auto-dark-light@gihaume: Set Terminal Color Palette

[poyribn]

Applet name and maintainer

auto-dark-light@gihaume @guillaume-mueller

What would you like to see?

I would love to change the Terminal Color Palette depending on Light Theme or Dark Theme.

I have multiple Ideas of how this could work:

• (Deepest Integration) Set the Terminal Color Palette for all Terminal Apps.
  Before we can implement this, the Linux Desktop Community would need to establish an open Standard for how the current Terminal Color Palette is stored in the Filesystem.
• (Balanced) Set the Color Palette only for GNOME-Terminal, which is pre-installed in Linux Mint Cinnamon Edition and LMDE.
• (Least Effort) Don't add Functionality to the Applet.
  Instead just offer a custom Command to set the Color Palette in all GNOME-Terminal Instances.

If this Function is enabled by default, it could make Terminal Apps behave in an unexpected Way.
So changing the Terminal Color Palette should be a Function that has to be toggled on.

[poyribn]

I discovered that Linux Mint’s GNOME-Terminal already has a Setting to switch between the Light, Dark, and System Version of the Theme. But it doesn’t change anything 🫤

So i’m no longer sure into which Software we should implement the fix:
GNOME-Terminal or Auto Dark Light Theme

[poyribn]

If someone needs to fix this in GNOME-Terminal,
unfortunately @linuxmint doesn’t have a Repository for GNOME-Terminal,
so the Contributor would need a GitLab Account for GNOME's GNOME-Terminal Repository.

[guillaume-mueller]

I won't reproduce the terminal's preferences UI, so probably the only acceptable way would be to switch "profiles".

But if an API to do it programmatically via a CLI command exists, you could probably already do it easily with the current features.

I discovered that Linux Mint’s GNOME-Terminal already has a Setting to switch between the Light, Dark, and System Version of the Theme. But it doesn’t change anything 🫤

So i’m no longer sure into which Software we should implement the fix:
GNOME-Terminal or Auto Dark Light Theme

I don't think it's broken.

[poyribn]

I typed a Script to toggle light Mode in all GNOME‑Terminal Windows.

The Script works by replacing the default GNOME‑Terminal Profile with a stashed
light Mode Profile or dark Mode Profile.

Once i finished the Script, i moved it to ~/.local/bin/gnome-terminal-light-mode.

#! /bin/bash

DEFAULT_PROFILE="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"

profile_to_set="dark_mode"
if [ $1 -eq 1 ]; then
	profile_to_set="light_mode"
fi

dconf dump /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:$profile_to_set/ | dconf load /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:$DEFAULT_PROFILE/

Before you can use the Script, you need some Preparation:

1. Note the UUID of your default GNOME‑Terminal Profile.
   Replace the Placeholder UUID in Line 3 with the actual UUID of your default GNOME‑Terminal Profile:

DEFAULT_PROFILE="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"

2. Use the GNOME‑Terminal Settings GUI to change your default Profile into dark Mode, if it isn’t already.
3. Dump the default GNOME‑Terminal Profile into a new Profile called dark_mode. ¹
   Use the UUID of your default GNOME‑Terminal Profile instead of the Placeholder $DEFAULT_PROFILE.

dconf dump /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:$DEFAULT_PROFILE/ | dconf load /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:dark_mode/

4. Use the GNOME‑Terminal Settings GUI to change your default Profile into light Mode.
5. Dump the default GNOME‑Terminal Profile into a new Profile called light_mode. ¹
   Use the UUID of your default GNOME‑Terminal Profile instead of the Placeholder $DEFAULT_PROFILE.

dconf dump /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:$DEFAULT_PROFILE/ | dconf load /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/:light_mode/

After you finished the Preparation, you can use the Command with a boolean Argument:

• Set dark Mode:

gnome-terminal-light-mode 0

• Set light Mode:

gnome-terminal-light-mode 1

Footnotes

1. Because you used dconf to copy the Profile, the Copy isn’t accessible in the GNOME‑Terminal Settings GUI.
   But the copied Profile does exist. You can verify this by visiting the Path in dconf-editor:
   /org/gnome/terminal/legacy/profiles:/ ↩ ↩²