

To confirm which value is relayed via the xdg-desktop-portal use:

gdbus call --session \


    --dest org.freedesktop.portal.Desktop \


    --object-path /org/freedesktop/portal/desktop \


    --method org.freedesktop.portal.Settings.ReadOne \


    org.freedesktop.appearance color-scheme

SEE ALSO

portals.conf(5) gammastep(1)

AUTHORS

Developed by Hugo O. Barrera <hugo@whynothugo.nl>, with invaluable contributions from the community.

darkman is an open source project licensed under the ISC licence and developed for anyone to use freely. If you would like to sponsor this project, see:

https://whynothugo.nl/sponsor
2025-02-18