Be able to switch color theme when system switches to darkmode

[chtenb]

I have my system setup in a way that it switches to and from darkmode based on the time of day. Most applications are able to detect this and be configured to switch to and from a dark color theme. Can alacritty support this as well?

[chrisduerr]

The config supports live-reload. You're free to switch your theme whenever you want, however you want.

[chtenb]

I know that the config has live reload, that's not what meant. @chrisduerr

Most applications are able to detect this and be configured to switch to and from a dark color theme

I meant that you would be able to configure a light and a dark theme in the config, and that alacritty would automatically choose depending on whether your system is in dark mode or light mode.

[chrisduerr]

I meant that you would be able to configure a light and a dark theme in the config, and that alacritty would automatically choose depending on whether your system is in dark mode or light mode.

There is no desire to add this. Again the existing mechanisms are sufficient.

[chtenb]

I just expressed that desire. Why can't this be an open feature request?

I don't mean to sound rude, I just don't understand your reasoning.

[chrisduerr]

Why can't this be an open feature request?

Because I don't want it to be one.

[ferologics]

wow.

[chtenb]

I've found that wezterm is able to to this @ferologics in case you're interested in this feature

[ferologics]

@chtenb i think i'm just gonna go with the stock terminal app, the friction with setting up something custom is becoming too painful to justify for.

[ferologics]

but thx

[chtenb]

@ferologics That makes sense, it can be quite a hassle :) If you ever feel like tweaking your setup again feel free to steal my config at https://github.com/chtenb/dotfiles/blob/master/wezterm.lua as a first start.

[SaahilParikh]

+1

[zaz]

Again the existing mechanisms are sufficient.

How do we use these? Do we have to run a separate script to check whether the system theme is light or dark? That script would then change the Alacritty config and prompt it to reload? Is that the idea?

Would you accept a patch that adds this feature to Alacritty? What about a patch to add a small bash script that does the above?

This is a really useful feature, so we really should have a way for users to do it easily.

Thank you for your work on Alacritty!

[kchibisov]

There are plenty resources available online on how to switch themes globally or hook to system theme switching and run arbitrary scripts, alacritty is not a separate citizen here, since you have to do the same for your terminal editor if you're using light/dark themes in it, etc. For alacritty you can have your themes in separate files and import the one you need (import section in the config), the config is live reloaded so it'll be picked up right away.

it's really nothing special here.

[vittorio-c]

I would love such a feature as well !

in the meantime, could someone put me in the right direction in order to create a bash script that would hook to system theme switching and run something like

sed -i 's/catppuccin-mocha/catppuccin-latte/' ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml

(from https://shapeshed.com/vim-tmux-alacritty-theme-switcher/https://shapeshed.com/vim-tmux-alacritty-theme-switcher/)

I've searched on the internet, but the closest topic I've found to achieve that is a one related to Emacs : https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/55417/change-theme-when-os-dark-mode-changes

I'm using Manjaro with Gnome