10.13.1 ClientMessage Events

The X server generates ClientMessage events only when a client calls the function XSendEvent().

The structure for this event type contains:


typedef struct {
	int type;			/* ClientMessage */
	unsigned long serial;		/* # of last request processed by server */
	Bool send_event;		/* true if this came from a SendEvent request */
	Display *display;		/* Display the event was read from */
	Window window;
	Atom message_type;
	int format;
	union {
		char b[20];
		short s[10];
		long l[5];
	        } data;
} XClientMessageEvent;

The message_type member is set to an atom that indicates how the data should be interpreted by the receiving client. The format member is set to 8, 16, or 32 and specifies whether the data should be viewed as a list of bytes, shorts, or longs. The data member is a union that contains the members b, s, and l. The b, s, and l members represent data of 20 8-bit values, 10 16-bit values, and 5 32-bit values. Particular message types might not make use of all these values. The X server places no interpretation on the values in the window, message_type, or data members.

Next: PropertyNotify Events

Christophe Tronche, ch@tronche.com