XLIB Programming Manual, Rel. 5, Third Edition

4.3 Settable Attributes

The sections that follow describe the options and default values for each member of the XSetWindowAttributes structure. The attributes control a wide variety of ways for a window to act. They can be grouped loosely to help you understand when you might want to set each attribute.

One group of attributes controls the appearance of a window. These are background_pixel, background_pixmap, border_pixel, border_ pixmap, colormap, and cursor. Most clients will set the border, background, and cursor but use the default colormap.

A second group is provided to allow clients to improve their redrawing performance under certain conditions. These are backing_pixel, backing_planes, backing_store, bit_gravity, and save_under. These attributes do not affect the appearance or operation of a client. It is advisable to consider bit_gravity when designing a client, but the code for using these attributes can be added after a client’s functionality is complete.

The event_mask and do_not_propagate_mask attributes control the selection and propagation of events. These attributes are described briefly in this chapter but also in much more detail in Chapter 8.

The win_gravity attribute provides a means for relocating a window automatically when its parent is resized. Applications can take advantage of this feature to simplify the code that positions their subwindows when they are resized.

The override_redirect attribute controls whether requests to map or reconfigure the window can be ...