Ubuntu Manpage: attroff, wattroff, attron, wattron, attrset, wattrset, color_set, wcolor

Provided by: ncurses-doc_6.0+20160213-1ubuntu1_all

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);
       PAIR_NUMBER(attrs);

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 waddch, 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.

   attrset
       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  attribut‐
       es.

       The  attrset  and related routines do not affect the attributes used when erasing portions of the window.
       See bkgd(3NCURSES) for functions which modify the attributes used for erasing and clearing.

   attr_set
       The attrset routine is actually a legacy feature predating SVr4 curses but kept in X/Open Curses for  the
       same  reason that SVr4 curses kept it: compatibility.  The routine attr_set provides for passing a color-
       pair parameter.

       The remaining attr_* functions operate exactly like the corresponding attr* functions, except  that  they
       take arguments of type attr_t rather than int.

   color_set
       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.

   attr_get
       The routine wattr_get returns the current attribute and color pair for the given window; attr_get returns
       the current attribute and color pair for stdscr.

       There is no corresponding attrget function as such in X/Open Curses, although ncurses  provides  getattrs
       (see curs_legacy(3X)).

   chgat
       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 perform 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 function 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 argu‐
       ment of init_pair, see color(3NCURSES)).  The opts argument 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 (see addch(3NCURSES)).

              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 related 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 meaningful (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 traditional functions attron/attroff/attrset can manipu‐
late attributes other than A_BLINK, A_BOLD, A_DIM, A_REVERSE, A_STANDOUT, or A_UNDERLINE is "unspeci‐
fied". 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 exit_italics_mode (ritm) capabilities. Italics are not mentioned in X/Open Curses. Unlike
the other video attributes, I_ITALIC is unrelated to the set_attributes capabilities. This implementa‐
tion 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, wat‐
tr_get, wattr_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

Very old 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 corresponding A_ and WA_-using functions operates on
the same current-highlight information.

The XSI standard extended conformance level adds new highlights A_HORIZONTAL, A_LEFT, A_LOW, A_RIGHT,
A_TOP, A_VERTICAL (and corresponding WA_ macros for each). As of August 2013, no known terminal provides
these highlights (i.e., via the sgr1 capability).

RETURN VALUE