Bug 506083

Summary:	API to get the current wallpaper
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	vanilla <salahhachmi06>
Component:	Image & Slideshow wallpaper plugins	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	CONFIRMED ---
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	nate, notmart, qydwhotmail
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	master
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Arch Linux
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description vanilla 2025-06-24 02:48:44 UTC

When using the slideshow wallpaper plugin (`org.kde.slideshow`), the `Image=` value in `plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc` is not updated immediately when the slideshow transitions to a new wallpaper. The config file continues to show the previous wallpaper path until `plasmashell` is restarted.

**Steps to reproduce:**
1. Set wallpaper to slideshow mode with multiple images
2. Wait for slideshow to change wallpaper (or change manually)
3. Check `~/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc` 
4. Notice the `Image=` value still shows the old wallpaper path

**Expected behavior:**
The config file should immediately reflect the currently displayed wallpaper

**Actual behavior:**
Config file is only updated after restarting plasmashell

**Impact:**
This prevents external scripts/tools from detecting the current wallpaper programmatically

---

## **Feature Request:**

**Title:** Add D-Bus method to get current wallpaper path

**Description:**
Currently there's no reliable way for external applications to determine the currently displayed wallpaper, especially with slideshow mode. 

**Proposed solution:**
Add a D-Bus method like:
```
org.kde.plasmashell.getCurrentWallpaper()
```

This would return the absolute path of the currently displayed wallpaper regardless of the wallpaper plugin being used.

**Use cases:**
- Synchronizing wallpapers with other applications
- Creating wallpaper-aware themes/scripts
- Backup/organization tools that need current wallpaper info

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Windows: 
macOS: 
(available in the Info Center app, or by running `kinfo` in a terminal window)
Operating System: Arch Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.0
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.15.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.15.3-zen1-1-zen (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 2 × Intel® Celeron® N4000 CPU @ 1.10GHz
Memory: 4 GiB of RAM (3.7 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: Intel® UHD Graphics 600

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2025-06-24 19:06:21 UTC

I believe this is intentional right now to prevent excessive writes to the config file. People can set the slideshow duration to a very short interval, so that could cause a real issue.

We can consider this a feature request for a supported method to do what it is you're looking to do.

Note that "current wallpaper" is a somewhat complicated concept given that we support different wallpapers on different screens and activities, and also that the wallpaper may not be a static image. So even if we had what you're asking for, the calling code would need to handle these cases and not assume it would always get back a path to an image.