# Using Pywal with spmenu

Using Pywal with spmenu is quite trivial, but the steps will vary depending on
whether you're using X11 or Wayland. Using Pywal with spmenu on X11 is slightly
easier, because you're able to use `colors.Xresources` which should just
work right away.

## X11 (with .Xresources)

With .Xresources on X11 the process is very simple. Make sure .Xresources is
enabled in `~/.config/spmenu/spmenu.conf`, make sure `global` is set to 1,
and make sure you have no themes overriding `global`.

Then simply run `wal` to generate a theme, and apply the theme by running
`xrdb -override ~/.cache/wal/colors.Xresources`. After that spmenu
should just use the colors as expected.

## X11/Wayland (without .Xresources)

A `pywal` template can be found
[here](https://git.speedie.site/speedie/spmenu-themes/raw/branch/master/pywal/colors.spmenu).
You'll want to create the directory `~/.config/wal/templates` if it doesn't
already exist and move this file there.

Now that you have the template added, you can run `wal` to generate the theme.
A theme will now be placed in `~/.cache/wal/colors.spmenu` which can be
installed and enabled either using the argument or by copying it to
`~/.config/spmenu/theme.conf`.

**NOTE: The following instructions do not apply to users of spmenu 2.0.1 and earlier.
Users of earlier versions should copy the theme to theme.conf every time a new colorscheme
is generated by Pywal.**

This part is optional, but if you want your theme to be set every time, you can
now edit your `spmenu.conf` again, and in there you'll want to set `themefile` to
your Pywal cache file. When you're done the `file` section should look something
like this:

```C
/* File options */
file = ( { xresources = 1;
           global = 1;
           theme = 1;
           binds = 1;
           themefile = "/home/speedie/.cache/wal/colors.spmenu";
           bindsfile = "NULL";
       } );
```

Do however note that with this approach, you must set `themefile` back to `NULL`
the next time you want to use a normal theme, or a theme manager.