DIALOG(1)DIALOG(1)NAMEdialog - display dialog boxes from shell scripts
SYNOPSISdialog--clear
dialog--create-rc file
dialog--print-maxsize
dialog common-options box-options
DESCRIPTION
Dialog is a program that will let you to present a variety of questions
or display messages using dialog boxes from a shell script. These
types of dialog boxes are implemented (though not all are necessarily
compiled into dialog):
calendar, checklist, dselect, editbox, form, fselect, gauge,
infobox, inputbox, inputmenu, menu, mixedform, mixedgauge,
msgbox (message), passwordbox, passwordform, pause, progressbox,
radiolist, tailbox, tailboxbg, textbox, timebox, and yesno
(yes/no).
You can put more than one dialog box into a script:
- Use the "--and-widget" token to force Dialog to proceed to the
next dialog unless you have pressed ESC to cancel, or
- Simply add the tokens for the next dialog box, making a chain.
Dialog stops chaining when the return code from a dialog is nonze‐
ro, e.g., Cancel or No (see DIAGNOSTICS).
Some widgets, e.g., checklist, will write text to dialog's output.
Normally that is the standard error, but there are options for changing
this: "--output-fd", "--stderr" and "--stdout". No text is written if
the Cancel button (or ESC) is pressed; dialog exits immediately in that
case.
OPTIONS
All options begin with "--" (two ASCII hyphens, for the benefit of
those using systems with deranged locale support).
A "--" by itself is used as an escape, i.e., the next token on the com‐
mand-line is not treated as an option.
dialog--title -- --Not an option
The "--args" option tells dialog to list the command-line parameters to
the standard error. This is useful when debugging complex scripts us‐
ing the "--" and "--file", since the command-line may be rewritten as
these are expanded.
The "--file" option tells dialog to read parameters from the file named
as its value.
dialog--file parameterfile
Blanks not within double-quotes are discarded (use backslashes to quote
single characters). The result is inserted into the command-line, re‐
placing "--file" and its option value. Interpretation of the command-
line resumes from that point.
Common Options
--ascii-lines
Rather than draw graphics lines around boxes, draw ASCII "+" and
"-" in the same place. See also "--no-lines".
--aspect ratio
This gives you some control over the box dimensions when using
auto sizing (specifying 0 for height and width). It represents
width / height. The default is 9, which means 9 characters wide
to every 1 line high.
--backtitle backtitle
Specifies a backtitle string to be displayed on the backdrop, at
the top of the screen.
--begin y x
Specify the position of the upper left corner of a dialog box on
the screen.
--cancel-label string
Override the label used for "Cancel" buttons.
--clear
Clears the widget screen, keeping only the screen_color back‐
ground. Use this when you combine widgets with "--and-widget"
to erase the contents of a previous widget on the screen, so it
won't be seen under the contents of a following widget. Under‐
stand this as the complement of "--keep-window". To compare the
effects, use these:
All three widgets visible, staircase effect, ordered 1,2,3:
dialog--begin 2 2 --yesno "" 0 0 \
--and-widget--begin 4 4 --yesno "" 0 0 \
--and-widget--begin 6 6 --yesno "" 0 0
Only the last widget is left visible:
dialog--clear--begin 2 2 --yesno "" 0 0 \
--and-widget --clear --begin 4 4 --yesno "" 0 0 \
--and-widget--begin 6 6 --yesno "" 0 0
All three widgets visible, staircase effect, ordered 3,2,1:
dialog--keep-window --begin 2 2 --yesno "" 0 0 \
--and-widget --keep-window --begin 4 4 --yesno "" 0 0 \
--and-widget--begin 6 6 --yesno "" 0 0
First and third widget visible, staircase effect, ordered 3,1:
dialog--keep-window --begin 2 2 --yesno "" 0 0 \
--and-widget --clear --begin 4 4 --yesno "" 0 0 \
--and-widget--begin 6 6 --yesno "" 0 0
Note, if you want to
restore original console
colors and send your
cursor home after the
dialog program has
exited, use the
clear (1) command.
--colors
Interpret embedded "\Z"
sequences in the dialog
text by the following
character, which tells
dialog to set colors or
video attributes: 0
through 7 are the ANSI
used in curses: black,
red, green, yellow,
blue, magenta, cyan and
white respectively.
Bold is set by 'b',
reset by 'B'. Reverse
is set by 'r', reset by
'R'. Underline is set
by 'u', reset by 'U'.
The settings are cumula‐
tive, e.g., "\Zb\Z1"
makes the following text
bold (perhaps bright)
red. Restore normal
settings with "\Zn".
--cr-wrap
Interpret embedded new‐
lines in the dialog text
as a newline on the
screen. Otherwise, dia‐
log will only wrap lines
where needed to fit
inside the text box.
Even though you can con‐
trol line breaks with
this, dialog will still
wrap any lines that are
too long for the width
of the box. Without cr-
wrap, the layout of your
text may be formatted to
look nice in the source
code of your script
without affecting the
way it will look in the
dialog.
See also the "--no-col‐
lapse" and "--trim"
options.
--create-rc file
When dialog supports
run-time configuration,
this can be used to dump
a sample configuration
file to the file speci‐
fied by file.
--defaultno
Make the default value
of the yes/no box a No.
Likewise, make the
default button of wid‐
gets that provide "OK"
and "Cancel" a Cancel.
If "--nocancel" or
"--visit-items" are
given those options
overrides this, making
the default button
always "Yes" (internally
the same as "OK").
--default-item string
Set the default item in
a checklist, form or
menu box. Normally the
first item in the box is
the default.
--exit-label string
Override the label used
for "EXIT" buttons.
--extra-button
Show an extra button,
between "OK" and "Can‐
cel" buttons.
--extra-label string
Override the label used
for "Extra" buttons.
Note: for inputmenu wid‐
gets, this defaults to
"Rename".
--help Prints the help message
to dialog's output. The
help message is printed
if no options are given.
--help-button
Show a help-button after
"OK" and "Cancel" but‐
tons, i.e., in check‐
list, radiolist and menu
boxes. If "--item-help"
is also given, on exit
the return status will
be the same as for the
"OK" button, and the
item-help text will be
written to dialog's out‐
put after the token
"HELP". Otherwise, the
return status will indi‐
cate that the Help but‐
ton was pressed, and no
message printed.
--help-label string
Override the label used
for "Help" buttons.
--help-status
If the help-button is
selected, writes the
checklist, radiolist or
form information after
the item-help "HELP"
information. This can
be used to reconstruct
the state of a checklist
after processing the
help request.
--ignore
Ignore options that dia‐
log does not recognize.
Some well-known ones
such as "--icon" are
ignored anyway, but this
is a better choice for
compatibility with other
implementations.
--input-fd fd
Read keyboard input from
the given file descrip‐
tor. Most dialog
scripts read from the
standard input, but the
gauge widget reads a
pipe (which is always
standard input). Some
configurations do not
work properly when dia‐
log tries to reopen the
terminal. Use this
option (with appropriate
juggling of file-
descriptors) if your
script must work in that
type of environment.
--insecure
Makes the password wid‐
get friendlier but less
secure, by echoing
asterisks for each char‐
acter.
--item-help
Interpret the tags data
for checklist, radiolist
and menu boxes adding a
column which is dis‐
played in the bottom
line of the screen, for
the currently selected
item.
--keep-tite
Normally dialog checks
to see if it is running
in an xterm, and in that
case tries to suppress
the initialization
strings that would make
it switch to the alter‐
nate screen. Switching
between the normal and
alternate screens is
visually distracting in
a script which runs dia‐
log several times. Use
this option to allow
dialog to use those ini‐
tialization strings.
--keep-window
Normally when dialog
performs several tail‐
boxbg widgets connected
by "--and-widget", it
clears the old widget
from the screen by
painting over it. Use
this option to suppress
that repainting.
At exit, dialog repaints
all of the widgets which
have been marked with
"--keep-window", even if
they are not tailboxbg
widgets. That causes
them to be repainted in
reverse order. See the
discussion of the
"--clear" option for
examples.
--max-input size
Limit input strings to
the given size. If not
specified, the limit is
2048.
--no-cancel
--nocancel
Suppress the "Cancel"
button in checklist,
inputbox and menu box
modes. A script can
still test if the user
pressed the ESC key to
cancel to quit.
--no-collapse
Normally dialog converts
tabs to spaces and
reduces multiple spaces
to a single space for
text which is displayed
in a message boxes, etc.
Use this option to dis‐
able that feature. Note
that dialog will still
wrap text, subject to
the "--cr-wrap" and
"--trim" options.
--no-kill
Tells dialog to put the
tailboxbg box in the
background, printing its
process id to dialog's
output. SIGHUP is dis‐
abled for the background
process.
--no-label string
Override the label used
for "No" buttons.
--no-lines
Rather than draw lines
around boxes, draw spa‐
ces in the same place.
See also "--ascii-
lines".
--no-shadow
Suppress shadows that
would be drawn to the
right and bottom of each
dialog box.
--ok-label string
Override the label used
for "OK" buttons.
--output-fd fd
Direct output to the
given file descriptor.
Most dialog scripts
write to the standard
error, but error mes‐
sages may also be writ‐
ten there, depending on
your script.
--print-maxsize
Print the maximum size
of dialog boxes, i.e.,
the screen size, to dia‐
log's output. This may
be used alone, without
other options.
--print-size
Prints the size of each
dialog box to dialog's
output.
--print-version
Prints dialog's version
to dialog's output.
This may be used alone,
without other options.
--separate-output
For checklist widgets,
output result one line
at a time, with no quot‐
ing. This facilitates
parsing by another pro‐
gram.
--separator string
--separate-widget string
Specify a string that
will separate the output
on dialog's output from
each widget. This is
used to simplify parsing
the result of a dialog
with several widgets.
If this option is not
given, the default sepa‐
rator string is a tab
character.
--shadow
Draw a shadow to the
right and bottom of each
dialog box.
--single-quoted
Use single-quoting as
needed (and no quotes if
unneeded) for the output
of checklist's as well
as the item-help text.
If this option is not
set, dialog uses double
quotes around each item.
That requires occasional
use of backslashes to
make the output useful
in shell scripts.
--size-err
Check the resulting size
of a dialog box before
trying to use it, print‐
ing the resulting size
if it is larger than the
screen. (This option is
obsolete, since all new-
window calls are
checked).
--sleep secs
Sleep (delay) for the
given number of seconds
after processing a dia‐
log box.
--stderr
Direct output to the
standard error. This is
the default, since
curses normally writes
screen updates to the
standard output.
--stdout
Direct output to the
standard output. This
option is provided for
compatibility with Xdia‐
log, however using it in
portable scripts is not
recommended, since
curses normally writes
its screen updates to
the standard output. If
you use this option,
dialog attempts to
reopen the terminal so
it can write to the dis‐
play. Depending on the
platform and your envi‐
ronment, that may fail.
--tab-correct
Convert each tab charac‐
ter to one or more spa‐
ces (for the textbox
widget; otherwise to a
single space). Other‐
wise, tabs are rendered
according to the curses
library's interpreta‐
tion.
--tab-len n
Specify the number of
spaces that a tab char‐
acter occupies if the
"--tab-correct" option
is given. The default
is 8. This option is
only effective for the
textbox widget.
--timeout secs
Timeout (exit with error
code) if no user
response within the
given number of seconds.
This is overridden if
the background "--tail‐
boxbg is used. A time‐
out of zero seconds is
ignored.
--title title
Specifies a title string
to be displayed at the
top of the dialog box.
--trace filename
logs keystrokes to the
given file. Use con‐
trol/T to log a picture
of the current dialog
window.
--trim eliminate leading
blanks, trim literal
newlines and repeated
blanks from message
text.
See also the "--cr-wrap"
and "--no-collapse"
options.
--version
Same as "--print-ver‐
sion".
--visit-items
Modify the tab-traversal
of checklist, radiobox,
menubox and inputmenu to
include the list of
items as one of the
states. This is useful
as a visual aid, i.e.,
the cursor position
helps some users.
When this option is
given, the cursor is
initially placed on the
list. Abbreviations
(the first letter of the
tag) apply to the list
items. If you tab to
the button row, abbrevi‐
ations apply to the but‐
tons.
--yes-label string
Override the label used
for "Yes" buttons.
Box Options
All dialog boxes have at least three parameters:
text the caption or contents of the box.
height
the height of the dialog box.
width
the width of the dialog box.
Other parameters depend on the box type.
--calendar text height width day month year
A calendar box displays month, day and year in separately
adjustable windows. If the values for day, month or year are
missing or negative, the current date's corresponding values are
used. You can increment or decrement any of those using the
left-, up-, right- and down-arrows. Use vi-style h, j, k and l
for moving around the array of days in a month. Use tab or
backtab to move between windows. If the year is given as zero,
the current date is used as an initial value.
On exit, the date is printed in the form day/month/year.
--checklist text height width list-height [ tag item status ] ...
A checklist box is similar to a menu box; there are multiple
entries presented in the form of a menu. Instead of choosing
one entry among the entries, each entry can be turned on or off
by the user. The initial on/off state of each entry is speci‐
fied by status.
On exit, a list of the tag strings of those entries that are
turned on will be printed on dialog's output. If the "--sepa‐
rate-output" option is not given, the strings will be quoted to
make it simple for scripts to separate them. See the "--single-
quoted" option, which modifies the quoting behavior.
--dselect filepath height width
The directory-selection dialog displays a text-entry window in
which you can type a directory, and above that a windows with
directory names.
Here filepath can be a filepath in which case the directory win‐
dow will display the contents of the path and the text-entry
window will contain the preselected directory.
Use tab or arrow keys to move between the windows. Within the
directory window, use the up/down arrow keys to scroll the cur‐
rent selection. Use the space-bar to copy the current selection
into the text-entry window.
Typing any printable characters switches focus to the text-entry
window, entering that character as well as scrolling the direc‐
tory window to the closest match.
Use a carriage return or the "OK" button to accept the current
value in the text-entry window and exit.
On exit, the contents of the text-entry window are written to
dialog's output.
--editbox filepath height width
The edit-box dialog displays a copy of the file. You may edit
it using the backspace, delete and cursor keys to correct typing
errors. It also recognizes pageup/pagedown. Unlike the
--inputbox, you must tab to the "OK" or "Cancel" buttons to
close the dialog. Pressing the "Enter" key within the box will
split the corresponding line.
On exit, the contents of the edit window are written to dialog's
output.
--form text height width formheight [ label y x item y x flen ilen ] ...
The form dialog displays a form consisting of labels and fields,
which are positioned on a scrollable window by coordinates given
in the script. The field length flen and input-length ilen tell
how long the field can be. The former defines the length shown
for a selected field, while the latter defines the permissible
length of the data entered in the field.
- If flen is zero, the corresponding field cannot be altered.
and the contents of the field determine the displayed-length.
- If flen is negative, the corresponding field cannot be
altered, and the negated value of flen is used as the dis‐
played-length.
- If ilen is zero, it is set to flen.
Use up/down arrows (or control/N, control/P) to move between
fields. Use tab to move between windows.
On exit, the contents of the form-fields are written to dialog's
output, each field separated by a newline. The text used to
fill non-editable fields (flen is zero or negative) is not writ‐
ten out.
--fselect filepath height width
The fselect (file-selection) dialog displays a text-entry window
in which you can type a filename (or directory), and above that
two windows with directory names and filenames.
Here filepath can be a filepath in which case the file and
directory windows will display the contents of the path and the
text-entry window will contain the preselected filename.
Use tab or arrow keys to move between the windows. Within the
directory or filename windows, use the up/down arrow keys to
scroll the current selection. Use the space-bar to copy the
current selection into the text-entry window.
Typing any printable characters switches focus to the text-entry
window, entering that character as well as scrolling the direc‐
tory and filename windows to the closest match.
Typing the space character forces dialog to complete the current
name (up to the point where there may be a match against more
than one entry).
Use a carriage return or the "OK" button to accept the current
value in the text-entry window and exit.
On exit, the contents of the text-entry window are written to
dialog's output.
--gauge text height width [percent]
A gauge box displays a meter along the bottom of the box. The
meter indicates the percentage. New percentages are read from
standard input, one integer per line. The meter is updated to
reflect each new percentage. If the standard input reads the
string "XXX", then the first line following is taken as an inte‐
ger percentage, then subsequent lines up to another "XXX" are
used for a new prompt. The gauge exits when EOF is reached on
the standard input.
The percent value denotes the initial percentage shown in the
meter. If not specified, it is zero.
On exit, no text is written to dialog's output. The widget
accepts no input, so the exit status is always OK.
--infobox text height width
An info box is basically a message box. However, in this case,
dialog will exit immediately after displaying the message to the
user. The screen is not cleared when dialog exits, so that the
message will remain on the screen until the calling shell script
clears it later. This is useful when you want to inform the
user that some operations are carrying on that may require some
time to finish.
On exit, no text is written to dialog's output. Only an "OK"
button is provided for input, but an ESC exit status may be
returned.
--inputbox text height width [init]
An input box is useful when you want to ask questions that
require the user to input a string as the answer. If init is
supplied it is used to initialize the input string. When enter‐
ing the string, the backspace, delete and cursor keys can be
used to correct typing errors. If the input string is longer
than can fit in the dialog box, the input field will be
scrolled.
On exit, the input string will be printed on dialog's output.
--inputmenu text height width menu-height [ tag item ] ...
An inputmenu box is very similar to an ordinary menu box. There
are only a few differences between them:
1. The entries are not automatically centered but left
adjusted.
2. An extra button (called Rename) is implied to rename the
current item when it is pressed.
3. It is possible to rename the current entry by pressing the
Rename button. Then dialog will write the following on dia‐
log's output.
RENAMED <tag> <item>
--menu text height width menu-height [ tag item ] ...
As its name suggests, a menu box is a dialog box that can be
used to present a list of choices in the form of a menu for the
user to choose. Choices are displayed in the order given. Each
menu entry consists of a tag string and an item string. The tag
gives the entry a name to distinguish it from the other entries
in the menu. The item is a short description of the option that
the entry represents. The user can move between the menu
entries by pressing the cursor keys, the first letter of the tag
as a hot-key, or the number keys 1-9. There are menu-height
entries displayed in the menu at one time, but the menu will be
scrolled if there are more entries than that.
On exit the tag of the chosen menu entry will be printed on dia‐
log's output. If the "--help-button" option is given, the cor‐
responding help text will be printed if the user selects the
help button.
--mixedform text height width formheight [ label y x item y x flen ilen itype ] ...
The mixedform dialog displays a form consisting of labels and
fields, much like the --form dialog. It differs by adding a
field-type parameter to each field's description. Each bit in
the type denotes an attribute of the field:
1 hidden, e.g., a password field.
2 readonly, e.g., a label.
--mixedgauge text height width percent [ tag1 item1 ] ...
A mixedgauge box displays a meter along the bottom of the box.
The meter indicates the percentage.
It also displays a list of the tag- and item-values at the top
of the box. See dialog(3) for the tag values.
The text is shown as a caption between the list and meter. The
percent value denotes the initial percentage shown in the meter.
No provision is made for reading data from the standard input as
--gauge does.
On exit, no text is written to dialog's output. The widget
accepts no input, so the exit status is always OK.
--msgbox text height width
A message box is very similar to a yes/no box. The only differ‐
ence between a message box and a yes/no box is that a message
box has only a single OK button. You can use this dialog box to
display any message you like. After reading the message, the
user can press the ENTER key so that dialog will exit and the
calling shell script can continue its operation.
If the message is too large for the space, dialog may allow you
to scroll it, provided that the underlying curses implementation
is capable enough. In this case, a percentage is shown in the
base of the widget.
On exit, no text is written to dialog's output. Only an "OK"
button is provided for input, but an ESC exit status may be
returned.
--pause text height width seconds
A pause box displays a meter along the bottom of the box. The
meter indicates how many seconds remain until the end of the
pause. The pause exits when timeout is reached (status OK) or
the user presses the Exit button (status CANCEL).
--passwordbox text height width [init]
A password box is similar to an input box, except that the text
the user enters is not displayed. This is useful when prompting
for passwords or other sensitive information. Be aware that if
anything is passed in "init", it will be visible in the system's
process table to casual snoopers. Also, it is very confusing to
the user to provide them with a default password they cannot
see. For these reasons, using "init" is highly discouraged.
See "--insecure" if you do not care about your password.
On exit, the input string will be printed on dialog's output.
--passwordform text height width formheight [ label y x item y x flen ilen ] ...
This is identical to --form except that all text fields are
treated as password widgets rather than inputbox widgets.
--progressbox text height width
--progressbox height width
A progressbox is similar to an tailbox, except that it will exit
when it reaches the end of the file. If three parameters are
given, it displays the text under the title, delineated from the
scrolling file's contents. If only two parameters are given,
this text is omitted.
--radiolist text height width list-height [ tag item status ] ...
A radiolist box is similar to a menu box. The only difference
is that you can indicate which entry is currently selected, by
setting its status to on.
On exit, the name of the selected item is written to dialog's
output.
--tailbox file height width
Display text from a file in a dialog box, as in a "tail -f" com‐
mand. Scroll left/right using vi-style 'h' and 'l', or arrow-
keys. A '0' resets the scrolling.
On exit, no text is written to dialog's output. Only an "OK"
button is provided for input, but an ESC exit status may be
returned.
--tailboxbg file height width
Display text from a file in a dialog box as a background task,
as in a "tail -f &" command. Scroll left/right using vi-style
'h' and 'l', or arrow-keys. A '0' resets the scrolling.
Dialog treats the background task specially if there are other
widgets (--and-widget) on the screen concurrently. Until those
widgets are closed (e.g., an "OK"), dialog will perform all of
the tailboxbg widgets in the same process, polling for updates.
You may use a tab to traverse between the widgets on the screen,
and close them individually, e.g., by pressing ENTER. Once the
non-tailboxbg widgets are closed, dialog forks a copy of itself
into the background, and prints its process id if the "--no-
kill" option is given.
On exit, no text is written to dialog's output. Only an "EXIT"
button is provided for input, but an ESC exit status may be
returned.
NOTE: Older versions of dialog forked immediately and attempted
to update the screen individually. Besides being bad for per‐
formance, it was unworkable. Some older scripts may not work
properly with the polled scheme.
--textbox file height width
A text box lets you display the contents of a text file in a
dialog box. It is like a simple text file viewer. The user can
move through the file by using the cursor, page-up, page-down
and HOME/END keys available on most keyboards. If the lines are
too long to be displayed in the box, the LEFT/RIGHT keys can be
used to scroll the text region horizontally. You may also use
vi-style keys h, j, k, l in place of the cursor keys, and B or N
in place of the page-up and page-down keys. Scroll up/down
using vi-style 'k' and 'j', or arrow-keys. Scroll left/right
using vi-style 'h' and 'l', or arrow-keys. A '0' resets the
left/right scrolling. For more convenience, vi-style forward
and backward searching functions are also provided.
On exit, no text is written to dialog's output. Only an "EXIT"
button is provided for input, but an ESC exit status may be
returned.
--timebox text height [width hour minute second]
A dialog is displayed which allows you to select hour, minute
and second. If the values for hour, minute or second are miss‐
ing or negative, the current date's corresponding values are
used. You can increment or decrement any of those using the
left-, up-, right- and down-arrows. Use tab or backtab to move
between windows.
On exit, the result is printed in the form hour:minute:second.
--yesno text height width
A yes/no dialog box of size height rows by width columns will be
displayed. The string specified by text is displayed inside the
dialog box. If this string is too long to fit in one line, it
will be automatically divided into multiple lines at appropriate
places. The text string can also contain the sub-string "\n" or
newline characters `\n' to control line breaking explicitly.
This dialog box is useful for asking questions that require the
user to answer either yes or no. The dialog box has a Yes but‐
ton and a No button, in which the user can switch between by
pressing the TAB key.
On exit, no text is written to dialog's output. In addition to
the "Yes" and "No" exit codes (see DIAGNOSTICS) an ESC exit sta‐
tus may be returned.
The codes used for "Yes" and "No" match those used for "OK" and
"Cancel", internally no distinction is made.
Obsolete Options
--beep This was used to tell the original cdialog that it should make a
beep when the separate processes of the tailboxbg widget would
repaint the screen.
--beep-after
Beep after a user has completed a widget by pressing one of the
buttons.
RUN-TIME CONFIGURATION
1. Create a sample configuration file by typing:
"dialog --create-rc <file>"
2. At start, dialog determines the settings to use as follows:
a) if environment variable DIALOGRC is set, its value determines
the name of the configuration file.
b) if the file in (a) is not found, use the file $HOME/.dialogrc
as the configuration file.
c) if the file in (b) is not found, try using the GLOBALRC file
determined at compile-time, i.e., /etc/dialogrc.
d) if the file in (c) is not found, use compiled in defaults.
3. Edit the sample configuration file and copy it to some place that
dialog can find, as stated in step 2 above.
KEY BINDINGS
You can override or add to key bindings in dialog by adding to the con‐
figuration file. Dialog's bindkey command maps single keys to its
internal coding.
bindkey widget curses_key dialog_key
The widget name can be "*" (all widgets), or specific widgets
such as textbox. Specific widget bindings override the "*"
bindings. User-defined bindings override the built-in bind‐
ings.
The curses_key can be any of the names derived from curses.h,
e.g., "HELP" from "KEY_HELP". Dialog also recognizes ANSI
control characters such as "^A", "^?", as well as C1-controls
such as "~A" and "~?". Finally, it allows any single charac‐
ter to be escaped with a backslash.
Dialog's internal keycode names correspond to the
DLG_KEYS_ENUM type in dlg_keys.h, e.g., "HELP" from
"DLGK_HELP".
ENVIRONMENT
DIALOGOPTS Define this variable to apply any of the common options
to each widget. Most of the common options are reset
before processing each widget. If you set the options
in this environment variable, they are applied to dia‐
log's state after the reset. As in the "--file" option,
double-quotes and backslashes are interpreted.
The "--file" option is not considered a common option
(so you cannot embed it within this environment vari‐
able).
DIALOGRC Define this variable if you want to specify the name of
the configuration file to use.
DIALOG_CANCEL
DIALOG_ERROR
DIALOG_ESC
DIALOG_EXTRA
DIALOG_HELP
DIALOG_ITEM_HELP
DIALOG_OK Define any of these variables to change the exit code on
Cancel (1), error (-1), ESC (255), Extra (3), Help (2),
Help with --item-help (2), or OK (0). Normally shell
scripts cannot distinguish between -1 and 255.
DIALOG_TTY Set this variable to "1" to provide compatibility with
older versions of dialog which assumed that if the
script redirects the standard output, that the "--std‐
out" option was given.
FILES
$HOME/.dialogrc default configuration file
EXAMPLES
The dialog sources contain several samples of how to use the different
box options and how they look. Just take a look into the directory
samples/ of the source.
DIAGNOSTICS
Exit status is subject to being overridden by environment variables.
Normally they are:
0 if dialog is exited by pressing the Yes or OK button.
1 if the No or Cancel button is pressed.
2 if the Help button is pressed.
3 if the Extra button is pressed.
-1 if errors occur inside dialog or dialog is exited by pressing the
ESC key.
COMPATIBILITY
You may want to write scripts which run with other dialog "clones".
ORIGINAL DIALOG
First, there is the "original" dialog program to consider (versions 0.3
to 0.9). It had some misspelled (or inconsistent) options. The dialog
program maps those deprecated options to the preferred ones. They
include:
Option Treatment
─────────────────────────────────
--beep-after ignored
--guage mapped to --gauge
XDIALOG
Technically, "Xdialog", this is an X application. With some care, it
is possible to write useful scripts that work with both Xdialog and
dialog.
The dialog program ignores these options which are recognized by Xdia‐
log:
Option Treatment
───────────────────────────────────────────────
--allow-close ignored
--auto-placement ignored
--fixed-font ignored
--icon ignored
--keep-colors ignored
--no-close ignored
--no-cr-wrap ignored
--screen-center ignored
--separator mapped to --separate-output
--smooth ignored
--under-mouse ignored
--wmclass ignored
Xdialog's manpage has a section discussing its compatibility with dia‐
log.
WHIPTAIL
Then there is whiptail. For practical purposes, it is maintained by
Debian. Its documentation claims
whiptail(1) is a lightweight replacement for dialog(1),
to provide dialog boxes for shell scripts. It is built on the
newt windowing library rather than the ncurses library, allowing
it to be smaller in embedded enviroments such as installers,
rescue disks, etc.
whiptail is designed to be drop-in compatible with dialog, but
has less features: some dialog boxes are not implemented, such
as tailbox, timebox, calendarbox, etc.
Comparing actual sizes (Debian testing, 2007/1/10): The total of sizes
for whiptail, the newt, popt and slang libraries is 757kb. The compa‐
rable number for dialog (counting ncurses) is 520kb. Disregard the
first paragraph.
The second paragraph is misleading, since whiptail also does not work
for common options of dialog, such as the gauge box. whiptail is less
compatible with dialog than the decade-old original dialog 0.4 program.
whiptail's manpage borrows features from dialog, e.g., --default-item,
--output-fd, but oddly cites only dialog versions up to 0.4 as a
source. That is, its manpage refers to features which were borrowed
from more recent versions of dialog, e.g., the --gauge and --password
boxes, as well as options such as -separate-output. Somewhat humor‐
ously, one may note that the popt feature (undocumented in its manpage)
of using a "--" as an escape was documented in dialog's manpage about a
year before it was mentioned in whiptail's manpage. whiptail's manpage
incorrectly attributes that to getopt (and is inaccurate anyway).
Debian uses whiptail for the official dialog variation.
The dialog program ignores or maps these options which are recognized
by whiptail:
Option Treatment
─────────────────────────────────────
--fb ignored
--fullbutton ignored
--nocancel mapped to --no-cancel
--noitem ignored
BUGS
Perhaps.
AUTHOR
Thomas E. Dickey (updates for 0.9b and beyond)
CONTRIBUTORS
Kiran Cherupally - the mixed form and mixed gauge widgets.
Tobias C. Rittweiler
Valery Reznic - the form and progressbox widgets.
Yura Kalinichenko adapted the gauge widget as "pause".
This is a rewrite (except as needed to provide compatibility) of the
earlier version of dialog 0.9a, which lists as authors:
Savio Lam - version 0.3, "dialog"
Stuart Herbert - patch for version 0.4
Marc Ewing - the gauge widget.
Pasquale De Marco "Pako" - version 0.9a, "cdialog"
$Date: 2007/03/25 21:40:27 $ DIALOG(1)
