XListInputDevices()

NAME

XListInputDevices(), XFreeDeviceList() - list available input devices

SYNOPSIS

XDeviceInfo *XListInputDevices (Display *display, int *ndevices_return)
XFreeDeviceList (XDeviceInfo *list)

ARGUMENTS

display
Specifies the connection to the X server.
ndevices_return
Specifies a pointer to a variable where the number of available devices can be returned.
list
Specifies the list of devices to free. The XFreeDeviceList(3) function frees the list of available extension input devices.

DESCRIPTION

The XListInputDevices(3) request lists the available extension input devices. This list includes the X pointer and X keyboard, any other input devices that are currently accessible through the X server, and any input devices that are not currently accessible through the X server but could be accessed if requested.

Some server implementations may make all input devices available at the time the server is initialized. Others may wait until requested by a client to access an input device. In the latter case, it is possible that an input device will be listed as available at one time but not at another.

For each input device available to the server, the XListInputDevices request returns an XDeviceInfo structure. That structure contains a pointer to a list of structures, each of which contains information about one class of input supported by the device.

The XDeviceInfo structure is defined as follows:

typedef struct _XDeviceInfo
{
	 XID	 id;
	 Atom	type;
	 char	*name;
	 int	 num_classes;
	 int	 use;
	 XAnyClassPtr   inputclassinfo;
} XDeviceInfo;

The id is a number in the range 0-128 that uniquely identifies the device. It is assigned to the device when it is initialized by the server.

The type field is of type Atom and indicates the nature of the device.

The name field contains a pointer to a null-terminated string that corresponds to one of the defined device types. The name will correspond to one of the following strings (defined in the header file <X11/XI.h>:

These names may be directly compared with the name field of the XDeviceInfo structure, or used in an XInternAtom(3) request to return an atom that can be compared with the type field of the XDeviceInfo structure.

The num_classes field is a number in the range 0-255 that specifies the number of input classes supported by the device for which information is returned by XListInputDevices(3). Some input classes, such as class Focus and class Proximity do not have any information to be returned by XListInputDevices(3).

The use field specifies how the device is currently being used. If the value is IsXKeyboard, the device is currently being used as the X keyboard. If the value is IsXPointer the X pointer. If the value is IsXExtensionDevice, the device is available for use as an extension device.

The inputclassinfo field contains a pointer to the first input-class specific data. The first two fields are common to all classes.

The class field is a number in the range 0-255. It uniquely identifies the class of input for which information is returned. Currently defined classes are KeyClass, ButtonClass, and ValuatorClass.

The length field is a number in the range 0-255. It specifies the number of bytes of data that are contained in this input class. The length includes the class and length fields.

The XKeyInfo structure describes the characteristics of the keys on the device. It is defined as follows:

typedef struct _XKeyInfo {
	 XID			class;
	 int			length;
	 unsigned short	min_keycode;
	 unsigned short	max_keycode;
	 unsigned short	num_keys;
} XKeyInfo;

min_keycode is of type KEYCODE. It specifies the minimum keycode that the device will report. The minimum keycode will not be smaller than 8.

max_keycode is of type KEYCODE. It specifies the maximum keycode that the device will report. The maximum keycode will not be larger than 255.

num_keys specifies the number of keys that the device has.

The XButtonInfo structure defines the characteristics of the buttons on the device. It is defined as follows:

typedef struct _XButtonInfo {
	 XID	 class;
	 int	 length;
	 short		num_buttons;
} XButtonInfo;

num_buttons specifies the number of buttons that the device has.

The XValuatorInfo structure defines the characteristics of the valuators on the device. It is defined as follows:

typedef struct _XValuatorInfo {
	 XID			class;
	 int			length;
	 unsigned char	 num_axes;
	 unsigned char	 mode;
	 unsigned long	 motion_buffer;
	 XAxisInfoPtr		axes;
} XValuatorInfo;
num_axes contains the number of axes the device supports.

mode is a constant that has one of the following values: Absolute or Relative. Some devices allow the mode to be changed dynamically through the SetDeviceMode() request.

motion_buffer_size is a cardinal number that specifies the number of elements that can be contained in the motion history buffer for the device.

The axes field contains a pointer to an XAxisInfo structure.

The XAxisInfo structure is defined as follows:

typedef struct _XAxisInfo {
	 int  resolution;
	 int  min_value;
	 int  max_value;
} XAxisInfo;

The resolution contains a number in counts/meter.

The min_val field contains a number that specifies the minimum value the device reports for this axis. For devices whose mode is Relative, the min_val field will contain 0.

The max_val field contains a number that specifies the maximum value the device reports for this axis. For devices whose mode is Relative, the max_val field will contain 0.

To free the XDeviceInfo array created by XListInputDevices(3), use XFreeDeviceList(3).

DIAGNOSTICS

None.

SEE ALSO

Programming With Xlib