Going Graphical — The dialog Utility

dialog --msgbox “Hello World” 9 18

The principal types of dialogs you can create are described in the following table:

Type	Option Used to Create Type	Meaning
Check boxes	–checklist	Allows you to display a list of items, each of which may be individually selected
Info boxes	–infobox	A simple display in a box that returns immediately, without clearing the screen
Input boxes	–inputbox	Allows the user to type in text
Menu boxes	–menu	Allow the user to pick a single item from a list
Message boxes	–msgbox	Displays a message to users, with an OK button when they wish to continue
Radio selection boxes	–radiolist	Allows the user to select an option from a list
Text boxes	–textbox	Allows you to display a file in a scroll-ing box
Yes/No boxes	–yesno	Allows you to ask a question, to which the user can select either yes or no

We list the different parameters required for each type in the following table:

Dialog Type	Parameters
–checklist	text height width list-height [tag text status] …
–infobox	text height width
–inputbox	text height width [initial string]
–menu	text height width menu-height [tag item ] …
–msgbox	text height width
–radiolist	text height width list-height [tag text status] …
–textbox	filename height width
–yesno	text height width

//
In this example, you create a checklist-type box, with a title Check me and the instructions Pick Numbers . The checklist box will be 15 characters high by 25 characters wide, and each option will occupy 3 characters of height. Last, but not least, you list the options to be displayed, along with a default on/off selection.

xxx@xxx-pc ~ $ dialog --title "Check me" --checklist "Pick Numbers" 15 25 3 1 "one" "off" 2 "two" "on" 3 "three" "off"c

The options look a little tricky, but all you have to remember is that each menu item has three values:
❑ Bullet number
❑ Text
❑ Status

check the environment variable $? , which you will recall is the exit status of the previous command.

all dialog type :
–title , which allows you to specify a title for the box,
–clear , which is used on its own for clearing the screen.

small gui from shell .GNOME can use gdialog .

#!/bin/sh

# Ask some questions and collect the answer

gdialog --title "Questionnaire" --msgbox "Welcome to my simple survey" 9 18

gdialog --title "Confirm" --yesno "Are you willing to take part?" 9 18
if [ $? != 0 ]; then
    gdialog --infobox "Thank you anyway" 5 20
    sleep 2
    gdialog --clear
    exit 0
fi

gdialog --title "Questionnaire" --inputbox "Please enter your name" 9 30 2>_1.txt
Q_NAME=$(cat _1.txt)

gdialog --menu "$Q_NAME, what music do you like best?" 15 30 4 1 "Classical" 2 "Jazz" 3 "Country" 4 "Other" 2>_1.txt
Q_MUSIC=$(cat _1.txt)

if [ "$Q_MUSIC" = "1" ]; then
    gdialog --title "Likes Classical" --msgbox "Good choice!" 12 25
else
    gdialog --title "Doesn't like Classical" --msgbox "Shame" 12 25
fi

sleep 2
gdialog --clear
exit 0