urxvt-clickthrough - Man Page
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.