1 .TH DIALOG 1 "2 October 1998"
3 dialog \- display dialog boxes from shell scripts
7 .BI "dialog --create-rc " file
11 .BI "\-\-title " title
25 is a program which allows you to present a variety of questions or
26 display messages in dialog box form from a shell script. The following
27 types of dialog objects are currently supported:
29 .BR yes/no " box," " menu" " box," " input" " box,"
30 .BR message " box," " text" " box," " info" " box,"
31 .BR checklist " box," " program" " box,"
32 .BR ftree " and " tree " boxes."
36 The screen will be cleared to the
37 .BR "screen attribute" " on exit."
39 .BI \-\-create-rc " file"
40 .RB "Since " dialog " supports run-time configuration,"
41 this can be used to dump a sample configuration file to the file specified
45 .BI \-\-title " title"
48 string to be displayed at the top of the dialog box.
53 string to be displayed at the bottom of the dialog box.
58 to be displayed by pressing ? or F1.
62 .BI \-\-yesno " text height width"
63 .RB A " yes/no" " dialog box of size"
67 columns will be displayed. The string specified by
69 is displayed inside the dialog box. If this string is too long to fit
70 in one line, it will be automatically divided into multiple lines at
71 the appropriate points. The
73 string may also contain the sub-string
78 to control line breaking explicitly. This dialog box is useful for
79 asking questions that require the user to answer either yes or no.
80 .RB "The dialog box has a" " Yes" " button and a " No
81 button, in which the user can switch between by pressing the
84 .BI \-\-msgbox " text height width"
85 .RB A " message" " box is very similar to a" " yes/no" " box."
86 The only difference between a
94 button. You can use this dialog box to display any message you like.
95 After reading the message, the user can press the
99 will exit and the calling shell script can continue its operation.
101 .BI \-\-infobox " text height width"
102 .RB An " info" " box is basically a" " message" " box."
103 However, in this case,
105 will exit immediately after displaying the message to the user. The
106 screen is not cleared when
108 exits, so that the message will remain on the screen until the calling
109 shell script clears it later. This is useful when you want to inform
110 the user that some operations are carrying on that may require some
113 .BI \-\-inputbox " text height width"
114 .RB "An " input " box is useful when you want to ask questions that"
115 require the user to input a string as the answer. When inputing the
118 key can be used to correct typing errors. If the input string is longer than
119 can be fitted in the dialog box, the input field will be scrolled. On exit,
120 the input string will be printed on
123 .BI \-\-textbox " file height width"
124 .RB A " text" " box lets you display the contents of a text file in a"
125 dialog box. It is like a simple text file viewer. The user can move
126 through the file by using the
127 .IR UP/DOWN ", " PGUP/PGDN
128 .RI and " HOME/END" " keys available on most keyboards."
129 If the lines are too long to be displayed in the box, the
131 keys can be used to scroll the text region horizontally. For more
132 convenience, forward and backward searching functions are also provided.
133 .IP "\fB\-\-menu \fItext height width menu-height \fR[ \fItag item \fR] \fI..."
134 As its name suggests, a
136 box is a dialog box that can be used to present a list of choices in
137 the form of a menu for the user to choose. Each menu entry consists of a
138 .IR tag " string and an " item " string. The"
140 gives the entry a name to distinguish it from the other entries in the
143 is a short description of the option that the entry represents. The
144 user can move between the menu entries by pressing the
146 keys, the first letter of the
148 as a hot-key, or the number keys
149 .IR 1-9 ". There are"
151 entries displayed in the menu at one time, but the menu will be
152 scrolled if there are more entries than that. When
156 of the chosen menu entry will be printed on
159 .BI \-\-prgbox " command height width"
160 .RB A " program" " box lets you display output of command in"
162 .IP "\fB\-\-checklist \fItext height width list-height \fR[ \fItag item status \fR] \fI..."
163 .RB "A " checklist " box is similar to a " menu " box in that there are"
164 multiple entries presented in the form of a menu. Instead of choosing
165 one entry among the entries, each entry can be turned on or off by the
166 user. The initial on/off state of each entry is specified by
168 On exit, a list of the
170 strings of those entries that are turned on will be printed on
172 .IP "\fB\-\-ftree \fIfile FS text height width menu-height"
174 box is a dialog box showing the tree described by the data from the file
176 The data in the file should look like find(1) output. For the
177 find output, the field separator
183 positive numbers, they set the absolute size of the whole
186 .IR width " are negative numbers, the size of the"
189 selected automatically.
191 sets the height of the tree subwindow inside the
197 box above the tree subwindow and can contain newline characters
199 to split lines. One can navigate in the tree by pressing
200 .IR UP/DOWN " or " \'+\'/\'-\' ", " PG_UP/PG_DOWN " or " \'b\'/SPACE
201 .RI "and " HOME/END " or " \'g\'/\'G\' "."
202 A leaf of the tree is selected by pressing
203 .IR TAB " or " LEFT/RIGHT
208 The selected leaf (to be more
209 exact, the full path to it from the root of the tree) is printed to
215 is pressed, nothing is printed to
218 may contain data like find(1)
219 output, as well as like the output of find(1) with
221 option. Some of the transient paths to the leaves of the tree may be
222 absent. Such data is corrected when fed from file.
223 .IP "\fB\-\-tree \fIFS text height width menu-height \fR[ \fIitem \fR] \fI..."
227 box with some exceptions. First, the data is not
228 entered from a file, but from the command line as
230 Second, the data thus entered is not corrected in any way.
231 Thus, the data like the output of find(1) with
233 option will look incorrectly.
234 .SH "RUN-TIME CONFIGURATION"
237 Create a sample configuration file by typing:
240 "dialog --create-rc <file>"
245 determines the settings to use as follows:
249 if environment variable
251 is set, its value determines the name of the configuration file.
254 if the file in (a) can't be found, use the file
256 as the configuration file.
259 if the file in (b) can't be found, use compiled in defaults.
263 Edit the sample configuration file and copy it to some place that
265 can find, as stated in step 2 above.
269 Define this variable if you want to specify the name of the configuration file
274 default configuration file
277 .BR dialog " is exited by pressing the " Yes " or " OK
280 button is pressed. Otherwise, if errors occur inside
284 is exited by pressing the
286 key, the exit status is -1.
290 Text files containing
292 characters may cause problems with
296 characters in text files must first be expanded to spaces before being
297 .RB "displayed by " text " box."
299 Screen update is too slow.
305 boxes do not allow the tree to be moved to the left or to
306 the right. Thus, if there are many levels of data, some of the leaves can be
307 rendered invisible. A standard display with 80 characters allows for 17
308 levels to be visible. Deeper levels are invisible. However, the navigation
309 in the tree and selection of leaves do work.
311 Savio Lam (lam836@cs.cuhk.hk)
313 Changes by Anatoly A. Orehovsky (tolik@mpeks.tomsk.su) (ftree and tree boxes)