dft_fgbg - use terminal’s default colors
#include <curses.h>
int use_default_colors(void);
This is an extension to the curses library. It is used with terminals that support ISO 6429 color, or equivalent. These terminals allow the application to reset color to an unspecified default value (e.g., with SGR 39 or SGR 49). Because they are designed to support this, their design usually includes features to change the default foreground or background colors so that they do not match the assumption in XSI curses of white on black.
Applications that paint a colored background over the whole screen are not adversely impacted by this type of terminal design. However, there are applications that are designed to work with the default background.
The function returns the integer ERR upon failure and OK on success. It will fail if either the terminal does not support the orig_pair or orig_colors capability. If the initialize_pair capability is found, this causes an error as well.
Associated with this extension, the init_pair(3X) function accepts negative arguments to specify default foreground or background colors.
These routines are specific to ncurses. They were not supported on Version 7, BSD or System V implementations. It is recommended that any code depending on them be conditioned using NCURSES_VERSION.
curs_color(3X), ded(1).
Thomas Dickey (from an analysis of the requirements for color xterm for XFree86 3.1.2C, February 1996).