XIBARRIERRELEASEPOIN(3)

💖 XIBARRIERRELEASEPOIN(3) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to section 3 of the manual — this is XIBARRIERRELEASEPOIN, and yes the title is truncated because man page headers are just Like That. Sit down, grab a strawberry 🍓, we're talking about letting your pointer cross a barrier.

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✨ NAME ✨

XIBarrierReleasePointer, XIBarrierReleasePointers — allow pointer movement across a pointer barrier 🦋

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <X11/extensions/XInput2.h>

int XIBarrierReleasePointer( Display *display,
                             int deviceid,
                             PointerBarrier barrier,
                             BarrierEventID eventid);

int XIBarrierReleasePointers( Display *display,
                              XIBarrierReleasePointerInfo *barriers,
                              int num_barriers);

🎀 the parameters (the lore) 🎀

• display — the connection to the X server. your lil phone line to the server, basically 📞
• deviceid — the device that's allowed to move across the barrier. like, who gets the hall pass.
• barrier — the barrier. the wall. the boundary. the thing you're tryna get past 💅
• eventid — the unique event ID for this barrier event sequence. yes it matters, no you can't skip it, more on that below 👇
• barriers — a list of deviceid, barrier, eventid triplets. it's giving ✨triplets✨
• num_barriers — how many elements are in barriers. count them, bestie 🔢

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So here's the vibe: if a pointer is constrained by a pointer barrier, this releases the pointer from the barrier and lets it cross the barrier with the next motion. slay. but if the pointer moves away from the barrier instead? this request does nothing. it's just standing there. 💀

important: this request only releases the pointer for the given barrier event sequence. one sequence, one release. that's the deal.

If the pointer moves away from or through the barrier, an XI_BarrierLeave event is generated. and here's the part where you have to pay attention, bestie — future pointer movement constrained by this barrier will assign a new eventid and require a new XIBarrierReleasePointer request. the old ID is expired. it's over. no cap. 🙈

And if the pointer is not currently blocked by the barrier, or the barrier event sequence has already ended? this request does nothing. literally nothing. you did all that for zero ✨

Also, heads up: XIBarrierReleasePointer and XIBarrierReleasePointers can generate a BadDevice or BadValue error. so like, be normal about it.

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✨ DIAGNOSTICS ✨

• BadDevice — an invalid device was specified. either the device doesn't exist at all, or it's not a master pointer device. wrong device, wrong energy, blocked 😭
• BadValue — a value for a PointerBarrier argument does not name a defined pointer barrier. you pointed at a wall that isn't there 🧚

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

• XFixesCreatePointerBarrier(3) — the origin story, go read it 🫶

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k bye bestie, that's the whole page!! this gorgeous little number comes to you from XIBARRIERRELEASEPOIN(3), dated 05/18/2026 — remember the date, it's iconic 👑⭐ and if you ever forget any of it, the man page will always be there for you. periodt. 💅🌈