curs_attr 3x
curs_attr(3x) curs_attr(3x)
NAME
attroff, wattroff, attron, wattron, attrset, wattrset,
color_set, wcolor_set, standend, wstandend, standout,
wstandout, attr_get, wattr_get, attr_off, wattr_off,
attr_on, wattr_on, attr_set, wattr_set, chgat, wchgat,
mvchgat, mvwchgat, PAIR_NUMBER - curses character and
window attribute control routines
SYNOPSIS
#include <curses.h>
int attroff(int attrs);
int wattroff(WINDOW *win, int attrs);
int attron(int attrs);
int wattron(WINDOW *win, int attrs);
int attrset(int attrs);
int wattrset(WINDOW *win, int attrs);
int color_set(short color_pair_number, void* opts);
int wcolor_set(WINDOW *win, short color_pair_number,
void* opts);
int standend(void);
int wstandend(WINDOW *win);
int standout(void);
int wstandout(WINDOW *win);
int attr_get(attr_t *attrs, short *pair, void *opts);
int wattr_get(WINDOW *win, attr_t *attrs, short *pair,
void *opts);
int attr_off(attr_t attrs, void *opts);
int wattr_off(WINDOW *win, attr_t attrs, void *opts);
int attr_on(attr_t attrs, void *opts);
int wattr_on(WINDOW *win, attr_t attrs, void *opts);
int attr_set(attr_t attrs, short pair, void *opts);
int wattr_set(WINDOW *win, attr_t attrs, short pair, void
*opts);
int chgat(int n, attr_t attr, short color,
const void *opts)
int wchgat(WINDOW *win, int n, attr_t attr,
short color, const void *opts)
int mvchgat(int y, int x, int n, attr_t attr,
short color, const void *opts)
int mvwchgat(WINDOW *win, int y, int x, int n,
attr_t attr, short color, const void *opts)
DESCRIPTION
These routines manipulate the current attributes of the
named window. The current attributes of a window apply to
all characters that are written into the window with wadd-
ch, waddstr and wprintw. Attributes are a property of the
character, and move with the character through any
scrolling and insert/delete line/character operations. To
the extent possible, they are displayed as appropriate
modifications to the graphic rendition of characters put
on the screen.
The routine attrset sets the current attributes of the
given window to attrs. The routine attroff turns off the
named attributes without turning any other attributes on
or off. The routine attron turns on the named attributes
without affecting any others. The routine standout is the
same as attron(A_STANDOUT). The routine standend is the
same as attrset(A_NORMAL) or attrset(0), that is, it turns
off all attributes.
The attrset and related routines do not affect the at-
tributes used when erasing portions of the window. See
curs_bkgd(3x) for functions which modify the attributes
used for erasing and clearing.
The routine color_set sets the current color of the given
window to the foreground/background combination described
by the color_pair_number. The parameter opts is reserved
for future use, applications must supply a null pointer.
The routine wattr_get returns the current attribute and
color pair for the given window; attr_get returns the cur-
rent attribute and color pair for stdscr. The remaining
attr_* functions operate exactly like the corresponding
attr* functions, except that they take arguments of type
attr_t rather than int.
The routine chgat changes the attributes of a given number
of characters starting at the current cursor location of
stdscr. It does not update the cursor and does not per-
form wrapping. A character count of -1 or greater than
the remaining window width means to change attributes all
the way to the end of the current line. The wchgat func-
tion generalizes this to any window; the mvwchgat function
does a cursor move before acting. In these functions, the
color argument is a color-pair index (as in the first ar-
gument of init_pair, see curs_color(3x)). The opts argu-
ment is not presently used, but is reserved for the future
(leave it NULL).
Attributes
The following video attributes, defined in <curses.h>, can
be passed to the routines attron, attroff, and attrset, or
OR'd with the characters passed to addch.
Name Description
------------------------------------------------------------
A_NORMAL Normal display (no highlight)
A_STANDOUT Best highlighting mode of the terminal.
A_UNDERLINE Underlining
A_REVERSE Reverse video
A_BLINK Blinking
A_DIM Half bright
A_BOLD Extra bright or bold
A_PROTECT Protected mode
A_INVIS Invisible or blank mode
A_ALTCHARSET Alternate character set
A_ITALIC Italics (non-X/Open extension)
A_CHARTEXT Bit-mask to extract a character
COLOR_PAIR(n) Color-pair number n
These video attributes are supported by attr_on and relat-
ed functions (which also support the attributes recognized
by attron, etc.):
Name Description
-----------------------------------------
WA_HORIZONTAL Horizontal highlight
WA_LEFT Left highlight
WA_LOW Low highlight
WA_RIGHT Right highlight
WA_TOP Top highlight
WA_VERTICAL Vertical highlight
For consistency
The following macro is the reverse of COLOR_PAIR(n):
PAIR_NUMBER(attrs) Returns the pair number associated
with the COLOR_PAIR(n) attribute.
The return values of many of these routines are not mean-
ingful (they are implemented as macro-expanded assignments
and simply return their argument). The SVr4 manual page
claims (falsely) that these routines always return 1.
NOTES
Note that attroff, wattroff, attron, wattron, attrset,
wattrset, standend and standout may be macros.
COLOR_PAIR values can only be OR'd with attributes if the
pair number is less than 256. The alternate functions
such as color_set can pass a color pair value directly.
However, ncurses ABI 4 and 5 simply OR this value within
the alternate functions. You must use ncurses ABI 6 to
support more than 256 color pairs.
PORTABILITY
These functions are supported in the XSI Curses standard,
Issue 4. The standard defined the dedicated type for
highlights, attr_t, which is not defined in SVr4 curses.
The functions taking attr_t arguments are not supported
under SVr4.
The XSI Curses standard states that whether the tradition-
al functions attron/attroff/attrset can manipulate at-
tributes other than A_BLINK, A_BOLD, A_DIM, A_REVERSE,
A_STANDOUT, or A_UNDERLINE is "unspecified". Under this
implementation as well as SVr4 curses, these functions
correctly manipulate all other highlights (specifically,
A_ALTCHARSET, A_PROTECT, and A_INVIS).
This implementation provides the A_ITALIC attribute for
terminals which have the enter_italics_mode (sitm) and ex-
it_italics_mode (ritm) capabilities. Italics are not men-
tioned in X/Open Curses. Unlike the other video at-
tributes, I_ITALIC is unrelated to the set_attributes ca-
pabilities. This implementation makes the assumption that
exit_attribute_mode may also reset italics.
XSI Curses added the new entry points, attr_get, attr_on,
attr_off, attr_set, wattr_on, wattr_off, wattr_get, wat-
tr_set. These are intended to work with a new series of
highlight macros prefixed with WA_. The older macros have
direct counterparts in the newer set of names:
Name Description
------------------------------------------------------------
WA_NORMAL Normal display (no highlight)
WA_STANDOUT Best highlighting mode of the terminal.
WA_UNDERLINE Underlining
WA_REVERSE Reverse video
WA_BLINK Blinking
WA_DIM Half bright
WA_BOLD Extra bright or bold
WA_ALTCHARSET Alternate character set
Older versions of this library did not force an update of
the screen when changing the attributes. Use touchwin to
force the screen to match the updated attributes.
The XSI curses standard specifies that each pair of corre-
sponding A_ and WA_-using functions operates on the same
current-highlight information.
The XSI standard extended conformance level adds new high-
lights A_HORIZONTAL, A_LEFT, A_LOW, A_RIGHT, A_TOP, A_VER-
TICAL (and corresponding WA_ macros for each). As of Au-
gust 2013, no known terminal provides these highlights
(i.e., via the sgr1 capability).
RETURN VALUE
All routines return the integer OK on success, or ERR on
failure.
X/Open does not define any error conditions.
This implementation returns an error if the window pointer
is null. The wcolor_set function returns an error if the
color pair parameter is outside the range 0..COL-
OR_PAIRS-1. This implementation also provides getattrs
for compatibility with older versions of curses.
Functions with a "mv" prefix first perform a cursor move-
ment using wmove, and return an error if the position is
outside the window, or if the window pointer is null.
SEE ALSO
curses(3x), curs_addch(3x), curs_addstr(3x),
curs_bkgd(3x), curs_printw(3x), curs_variables(3x)
curs_attr(3x)
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