xcb_get_window_attributes(3)

💖 xcb_get_window_attributes 💖

okay bestie, so this one's from the XCB Requests fam, it lives in libxcb and yeah it's literally the "tell me everything about this window" request. grab a snack, we're going in 🍓

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

xcb_get_window_attributes — gets window attributes, no cap 💅

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

first things first, you gotta bring in the header:

#include <xcb/xproto.h>

🎀 Request function

xcb_get_window_attributes_cookie_t
       xcb_get_window_attributes(xcb_connection_t *conn,
       xcb_window_t window);

🦋 Reply datastructure

typedef struct xcb_get_window_attributes_reply_t {
    uint8_t        response_type;
    uint8_t        backing_store;
    uint16_t       sequence;
    uint32_t       length;
    xcb_visualid_t visual;
    uint16_t       _class;
    uint8_t        bit_gravity;
    uint8_t        win_gravity;
    uint32_t       backing_planes;
    uint32_t       backing_pixel;
    uint8_t        save_under;
    uint8_t        map_is_installed;
    uint8_t        map_state;
    uint8_t        override_redirect;
    xcb_colormap_t colormap;
    uint32_t       all_event_masks;
    uint32_t       your_event_mask;
    uint16_t       do_not_propagate_mask;
    uint8_t        pad0[2];
} xcb_get_window_attributes_reply_t;

🧚 Reply function

xcb_get_window_attributes_reply_t
       *xcb_get_window_attributes_reply(xcb_connection_t *conn,
       xcb_get_window_attributes_cookie_t cookie,
       xcb_generic_error_t **e);

---

👑 REQUEST ARGUMENTS 👑

• conn — the XCB connection to X11, your lil hotline to the server 📞
• window — the window you're snooping on. this is the one we're pulling attributes from.

---

🔥 REPLY FIELDS 🔥

okay this is the juicy part, here's every single thing that comes back at you:

• response_type — the type of this reply, and in this case it's XCB_GET_WINDOW_ATTRIBUTES. this field also shows up in xcb_generic_reply_t, so you can use it to tell your replies apart from each other. very "which one of y'all is this" energy 🙈
• sequence — the sequence number of the last request the X11 server processed.
• length — how long the reply is, in words (and a word here is 4 bytes, periodt).
• backing_store — one of these values:
  • XCB_BACKING_STORE_NOT_USEFUL — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_BACKING_STORE_WHEN_MAPPED — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_BACKING_STORE_ALWAYS — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
• visual — the visual structure that's associated with window. 👀
• _class — one of these values:
  • XCB_WINDOW_CLASS_COPY_FROM_PARENT — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_WINDOW_CLASS_INPUT_OUTPUT — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_WINDOW_CLASS_INPUT_ONLY — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
• bit_gravity — one of these values:
  • XCB_GRAVITY_BIT_FORGET — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_WIN_UNMAP — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_NORTH_WEST — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_NORTH — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_NORTH_EAST — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_WEST — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_CENTER — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_EAST — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_SOUTH_WEST — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_SOUTH — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_SOUTH_EAST — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_STATIC — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
• win_gravity — one of these values (yes it's the same set, they really said "copy paste slay"):
  • XCB_GRAVITY_BIT_FORGET — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_WIN_UNMAP — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_NORTH_WEST — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_NORTH — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_NORTH_EAST — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_WEST — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_CENTER — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_EAST — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_SOUTH_WEST — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_SOUTH — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_SOUTH_EAST — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAVITY_STATIC — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
• backing_planes — planes that should be preserved if possible. like, best effort babe 🫶
• backing_pixel — the value to use when restoring planes.
• save_under — boolean: should the bits underneath be saved? yes/no, iconic behaviour.
• map_is_installed — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
• map_state — one of these values:
  • XCB_MAP_STATE_UNMAPPED — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_MAP_STATE_UNVIEWABLE — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_MAP_STATE_VIEWABLE — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
• override_redirect — window managers should ignore this window if override_redirect is 1. like genuinely ignore it, it's giving main character who doesn't want to be managed 💅
• colormap — the color map to be associated with window.
• all_event_masks — the set of events all people have interest in.
• your_event_mask — my event mask. (yes, the manpage really said that, and honestly? relatable.)
• do_not_propagate_mask — the set of events that should not propagate.

---

🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

Gets the current attributes for the specified window. that's it, that's the whole vibe. ask and the server shall provide ✨

---

⭐ RETURN VALUE ⭐

Returns an xcb_get_window_attributes_cookie_t. you handle errors when you call the reply function xcb_get_window_attributes_reply.

If you'd rather handle errors in the event loop instead, use xcb_get_window_attributes_unchecked. see xcb-requests(3) for the deets 🧚

---

💀 ERRORS 💀

• xcb_drawable_error_t — TODO: reasons?
• xcb_window_error_t — the specified window does not exist. she's not here, bestie 😭

---

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• xcb-requests(3)

---

🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

Generated from xproto.xml. Contact xcb@lists.freedesktop.org for corrections and improvements.

---

okay so that's the whole page!! and per the footer: this is X Version 11, shipping with libxcb 1.17.0, and you can find it filed under xcb_get_window_attributes(3) 🫶 go forth and query those windows, you absolute icon 👑💖