Cursor Parameters - GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual

∑ ErgoEmacs ◆ Emacs ◇ Lisp ◆ Blog ◆ Emacs ◇ Lisp ◆ Buy Tutorial

29.3.3.7 Cursor Parameters

This frame parameter controls the way the cursor looks.

cursor-type

How to display the cursor. Legitimate values are:

box: Display a filled box. (This is the default.)
hollow: Display a hollow box.
nil: Don't display a cursor.
bar: Display a vertical bar between characters.
(bar . width): Display a vertical bar width pixels wide between characters.
hbar: Display a horizontal bar.
(hbar . height): Display a horizontal bar height pixels high.

The buffer-local variable cursor-type overrides the value of the cursor-type frame parameter, but if it is t, that means to use the cursor specified for the frame.

— User Option: blink-cursor-alist

This variable specifies how to blink the cursor. Each element has the form (on-state . off-state). Whenever the cursor type equals on-state (comparing using equal), the corresponding off-state specifies what the cursor looks like when it blinks “off.” Both on-state and off-state should be suitable values for the cursor-type frame parameter.
There are various defaults for how to blink each type of cursor, if the type is not mentioned as an on-state here. Changes in this variable do not take effect immediately, only when you specify the cursor-type frame parameter.

— User Option: cursor-in-non-selected-windows

This variable controls how the cursor looks in a window that is not selected. It supports the same values as the cursor-type frame parameter; also, nil means don't display a cursor in nonselected windows, and t (the default) means use a standard modification of the usual cursor type (solid box becomes hollow box, and bar becomes a narrower bar).