default_colors(3x) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | NOTES | PORTABILITY | SEE ALSO | AUTHOR | COLOPHON

default_colors(3X)                                     default_colors(3X)

NAME         top

       use_default_colors, assume_default_colors - use terminal's default
       colors

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <curses.h>

       int use_default_colors(void);
       int assume_default_colors(int fg, int bg);

DESCRIPTION         top

       The use_default_colors and assume_default_colors functions are
       extensions to the curses library.  They are used with terminals
       that support ISO 6429 color, or equivalent.  These terminals allow
       the application to reset color to an unspecified default value
       (e.g., with SGR 39 or SGR 49).

       Applications that paint a colored background over the whole screen
       do not take advantage of SGR 39 and SGR 49.  Some applications are
       designed to work with the default background, using colors only
       for text.  For example, there are several implementations of the
       ls program which use colors to denote different file types or
       permissions.  These “color ls” programs do not necessarily modify
       the background color, typically using only the setaf terminfo
       capability to set the foreground color.  Full-screen applications
       that use default colors can achieve similar visual effects.

       The first function, use_default_colors tells the curses library to
       assign terminal default foreground/background colors to color
       number -1.  So init_pair(x,COLOR_RED,-1) will initialize pair x as
       red on default background and init_pair(x,-1,COLOR_BLUE) will
       initialize pair x as default foreground on blue.

       The other, assume_default_colors is a refinement which tells which
       colors to paint for color pair 0.  This function recognizes a
       special color number -1, which denotes the default terminal color.

       The following are equivalent:
              use_default_colors();
              assume_default_colors(-1,-1);

       These are ncurses extensions.  For other curses implementations,
       color number -1 does not mean anything, just as for ncurses before
       a successful call of use_default_colors or assume_default_colors.

       Other curses implementations do not allow an application to modify
       color pair 0.  They assume that the background is COLOR_BLACK, but
       do not ensure that the color pair 0 is painted to match the
       assumption.  If your application does not use either
       use_default_colors or assume_default_colors ncurses will paint a
       white foreground (text) with black background for color pair 0.

RETURN VALUE         top

       These functions return the integer ERR upon failure and OK on
       success.  They will fail if either the terminal does not support
       the orig_pair or orig_colors capability.  If the initialize_pair
       capability is not found, this causes an error as well.

NOTES         top

       Associated with this extension, the init_pair function accepts
       negative arguments to specify default foreground or background
       colors.

       The use_default_colors function was added to support ded.  This is
       a full-screen application which uses curses to manage only part of
       the screen.  The bottom portion of the screen, which is of
       adjustable size, is left uncolored to display the results from
       shell commands.  The top portion of the screen colors filenames
       using a scheme like the “color ls” programs.  Attempting to manage
       the background color of the screen for this application would give
       unsatisfactory results for a variety of reasons.  This extension
       was devised after noting that color xterm (and similar programs)
       provides a background color which does not necessarily correspond
       to any of the ANSI colors.  While a special terminfo entry could
       be constructed using nine colors, there was no mechanism provided
       within curses to account for the related orig_pair and
       back_color_erase capabilities.

       The assume_default_colors function was added to solve a different
       problem: support for applications which would use environment
       variables and other configuration to bypass curses' notion of the
       terminal's default colors, setting specific values.

PORTABILITY         top

       These routines are specific to ncurses.  They were not supported
       on Version 7, BSD or System V implementations.  It is recommended
       that any code depending on them be conditioned using
       NCURSES_VERSION.

SEE ALSO         top

       ded(1), curs_color(3X).

AUTHOR         top

       Thomas Dickey (from an analysis of the requirements for color
       xterm for XFree86 3.1.2C, February 1996).

COLOPHON         top

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                                                       default_colors(3X)