# 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);
           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 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.

### 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 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.

### 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 at-
           tr_set provides for passing a color-pair parameter.

           The remaining attr_* functions operate  exactly  like  the
           corresponding attr* functions, except that they take argu-
           ments 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 cur-
           rent 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 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  (see  curs_add-
           ch(3x)).

                  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

           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 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)