2 .TH DIALOG 1 "2 October 1998"
4 dialog \- display dialog boxes from shell scripts
8 .BI "dialog --create-rc " file
12 .BI "\-\-title " title
26 is a program which allows you to present a variety of questions or
27 display messages in dialog box form from a shell script. The following
28 types of dialog objects are currently supported:
30 .BR yes/no " box," " menu" " box," " input" " box,"
31 .BR message " box," " text" " box," " info" " box,"
32 .BR checklist " box," " program" " box,"
33 .BR ftree " and " tree " boxes."
37 The screen will be cleared to the
38 .BR "screen attribute" " on exit."
40 .BI \-\-create-rc " file"
41 .RB "Since " dialog " supports run-time configuration,"
42 this can be used to dump a sample configuration file to the file specified
46 .BI \-\-title " title"
49 string to be displayed at the top of the dialog box.
54 string to be displayed at the bottom of the dialog box.
59 to be displayed by pressing ? or F1.
63 .BI \-\-yesno " text height width \fR[ \fByes \fR| \fBno \fR]"
64 .RB A " yes/no" " dialog box of size"
68 columns will be displayed. The string specified by
70 is displayed inside the dialog box. If this string is too long to fit
71 in one line, it will be automatically divided into multiple lines at
72 the appropriate points. The
74 string may also contain the sub-string
79 to control line breaking explicitly. This dialog box is useful for
80 asking questions that require the user to answer either yes or no.
81 .RB "The dialog box has a" " Yes" " button and a " No
82 button, in which the user can switch between by pressing the
84 .RB A " Yes" " button is selected by default unless" " no"
87 .BI \-\-msgbox " text height width"
88 .RB A " message" " box is very similar to a" " yes/no" " box."
89 The only difference between a
97 button. You can use this dialog box to display any message you like.
98 After reading the message, the user can press the
102 will exit and the calling shell script can continue its operation.
104 .BI \-\-infobox " text height width"
105 .RB An " info" " box is basically a" " message" " box."
106 However, in this case,
108 will exit immediately after displaying the message to the user. The
109 screen is not cleared when
111 exits, so that the message will remain on the screen until the calling
112 shell script clears it later. This is useful when you want to inform
113 the user that some operations are carrying on that may require some
116 .BI \-\-inputbox " text height width"
117 .RB "An " input " box is useful when you want to ask questions that"
118 require the user to input a string as the answer. When inputing the
121 key can be used to correct typing errors. If the input string is longer than
122 can be fitted in the dialog box, the input field will be scrolled. On exit,
123 the input string will be printed on
126 .BI \-\-textbox " file height width"
127 .RB A " text" " box lets you display the contents of a text file in a"
128 dialog box. It is like a simple text file viewer. The user can move
129 through the file by using the
130 .IR UP/DOWN ", " PGUP/PGDN
131 .RI and " HOME/END" " keys available on most keyboards."
132 If the lines are too long to be displayed in the box, the
134 keys can be used to scroll the text region horizontally. For more
135 convenience, forward and backward searching functions are also provided.
136 .IP "\fB\-\-menu \fItext height width menu-height \fR[ \fItag item \fR] \fI..."
137 As its name suggests, a
139 box is a dialog box that can be used to present a list of choices in
140 the form of a menu for the user to choose. Each menu entry consists of a
141 .IR tag " string and an " item " string. The"
143 gives the entry a name to distinguish it from the other entries in the
146 is a short description of the option that the entry represents. The
147 user can move between the menu entries by pressing the
149 keys, the first letter of the
151 as a hot-key, or the number keys
152 .IR 1-9 ". There are"
154 entries displayed in the menu at one time, but the menu will be
155 scrolled if there are more entries than that. When
159 of the chosen menu entry will be printed on
162 .BI \-\-prgbox " command height width"
163 .RB A " program" " box lets you display output of command in"
165 .IP "\fB\-\-checklist \fItext height width list-height \fR[ \fItag item status \fR] \fI..."
166 .RB "A " checklist " box is similar to a " menu " box in that there are"
167 multiple entries presented in the form of a menu. Instead of choosing
168 one entry among the entries, each entry can be turned on or off by the
169 user. The initial on/off state of each entry is specified by
171 On exit, a list of the
173 strings of those entries that are turned on will be printed on
175 .IP "\fB\-\-ftree \fIfile FS text height width menu-height"
177 box is a dialog box showing the tree described by the data from the file
179 The data in the file should look like find(1) output. For the
180 find output, the field separator
186 positive numbers, they set the absolute size of the whole
189 .IR width " are negative numbers, the size of the"
192 selected automatically.
194 sets the height of the tree subwindow inside the
200 box above the tree subwindow and can contain newline characters
202 to split lines. One can navigate in the tree by pressing
203 .IR UP/DOWN " or " \'+\'/\'-\' ", " PG_UP/PG_DOWN " or " \'b\'/SPACE
204 .RI "and " HOME/END " or " \'g\'/\'G\' "."
205 A leaf of the tree is selected by pressing
206 .IR TAB " or " LEFT/RIGHT
211 The selected leaf (to be more
212 exact, the full path to it from the root of the tree) is printed to
218 is pressed, nothing is printed to
221 may contain data like find(1)
222 output, as well as like the output of find(1) with
224 option. Some of the transient paths to the leaves of the tree may be
225 absent. Such data is corrected when fed from file.
226 .IP "\fB\-\-tree \fIFS text height width menu-height \fR[ \fIitem \fR] \fI..."
230 box with some exceptions. First, the data is not
231 entered from a file, but from the command line as
233 Second, the data thus entered is not corrected in any way.
234 Thus, the data like the output of find(1) with
236 option will look incorrectly.
237 .SH "RUN-TIME CONFIGURATION"
240 Create a sample configuration file by typing:
243 "dialog --create-rc <file>"
248 determines the settings to use as follows:
252 if environment variable
254 is set, its value determines the name of the configuration file.
257 if the file in (a) can't be found, use the file
259 as the configuration file.
262 if the file in (b) can't be found, use compiled in defaults.
266 Edit the sample configuration file and copy it to some place that
268 can find, as stated in step 2 above.
272 Define this variable if you want to specify the name of the configuration file
277 default configuration file
280 .BR dialog " is exited by pressing the " Yes " or " OK
283 button is pressed. Otherwise, if errors occur inside
287 is exited by pressing the
289 key, the exit status is -1.
293 Text files containing
295 characters may cause problems with
299 characters in text files must first be expanded to spaces before being
300 .RB "displayed by " text " box."
302 Screen update is too slow.
308 boxes do not allow the tree to be moved to the left or to
309 the right. Thus, if there are many levels of data, some of the leaves can be
310 rendered invisible. A standard display with 80 characters allows for 17
311 levels to be visible. Deeper levels are invisible. However, the navigation
312 in the tree and selection of leaves do work.
314 Savio Lam (lam836@cs.cuhk.hk)
316 Changes by Anatoly A. Orehovsky (tolik@mpeks.tomsk.su) (ftree and tree boxes)