.TH DIALOG 1 "10 June 1994" "Dialog Version 0.4"
.SH NAME
dialog \- display dialog boxes from shell scripts
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B dialog --clear
.br
.BI "dialog --create-rc " file
.br
.B dialog --print-maxsize
.br
.B dialog
.I common-options
.I box-options
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B 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: 
.LP
.BR checklist ", "
.BR gauge ", "
.BR infobox ", "
.BR inputbox ", "
.BR menu ", "
.BR msgbox " (message), "
.BR password ", "
.BR radiolist ", "
.BR tailbox ", "
.BR tailboxbg ", "
.BR textbox ", and "
.BR yesno " (yes/no)."
.
.\" ************************************************************************
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B Common Options
.
.IP "\fB\-\-aspect \fIratio"
Specify a nominal line width based on the length of the prompt string
to use as a guide to forcibly wrapping lines that are too
long relative to the dialog box.
The default is 9.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-backtitle \fIbacktitle"
Specifies a
.I backtitle
string to be displayed on the backdrop, at the top of the screen.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-beep"
Beep each time the screen is refreshed.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-beep-after"
Beep if input is interrupted, e.g., by a control/C.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-begin \fIy x"
Specify the position of the upper left corner of a dialog box on the screen.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-clear"
The screen will be cleared to the
.B screen attribute
on exit.
This may be used as the only option.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-cr-wrap"
Interpret embedded newlines in the dialog text as a newline on the screen.
Otherwise, the text for each dialog will display on a single line.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-create-rc \fIfile"
When
.B dialog
supports run-time configuration,
this can be used to dump a sample configuration file to the file specified
by
.IR file "."
.
.IP "\fB\-\-help"
Prints the help message to standard error.
The help message also will be printed if no options are given.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-defaultno"
Make the default value of the
.B yes/no
box a
.BR No .
.
.IP "\fB\-\-default-item \fIstring"
Set the default item in a menu box.
Normally the first item in the box is the default.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-no-kill"
Tells
.B dialog
to put the
.B tailboxbg
box in the background,
printing its process id to standard error.
SIGHUP is disabled for the background process.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-no-shadow"
Suppress shadows which would be drawn to the right and bottom of each dialog box.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-nocancel"
Suppress the "Cancel" button in checklist, inputbox and menubox modes.
A script can still test if the user pressed the ESC key to cancel to quit.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-print-maxsize"
Print the maximum size of dialog boxes, i.e., the screen size,
to the standard error.
This must be used as the only option.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-print-size"
Prints the size of each dialog box to standard error.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-print-version"
Prints dialog's version to standard error.
This may be the only option.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-separate-output"
For checklist widgets, output result one line at a time, with no
quoting.  This facilitates parsing by another program.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-separate-widget \fIstring"
Specify a string that will separate the output on standard error from
each widget.
This is used to simplify parsing the result of a dialog with several widgets.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-shadow"
Draw a shadow to the right and bottom of each dialog box.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-size-err"
Check the resulting size of a dialog box before trying to use it,
printing the resulting size if it is larger than the screen.
(This option is obsolete, since all new-window calls are checked).
.
.IP "\fB\-\-sleep \fIsecs"
Sleep (delay) for the given number of seconds after processing a dialog box.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-tab-correct"
Convert each tab character to one or more spaces.
Otherwise, tabs are rendered according to the curses library's interpretation.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-tab-len \fIn"
Specify the number of spaces that a tab character occupies if the
.B "\fB\-\-tab-correct"
option is given.
The default is 8.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-title \fItitle"
Specifies a
.I title
string to be displayed at the top of the dialog box.
.
.\" ************************************************************************
.TP
.B Box Options
.RS
All dialog boxes have at least three parameters:
.TP 5
.I text
the caption or contents of the box.
.TP 5
.I height
the height of the dialog box.
.TP 5
.I width
the width of the dialog box.
.PP
Other parameters depend on the box type.
.RE
.IP "\fB\-\-checklist \fItext height width list-height \fR[ \fItag item status \fR] \fI..."
A
.B checklist
box is similar to a
.B 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 specified by
.IR status "."
On exit, a list of the
.I tag
strings of those entries that are turned on will be printed on
.IR stderr "."
.
.IP "\fB\-\-gauge \fItext height width [percent]\fR"
A
.B 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 stdin is XXX, then subsequent
lines up to another XXX are used for a new prompt.
The gauge exits when EOF is reached on stdin.
.sp
The \fIpercent\fR value denotes the initial percentage shown in the meter.
If not specified, it is zero.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-infobox \fItext height width"
An
.B info
box is basically a
.B message
box.
However, in this case,
.B dialog
will exit immediately after displaying the message to the user. The
screen is not cleared when
.B 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.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-inputbox \fItext height width [init]"
An
.B 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 inputing the
string, the
.I 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
.IR stderr "."
.
.IP "\fB\-\-menu \fItext height width menu-height \fR[ \fItag item \fR] \fI..."
As its name suggests, a
.B 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
.I tag
string and an
.I item
string. The
.I tag
gives the entry a name to distinguish it from the other entries in the
menu. The
.I item
is a short description of the option that the entry represents. The
user can move between the menu entries by pressing the
.I UP/DOWN
keys, the first letter of the
.I tag
as a hot-key, or the number keys
.IR 1-9 ". There are"
.I menu-height
entries displayed in the menu at one time, but the menu will be
scrolled if there are more entries than that. When
.B dialog
exits, the
.I tag
of the chosen menu entry will be printed on
.IR stderr "."
.
.IP "\fB\-\-msgbox \fItext height width"
A
.B message
box is very similar to a
.B yes/no
box.
The only difference between a
.B message
box and a
.B yes/no
box is that a
.B message
box has only a single
.B OK
button. You can use this dialog box to display any message you like.
After reading the message, the user can press the
.I ENTER
key so that
.B dialog
will exit and the calling shell script can continue its operation.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-passwordbox \fItext height width [init]"
A
.B 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.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-radiolist \fItext height width list-height \fR [ \fItag item status \fR] \fI..."
A
.B radiolist
box is similar to a
.B menu
box.  The only difference is
that you can indicate which entry is currently selected, by setting its
.IR status " to " on "."
.
.IP "\fB\-\-tailbox file height width"
Display text from a file in a dialog box, as in a "tail -f" command.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-textbox file height width"
A
.B 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
.IR UP/DOWN ", " PGUP/PGDN
.RI and " HOME/END" " keys available on most keyboards."
If the lines are too long to be displayed in the box, the
.I LEFT/RIGHT
keys can be used to scroll the text region horizontally.
For more convenience,
forward and backward searching functions are also provided.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-textboxbg file height width"
Display text from a file in a dialog box in a background process,
as in a "tail -f &" command.
.
.IP "\fB\-\-yesno \fItext height width"
A
.B yes/no
dialog box of size
.I height
rows by
.I width
columns will be displayed. The string specified by
.I 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
.I text
string may also contain the sub-string
.I
"\en"
or newline characters
.I `\en\'
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
.B Yes
button and a
.B No
button, in which the user can switch between by pressing the
.IR TAB " key."
.
.\" ************************************************************************
.SH "RUN-TIME CONFIGURATION"
.TP 4
1.
Create a sample configuration file by typing:
.LP
.in +1i
"dialog --create-rc <file>"
.TP 4
2.
At start,
.B dialog
determines the settings to use as follows:
.RS
.TP 4
a)
if environment variable
.B DIALOGRC
is set, its value determines the name of the configuration file.
.TP 4
b)
if the file in (a) can't be found, use the file
.I $HOME/.dialogrc
as the configuration file.
.TP 4
c)
if the file in (b) can't be found, use compiled in defaults.
.RE
.TP 4
3.
Edit the sample configuration file and copy it to some place that
.B dialog
can find, as stated in step 2 above.
.
.\" ************************************************************************
.SH ENVIRONMENT
.TP 15
.B DIALOGRC
Define this variable if you want to specify the name of the configuration file
to use.
.SH FILES
.TP 20
.I $HOME/.dialogrc
default configuration file
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
Exit status is
.TP 5
0
if
.BR dialog " is exited by pressing the " Yes " or " OK
button.
.TP 5
1
if the
.BR No " or " Cancel
button is pressed.
.TP 5
-1
if errors occur inside
.B dialog
or
.B dialog
is exited by pressing the
.I ESC
key.
.
.\" ************************************************************************
.SH BUGS
Text files containing
.I tab
characters may cause problems with
.B text
box.
.I Tab
characters in text files must first be expanded to spaces before being
.RB "displayed by " text " box."
.TP
Screen update is too slow.
.SH AUTHOR
Savio Lam (lam836@cs.cuhk.hk) - version 0.3
.LP
Stuart Herbert (S.Herbert@sheffield.ac.uk) - patch for version 0.4
.LP
Thomas Dickey (updates for 0.9b)