xcb_grab_pointer(3)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the xcb_grab_pointer(3) manual page — yes that's the manual name, this is a libxcb joint, and today we're learning how to actively grab control of the pointer. main character energy fr fr. 💅

xcb_grab_pointer — grab the pointer 🫳✨

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <xcb/xproto.h>

🎀 Request function

xcb_grab_pointer_cookie_t xcb_grab_pointer(xcb_connection_t *conn,
       uint8_t owner_events, xcb_window_t grab_window,
       uint16_t event_mask, uint8_t pointer_mode, uint8_t keyboard_mode,
       xcb_window_t confine_to, xcb_cursor_t cursor,
       xcb_timestamp_t time);

🦋 Reply datastructure

typedef struct xcb_grab_pointer_reply_t {
    uint8_t  response_type;
    uint8_t  status;
    uint16_t sequence;
    uint32_t length;
} xcb_grab_pointer_reply_t;

🌸 Reply function

xcb_grab_pointer_reply_t *xcb_grab_pointer_reply(xcb_connection_t *conn,
       xcb_grab_pointer_cookie_t cookie, xcb_generic_error_t **e);

---

💜 REQUEST ARGUMENTS 💜

• conn — the XCB connection to X11. your little fiber-optic situationship with the server 🌈
• owner_events — if 1, the grab_window will still get the pointer events. if 0, events are not reported to the grab_window. that's the whole toggle, no notes.
• grab_window — specifies the window on which the pointer should be grabbed. 👑
• event_mask — specifies which pointer events are reported to the client.

TODO: which values? — yes bestie the manpage genuinely says that. we don't gatekeep, we report it verbatim 💀

• pointer_mode — one of the following values:
  • XCB_GRAB_MODE_SYNC — the state of the keyboard appears to freeze: no further keyboard events are generated by the server until the grabbing client issues a releasing AllowEvents request or until the keyboard grab is released.
  • XCB_GRAB_MODE_ASYNC — keyboard event processing continues normally.
• keyboard_mode — one of the following values:
  • XCB_GRAB_MODE_SYNC — the state of the keyboard appears to freeze: no further keyboard events are generated by the server until the grabbing client issues a releasing AllowEvents request or until the keyboard grab is released.
  • XCB_GRAB_MODE_ASYNC — keyboard event processing continues normally.

not me noticing both of these describe keyboard behaviour — that's literally what the original page says for both, and we keep every detail around here, so here it is, twice, in full 🙈

• confine_to — specifies the window to confine the pointer in (the user will not be able to move the pointer out of that window). 🚧

The special value XCB_NONE means don't confine the pointer.

• cursor — specifies the cursor that should be displayed, or XCB_NONE to not change the cursor. 🖱️✨
• time — the time argument allows you to avoid certain circumstances that come up if applications take a long time to respond or if there are long network delays. consider a situation where you have two applications, both of which normally grab the pointer when clicked on. if both applications specify the timestamp from the event, the second application may wake up faster and successfully grab the pointer before the first application. the first application then will get an indication that the other application grabbed the pointer before its request was processed.

The special value XCB_CURRENT_TIME will be replaced with the current server time. ⏰

---

🧚 REPLY FIELDS 🧚

• response_type — the type of this reply, in this case XCB_GRAB_POINTER. this field is also present in the xcb_generic_reply_t and can be used to tell replies apart from each other. like name tags at a party 🏷️
• sequence — the sequence number of the last request processed by the X11 server.
• length — the length of the reply, in words (a word is 4 bytes).
• status — one of the following values:
  • XCB_GRAB_STATUS_SUCCESS — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAB_STATUS_ALREADY_GRABBED — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAB_STATUS_INVALID_TIME — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAB_STATUS_NOT_VIEWABLE — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.
  • XCB_GRAB_STATUS_FROZEN — TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.

TODO: NOT YET DOCUMENTED.

(yes, that last one is dangling in the original too. we preserve the lore exactly as it was written 🫶)

---

🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

Actively grabs control of the pointer. further pointer events are reported only to the grabbing client. overrides any active pointer grab by this client. it's giving possessive, it's giving "this pointer is mine now", and honestly? iconic. 💅

---

⭐ RETURN VALUE ⭐

Returns an xcb_grab_pointer_cookie_t. errors have to be handled when calling the reply function xcb_grab_pointer_reply.

If you want to handle errors in the event loop instead, use xcb_grab_pointer_unchecked. see xcb-requests(3) for details. 🍪

---

💀 ERRORS 💀

• xcb_value_error_t — TODO: reasons?
• xcb_window_error_t — the specified window does not exist.

---

🔥 EXAMPLE 🔥

/*
 * Grabs the pointer actively
 *
 */
void my_example(xcb_connection_t *conn, xcb_screen_t *screen, xcb_cursor_t cursor) {
    xcb_grab_pointer_cookie_t cookie;
    xcb_grab_pointer_reply_t *reply;

    cookie = xcb_grab_pointer(
        conn,
        false,               /* get all pointer events specified by the following mask */
        screen->root,        /* grab the root window */
        XCB_NONE,            /* which events to let through */
        XCB_GRAB_MODE_ASYNC, /* pointer events should continue as normal */
        XCB_GRAB_MODE_ASYNC, /* keyboard mode */
        XCB_NONE,            /* confine_to = in which window should the cursor stay */
        cursor,              /* we change the cursor to whatever the user wanted */
        XCB_CURRENT_TIME
    );

    if ((reply = xcb_grab_pointer_reply(conn, cookie, NULL))) {
        if (reply->status == XCB_GRAB_STATUS_SUCCESS)
            printf("successfully grabbed the pointer\n");
        free(reply);
    }
}

---

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

xcb-requests(3), xcb-examples(3), xcb_grab_keyboard(3)

---

💖 AUTHOR 💖

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

---

and that's the whole page bestie, go forth and grab that pointer 🫶 this was X Version 11, libxcb 1.17.0, xcb_grab_pointer(3) — stay slaying, and may all your grabs return XCB_GRAB_STATUS_SUCCESS ✨💅🎀