urxvt-clickthrough(1) RXVT-UNICODE urxvt-clickthrough(1)

NAME

clickthrough - make window "transparent" with respect to input events

SYNOPSIS

# create a transparent non-interactable overlay
urxvt -override-redirect -depth 32 -bg "[0]black" -clickthrough on -e top

DESCRIPTION

This extension can toggle the terminal window between "normal" and
"clickthrough" states. In the latter state, input events such as
clicks will go "through" the window, as if it weren't there. This can
be used to put a (preferably partially transparent) window in front
of other windows and let clicks and other events go through the
underlying window.

See <https://shallowsky.com/blog/2017/Apr/06/> for an example.

This extension is loaded automatically when the "-clickthrough mode"
command line argument is given, and operates in one of three modes:

"disable" (the default)
In this mode, everything works normally and the OSC sequence is
not active.

"on"
In this mode, events go through the window, and this can be
toggled via an OSC sequence.

"off"
In this mode, events act normally, but this can be toggled via an
OSC sequence.

OSC SEQUENCE

When enabled, the OSC sequence "777;clickthroughmode" can be used to
change the clickthrough mode. Example, switch it on, and then switch
it off again:

printf '\033]777;clickthrough:on\007'
printf '\033]777;clickthrough:off\007'

BUGS

For this to work as expected, your window manager needs to support
shaped windows fully, but most only have partial support. The only
window manager known to handle this correctly is openbox 3.7.

A workaround is to also use "-override-redirect".

In addition, input shapes don't seem to be well supported in Xorg,
which sometimes does not generate the necessary events for window
managers. This is currently being worked around in this extension by
re-setting the input shape after every map event.

9.31 2023-10-24 urxvt-clickthrough(1)