DIALOG(1)

NAME
dialog - display simple dialog boxes from shell scripts

SYNOPSIS
dialog --clear
dialog [--clear] [--hfile file] [--hline line] [--title title] --[dialog] options ...
dialog --create-rc

DESCRIPTION
The dialog utility will display several different types of curses(3) based dialog boxes on the screen and accept the appropriate form of user input. Ten different types of dialog boxes are supported: checklist, info, input, menu, message, program output, radiolist, text, yes/no, and two different tree types.

OPTIONS

--checklist text height width list-height tag item status ...

    Display a check list of overall height height and width width. The height of the list proper is specified by list-height. Each item on the list is specified by a tuple of options. The first is the tag. This is highlighted and will have a keyboard shortcut assigned based on it. The second is the item. The item is a full description of the choice. The third is its initial status. This is either ``on'' or ``off''. If the user selects ``cancel'', dialog exits with 1. Otherwise dialog exits with 0 and prints the tag of all selected items in double quotes, seperated by spaces (`` ''), followed by a new line to the stderr.

--ftree file FS text height width menu-height

    Display a file-system tree of height height and width width. The height of the tree proper is set via the menu-height option. The contents of the tree are set via file. This is a plain-text file with output similar to the find(1) system utility. The value of FS is the directory field seperator. The user may navigate through the tree using UP, DOWN, PGUP, PGDOWN, SPACE, HOME, END, ``+'', ``-'', b, g, and G. If cancel is selected, dialog exits with status 1. Otherwise, the selected file or directory is printed to the stderr and dialog exits with status 0.

--infobox text height width

    Display a simple information dialog of height height and width width. The content of the information dialog is text. Dialog exists without waiting for user input after displaying the dialog box.

--inputbox prompt height width [default]

    Display a box requesting user input. The inputbox will be of height height and width width. The user is prompted with the text prompt. A default value for the input can be set by default. After the user has entered a value, it will be printed on the stderr and dialog exits with 0. If the user selects ``cancel'', dialog exits with 1.

--menu text height width menu-height tag item ...

    Display a menu dialog of height height and width width. The height of the menu proper will be menu-height lines tall. Each item on the menu is given by a pair of command line options. The first is the tag. The tag is highlighted and will have a shortcut based on it. The second is the item. It is a full description of the choice. If the user selects ``cancel'', dialog exists with 1. Otherwise, the tag of the users choice is printed to the stderr and dialog exists with 0.

--msgbox text height width

    Display a message box of height height and width width. The message displayed is the text argument. Dialog waits for the user to select the ``ok'' button at the bottom of the window before exiting.

--prgbox command height width

    Dialog passes command to sh(1) via system(3). The output of command is then displayed in a dialog box of height height and width width. Dialog will wait for the user to select the ``ok'' button before exiting.

--radiolist text height width list-height tag item status ...

    Display a radiobutton list of overall height height and width width. The height of the list proper is specified by list-height. Each item on the list is specified by a tuple of options. The first is the tag. This is highlighted and will have a keyboard shortcut assigned based on it. The second is the item. The item is a full description of the choice. The third is its initial status. This is either ``on'' or ``off''. If the user selects ``cancel'', dialog exits with 1. Otherwise dialog exits with 0 and prints the tag of the selected item to the stderr.

--textbox file height width

    Display a scrolling text box of height height and width width. The contents of the text box are the contents of the file listed as file. The user may scroll through the file using the UP, DOWN, PGUP, PGDOWN, HOME, and END keys. If any lines of the file are wider than the width, the LEFT and RIGHT arrow keys permit horizontal scrolling. Dialog exits when the ``ok'' button has been selected.

--tree FS text height width menu-height item ...

    Dialog displays a dialog box similar to the --ftree dialog box. However, instead of fetching the contents from a file, multiple items are listed on the command line and make up the tree.

--yesno text height width

    Display a yes/no dialog box of height height and width The prompt for the yes/no dialog is set via the text argument. If ``yes'' is selected, dialog exits with status 0. If ``no'' is selected, dialog exits with status 1.

--clear

    Clear the screen to the background color immediately. Clear is processed after all other options.

--hfile file

    For dialogs using context sensitive help, when the F1 key is pressed, file is displayed in a textbox.

--hline line

    Display line at the bottom of the dialog box. This is meant to be one line of help.

--title title

    Sets the dialog box's title to title.

--create-rc file

    Dump dialog library settings to file. This file can later be used for dialog defaults.

ENVIRONMENT
DIALOGRC Set the location of the dialog configuration file.

FILES
~/.dialogrc
    default configuration file

SEE ALSO
dialog(3)

AUTHORS
Savio Lam. Changes by Anatoly A. Orehovsky (ftree and tree boxes). Code rewrite and clean up by James Howard.

BUGS
Screen updates are too slow.

Embedded tabs in the files passed to textbox may not be displayed correctly or have other adverse effects.

The ftree and tree dialog boxes do not allow the tree to be scrolled horizontally if it is too wide to fit the given window.

Whatever else libdialog is kind enough to let us inherit.

Dialog has a really dumb command line syntax.

There is no documentation for dialogrc.