term% cat index.txt MOUSE(3) Library Functions Manual MOUSE(3)
NAME
mouse, cursor - kernel mouse interface
SYNOPSIS
bind -a #m /dev
/dev/mouse
/dev/mousein
/dev/mousectl
/dev/cursor
DESCRIPTION
The mouse device provides an interface to the mouse. There is also a
cursor associated with the screen; it is always displayed at the cur‐
rent mouse position.
Reading the mouse file returns the mouse status: its position and but‐
ton state. The read blocks until the state has changed since the last
read. The read returns 49 bytes: the letter m followed by four decimal
strings, each 11 characters wide followed by a blank: x and y, coordi‐
nates of the mouse position in the screen image; buttons, a bitmask
with the 1, 2, and 4 bits set when the mouse's left, middle, and right
buttons, respectively, are down; and msec, a time stamp, in units of
milliseconds.
Writing the mouse file, in the same format, causes the mouse cursor to
move to the position specified by the x and y coordinates of the mes‐
sage. The buttons and msec fields are ignored and may be omitted.
Writes to the mousein file are processed as if they were generated by
the mouse hardware itself, as extra mouse events to be processed and
passed back via the mouse file. The mousein file, which may be opened
only by the host owner, is intended for controlling devices, such as
USB mice, that are managed by user-level software. Each event should
consist of the letter m followed by delta x, delta y, and buttons as
space-separated decimal numbers.
Writing to the mousectl file configures and controls the mouse. The
messages are:
serial n
sets serial port n to be the mouse port.
ps2 sets the PS2 port to be the mouse port.
intellimouse
uses the wheel on a Microsoft Intellimouse as the middle button.
ps2intellimouse
is equivalent to a write of ps2 followed by a write of intel‐
limouse.
accelerated [n]
turns on mouse acceleration. N is an optional acceleration fac‐
tor.
linear turns off mouse acceleration.
res n sets mouse resolution to a setting between 0 and 3 inclusive.
hwaccel on/off
sets whether acceleration is done in hardware or software. By
default, PS2 mice use hardware and serial mice use software.
Some laptops (notably the IBM Thinkpad T23) don't implement
hardware acceleration for external mice.
swap swaps the left and right buttons on the mouse.
buttonmap xyz
numbers the left, middle, and right mouse buttons x, y, and z,
respectively. If xyz is omitted, the default map, 123, is used.
Thus in the default state writing buttonmap 321 swaps left and
right buttons and writing buttonmap 123 or just buttonmap re‐
stores their usual meaning. Note that buttonmap messages are
idempotent, unlike swap.
reset clears the mouse to its default state.
Not all mice interpret all messages; with some devices, some of the
messages may be no-ops.
Cursors are described in graphics(2). When read or written from or to
the cursor file, they are represented in a 72-byte binary format. The
first and second four bytes are little endian 32-bit numbers specifying
the x and y coordinates of the cursor offset; the next 32 bytes are the
clr bitmask, and the last 32 bytes the set bitmask.
Reading from the cursor file returns the current cursor information.
Writing to the cursor file sets the current cursor information. A
write of fewer than 72 bytes sets the cursor to the default, an arrow.
The mouse and cursor files are multiplexed by rio(1) to give the illu‐
sion of a private mouse to each of its clients. The semantics are oth‐
erwise the same except that notification of a window resize is passed
to the application using a mouse message beginning with r rather than
m; see rio(4) for details.
To cope with pointing devices with only two buttons, when the shift key
is pressed, the right mouse button generates middle-button events.
SOURCE
/sys/src/9/port/devmouse.c
SEE ALSO
rio(4)
BUGS
The cursor format is big endian while the rest of the graphics inter‐
face is little endian.
MOUSE(3)