(This is the documentation for SDL3, which is under heavy development and the API is changing! SDL2 is the current stable version!)

SDL_SetWindowKeyboardGrab

Set a window's keyboard grab mode.

Header File

Defined in SDL_video.h, but apps should use #include <SDL3/SDL.h>

Syntax

int SDL_SetWindowKeyboardGrab(SDL_Window *window, SDL_bool grabbed);

Function Parameters

window	The window for which the keyboard grab mode should be set.
grabbed	This is SDL_TRUE to grab keyboard, and SDL_FALSE to release.

Return Value

Returns 0 on success or a negative error code on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.

Remarks

Keyboard grab enables capture of system keyboard shortcuts like Alt+Tab or the Meta/Super key. Note that not all system keyboard shortcuts can be captured by applications (one example is Ctrl+Alt+Del on Windows).

This is primarily intended for specialized applications such as VNC clients or VM frontends. Normal games should not use keyboard grab.

When keyboard grab is enabled, SDL will continue to handle Alt+Tab when the window is full-screen to ensure the user is not trapped in your application. If you have a custom keyboard shortcut to exit fullscreen mode, you may suppress this behavior with SDL_HINT_ALLOW_ALT_TAB_WHILE_GRABBED.

If the caller enables a grab while another window is currently grabbed, the other window loses its grab in favor of the caller's window.

Version

This function is available since SDL 3.0.0.