How to set a background image for urxvt?

Question

How do I set a tiled background image in urxvt? I have tried the following alternatives in my .Xresources file:

URxvt*backgroundPixmap: /home/jgg/Pictures/tiles/escheresque_ste.png;style=tiled

URxvt.backgroundPixmap: /home/jgg/Pictures/tiles/escheresque_ste.xpm

URxvt.backgroundPixmap: /home/jgg/Pictures/tiles/escheresque_ste.png;+0+0:tile -tr

I also ran xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources to ensure that the configuration is updated every time.

What am I missing? Is there a library I need to install?

I'm running rxvt-unicode (urxvt) v9.15 on a Debian 7.4 (Wheezy) system.

Solution

Use the -pixmap option to set the background image for RXVT. For instance, I have a set of small .png tiles that I pick at random using the following one-liner:

urxvt -pixmap "`find /path/to/tiles/ -name '*.png' | sort -R | head -n 1`;style=tiled"

You could easily turn the above into an alias or script.

Comments

[Jenny D]

Is urxvt compiled with support for background images? You can test this by running urxvt -pixmap /home/jgg/Pictures/tiles/escheresque_ste.xpm.

[misteraidan]

@JennyD: yes, it is... running your suggested command works, but it does not tile the image.

[misteraidan]

On the command line by using the suggested command you mentioned above, yes, I was able to load the BG image. I am NOT able to load the image via the reference in the .Xresources file.

[misteraidan]

This command works and tiles the BG: urxvt -pixmap "/home/jonasg/Pictures/tiles/escheresque_ste.xpm;style=tiled‌​"

[Hari Seldon]

Not sure xrdb -merge is what you want. According to the man pages, xrdb -merge actually merges the resource file into the running configuration and then sorts it. Maybe try xrdb -load to reset the actual running configuration.

[Benjamin B.]

@JonasGorauskas, do I understand correctly that you found an answer to your question? If so, feel free to post an answer to your question and accept it. This will make the status of your question much more clear and also more helpful to others.

[Natjo]

urxvt complains it does not know pixmap option, what version of urxvt did you use?

[misteraidan]

I am using version 9.22 ... You need to get a version of rxvt-unicode which had the pixbuf option turned on during compilation. For example, in Arch Linux you can install the rxvt-unicode-pixbuf package from the AUR.