default_colors(3x) default_colors(3x)
use_default_colors, assume_default_colors - use terminal's default
colors
#include <curses.h>
int use_default_colors(void);
int assume_default_colors(int fg, int bg);
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.
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.
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.
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.
ded(1), curs_color(3x).
Thomas Dickey (from an analysis of the requirements for color xterm for
XFree86 3.1.2C, February 1996).
default_colors(3x)