XCURSOR(3) Keith Packard XCURSOR(3)NAME
XCURSOR - Cursor management library
SYNOPSIS
#include <X11/Xcursor/Xcursor.h>
DESCRIPTION
Xcursor is a simple library designed to help locate and load cursors.
Cursors can be loaded from files or memory. A library of common cur‐
sors exists which map to the standard X cursor names. Cursors can
exist in several sizes and the library automatically picks the best
size.
FUNCTIONAL OVERVIEW
Xcursor is built in a couple of layers; at the bottom layer is code
which can load cursor images from files. Above that is a layer which
locates cursor files based on the library path and theme. At the top
is a layer which builds cursors either out of an image loaded from a
file or one of the standard X cursors. When using images loaded from
files, Xcursor prefers to use the Render extension CreateCursor request
if supported by the X server. Where not supported, Xcursor maps the
cursor image to a standard X cursor and uses the core CreateCursor
request.
CURSOR FILES
Xcursor defines a new format for cursors on disk. Each file holds one
or more cursor images. Each cursor image is tagged with a nominal size
so that the best size can be selected automatically. Multiple cursors
of the same nominal size can be loaded together; applications are
expected to use them as an animated sequence.
Cursor files are stored as a header containing a table of contents fol‐
lowed by a sequence of chunks. The table of contents indicates the
type, subtype and position in the file of each chunk. The file header
looks like:
magic: CARD32 'Xcur' (0x58, 0x63, 0x75, 0x72)
header: CARD32 bytes in this header
version: CARD32 file version number
ntoc: CARD32 number of toc entries
toc: LISTofTOC table of contents
Each table of contents entry looks like:
type: CARD32 entry type
subtype: CARD32 type-specific label - size for images
position: CARD32 absolute byte position of table in file
Each chunk in the file has set of common header fields followed by
additional type-specific fields:
header: CARD32 bytes in chunk header (including type-specific fields)
type: CARD32 must match type in TOC for this chunk
subtype: CARD32 must match subtype in TOC for this chunk
version: CARD32 version number for this chunk type
There are currently two chunk types defined for cursor files; comments
and images. Comments look like:
header: 20 Comment headers are 20 bytes
type: 0xfffe0001 Comment type is 0xfffe0001
subtype: { 1 (COPYRIGHT), 2 (LICENSE), 3 (OTHER) }
version: 1
length: CARD32 byte length of UTF-8 string
string: LISTofCARD8 UTF-8 string
Images look like:
header: 36 Image headers are 36 bytes
type: 0xfffd0002 Image type is 0xfffd0002
subtype: CARD32 Image subtype is the nominal size
version: 1
width: CARD32 Must be less than or equal to 0x7fff
height: CARD32 Must be less than or equal to 0x7fff
xhot: CARD32 Must be less than or equal to width
yhot: CARD32 Must be less than or equal to height
delay: CARD32 Delay between animation frames in milliseconds
pixels: LISTofCARD32 Packed ARGB format pixels
THEMES
Xcursor (mostly) follows the freedesktop.org spec for theming icons.
The default search path it uses is ~/.icons, /usr/share/icons,
/usr/share/pixmaps. Within each of these directories, it searches for
a directory using the theme name. Within the theme directory, it looks
for cursor files in the 'cursors' subdirectory. It uses the first cur‐
sor file found along the path.
If necessary, Xcursor also looks for a "index.theme" file in each theme
directory to find inherited themes and searches along the path for
those themes as well.
If no theme is set, or if no cursor is found for the specified theme,
Xcursor checks the "default" theme.
DATATYPES
XcursorImage
holds a single cursor image in memory. Each pixel in the cursor
is a 32-bit value containing ARGB with A in the high byte.
typedef struct _XcursorImage {
XcursorDim size; /∗ nominal size for matching */
XcursorDim width; /∗ actual width */
XcursorDim height; /∗ actual height */
XcursorDim xhot; /∗ hot spot x (must be inside image) */
XcursorDim yhot; /∗ hot spot y (must be inside image) */
XcursorPixel *pixels; /∗ pointer to pixels */
} XcursorImage;
XcursorImages
holds multiple XcursorImage structures. They're all freed when
the XcursorImages is freed.
typedef struct _XcursorImages {
int nimage; /∗ number of images */
XcursorImage **images; /∗ array of XcursorImage pointers */
} XcursorImages;
XcursorCursors
Holds multiple Cursor objects. They're all freed when the Xcur‐
sorCursors is freed. These are reference counted so that multi‐
ple XcursorAnimate structures can use the same XcursorCursors.
typedef struct _XcursorCursors {
Display *dpy; /∗ Display holding cursors */
int ref; /∗ reference count */
int ncursor; /∗ number of cursors */
Cursor *cursors; /∗ array of cursors */
} XcursorCursors;
XcursorAnimate
References a set of cursors and a sequence within that set.
Multiple XcursorAnimate structures may reference the same Xcur‐
sorCursors; each holds a reference which is removed when the
XcursorAnimate is freed.
typedef struct _XcursorAnimate {
XcursorCursors *cursors; /∗ list of cursors to use */
int sequence; /∗ which cursor is next */
} XcursorAnimate;
XcursorFile
Xcursor provides an abstract API for accessing the file data.
Xcursor provides a stdio implementation of this abstract API;
applications are free to create additional implementations.
These functions parallel the stdio functions in return value and
expected argument values; the read and write functions flip the
arguments around to match the POSIX versions.
typedef struct _XcursorFile {
void *closure;
int (*read) (XcursorFile *file, unsigned char *buf, int len);
int (*write) (XcursorFile *file, unsigned char *buf, int len);
int (*seek) (XcursorFile *file, long offset, int whence);
};
FUNCTIONS
Object Management
XcursorImage *XcursorImageCreate (int width, int height)
void XcursorImageDestroy (XcursorImage *image)
Allocate and free images. On allocation, the hotspot and the
pixels are left uninitialized. The size is set to the maximum
of width and height.
XcursorImages *XcursorImagesCreate (int size)
void XcursorImagesDestroy (XcursorImages *images)
Allocate and free arrays to hold multiple cursor images. On
allocation, nimage is set to zero.
XcursorCursors *XcursorCursorsCreate (Display *dpy, int size)
void XcursorCursorsDestroy (XcursorCursors *cursors)
Allocate and free arrays to hold multiple cursors. On alloca‐
tion, ncursor is set to zero, ref is set to one.
Reading and writing images.
XcursorImage *XcursorXcFileLoadImage (XcursorFile *file, int size)
XcursorImages *XcursorXcFileLoadImages (XcursorFile *file, int size)
XcursorImages *XcursorXcFileLoadAllImages (XcursorFile *file)
XcursorBool XcursorXcFileLoad (XcursorFile *file, XcursorComments
**commentsp, XcursorImages **imagesp)
XcursorBool XcursorXcFileSave (XcursorFile *file, const XcursorComments
*comments, const XcursorImages *images)
These read and write cursors from an XcursorFile handle. After
reading, the file pointer will be left at some random place in
the file.
XcursorImage *XcursorFileLoadImage (FILE *file, int size)
XcursorImages *XcursorFileLoadImages (FILE *file, int size)
XcursorImages *XcursorFileLoadAllImages (FILE *file)
XcursorBool XcursorFileLoad (FILE *file, XcursorComments **commentsp,
XcursorImages **imagesp)
XcursorBool XcursorFileSaveImages (FILE *file, const XcursorImages
*images)
XcursorBool XcursorFileSave (FILE * file, const XcursorComments *com‐
ments, const XcursorImages *images)
These read and write cursors from a stdio FILE handle. Writing
flushes before returning so that any errors should be detected.
XcursorImage *XcursorFilenameLoadImage (const char *filename, int size)
XcursorImages *XcursorFilenameLoadImages (const char *filename, int
size)
XcursorImages *XcursorFilenameLoadAllImages (FILE *file)
XcursorBool XcursorFilenameLoad (const char *file, XcursorComments
**commentsp, XcursorImages **imagesp)
XcursorBool XcursorFilenameSaveImages (const char *filename, const
XcursorImages *images)
XcursorBool XcursorFilenameSave (const char *file, const XcursorCom‐
ments *comments, const XcursorImages *images)
These parallel the stdio FILE interfaces above, but take file‐
names.
Reading library images
XcursorImage *XcursorLibraryLoadImage (const char *name, const char
*theme, int size)
XcursorImages *XcursorLibraryLoadImages (const char *name, const char
*theme, int size)
These search the library path, loading the first file found. If
'theme' is not NULL, these functions first try appending -theme
to name and then name alone.
Cursor APIs
Cursor XcursorFilenameLoadCursor (Display *dpy, const char *file)
XcursorCursors *XcursorFilenameLoadCursors (Display *dpy, const char
*file)
These load cursors from the specified file.
Cursor XcursorLibraryLoadCursor (Display *dpy, const char *name)
XcursorCursors *XcursorLibraryLoadCursors (Display *dpy, const char
*name)
These load cursors using the specified library name. The theme
comes from the display.
X Cursor Name APIs
XcursorImage *XcursorShapeLoadImage (unsigned int shape, const char
*theme, int size)
XcursorImages *XcursorShapeLoadImages (unsigned int shape, const char
*theme, int size)
These map 'shape' to a library name using the standard X cursor
names and then load the images.
Cursor XcursorShapeLoadCursor (Display *dpy, unsigned int shape)
XcursorCursors *XcursorShapeLoadCursors (Display *dpy, unsigned int
shape)
These map 'shape' to a library name and then load the cursors.
Display Information APIs
XcursorBool XcursorSupportsARGB (Display *dpy)
Returns whether the display supports ARGB cursors or whether
cursors will be mapped to a core X cursor.
XcursorBool XcursorSetDefaultSize (Display *dpy, int size)
Sets the default size for cursors on the specified display. When
loading cursors, those whose nominal size is closest to this
size will be preferred.
int XcursorGetDefaultSize (Display *dpy)
Gets the default cursor size.
XcursorBool XcursorSetTheme (Display *dpy, const char *theme)
Sets the current theme name.
char *XcursorGetTheme (Display *dpy)
Gets the current theme name.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
XCURSOR_PATH This variable sets the list of paths to look for cursors
in. Directories in this path are separated by colons
(:).
RESTRICTIONS
Xcursor will probably change radically in the future; weak attempts
will be made to retain some level of source-file compatibility.
AUTHOR
Keith Packard
X Version 11 libXcursor 1.1.13 XCURSOR(3)
