DIALOG(1)

NAME
dialog - display dialog boxes from shell scripts

SYNOPSIS
dialog --clear
dialog --create-rc file
dialog [ --title title ] [ --clear ] 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. Currently, these types of dialog boxes are implemented:

yes/no box, menu box, input box, message box, text box, info box, and checklist box.

OPTIONS

--clear
    The screen will be cleared to the screen attribute on exit.

--create-rc file
    Since dialog supports run-time configuration, this can be used to dump a sample configuration file to the file specified by file.

--title title
    Specifies a title string to be displayed at the top of the dialog box.

Box Options

--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 be fitted in one line, it will be automatically divided into multiple lines at appropriate places. The text string may 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 button and a No button, in which the user can switch between by pressing the TAB key.

--msgbox text height width
    A message box is very similar to a yes/no box. The only difference 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.

--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.

--inputbox text height width
    An input box is useful when you want to ask questions that require the user to input a string as the answer. When inputing the string, the BACKSPACE key can be used to correct typing errors. If the input string is longer than can be fitted in the dialog box, the input field will be scrolled. On exit, the input string will be printed on stderr.

--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 UP/DOWN, PGUP/PGDN 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. For more convenience, forward and backward searching functions are also provided.

--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. 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 UP/DOWN 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. When dialog exits, the tag of the chosen menu entry will be printed on stderr.

--checklist text height width list-height [ tag item status ] ...
    A checklist box is similar to a menu box in that 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 specified by status. On exit, a list of the tag strings of those entries that are turned on will be printed on stderr.

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, it's value determines the name of the configuration file.

    b)  if the file in (a) can't be found, use the file $HOME/.dialogrc as the configuration file.

    c)  if the file in (b) can't be 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.

ENVIROMENT

DIALOGRC
    Define this variable if you want to specify the name of the configuration file to use.

FILES

$HOME/.dialogrc
    default configuration file

DIAGNOSTICS
Exit status is 0 if dialog is exited by pressing the Yes or OK button, and 1 if the No or Cancel button is pressed. Otherwise, if errors occur inside dialog or dialog is exited by pressing the ESC key, the exit status is -1.

BUGS
Text files containing tab characters may cause problems with text box. Tab characters in text files must first be expanded to spaces before being displayed by text box.

Screen update is too slow.

AUTHOR
Savio Lam (lam836@cs.cuhk.hk)