Common Options

Most of the common options are reset before processing each widget.

--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 background. 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. Understand 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. Conversely, if you want to clear the screen and send your cursor to the lower left after the dialog program has exited, use the --erase-on-exit option.

--colors

Interpret embedded “\Z” sequences in the dialog text by the following character, which tells dialog to set colors or video attributes:

--column-separator string

Tell dialog to split data for radio/checkboxes and menus on the occurrences of the given string, and to align the split data into columns.

--cr-wrap

Interpret embedded newlines in the dialog text as a newline on the screen. Otherwise, dialog will only wrap lines where needed to fit inside the text box.

Even though you can control 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.

The cr-wrap feature is implemented subject to these conditions:

For more information, see Whitespace Options.

--create-rc file

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

--cursor-off-label

Place the terminal cursor at the end of a button instead of on the first character of the button label. This is useful to reduce visual confusion when the cursor coloration interacts poorly with the button-label text colors.

--date-format format

If the host provides strftime, this option allows you to specify the format of the date printed for the --calendar widget. The time of day (hour, minute, second) are the current local time.

--defaultno

Make the default value of the yes/no box a No. Likewise, treat the default button of widgets that provide “OK” and “Cancel” as a Cancel. If “--no-cancel” or “--visit-items” are given those options overrides this, making the default button always “Yes” (internally the same as “OK”).

--default-button string

Set the default (preselected) button in a widget. By preselecting a button, a script makes it possible for the user to simply press Enter to proceed through a dialog with minimum interaction.

The option's value is the name of the button: ok, yes, cancel, no, help or extra.

Normally the first button in each widget is the default. The first button shown is determined by the widget together with the “--no-ok” and “--no-cancel” options. If this option is not given, there is no default button assigned.

--default-item string

Set the default item in a checklist, form or menu box. Normally the first item in the box is the default.

--erase-on-exit

When dialog exits, remove the dialog widget, erasing the entire screen to its native background color, and place the terminal cursor at the lower left corner.

--exit-label string

Override the label used for “EXIT” buttons.

--extra-button

Show an extra button, between “OK” and “Cancel” buttons.

The extra button appears between “Yes” and “No” for the yesno widget.

--extra-label string

Override the label used for “Extra” buttons. Note: for inputmenu widgets, this defaults to “Rename”.

--help

Prints the help message to the standard output and exits. The help message is also printed if no options are given, or if an unrecognized option is given.

--help-button

Show a help-button after “OK” and “Cancel” buttons in boxes which have a list of tagged items (i.e., checklist, radiolist, menu, and treeview boxes).

The help-button appears after “Yes” and “No” for the yesno widget.

On exit, the return status indicates that the Help button was pressed. Dialog also writes a message to its output after the token “HELP”:

You can use the --help-tags option and/or set the DIALOG_ITEM_HELP environment variable to modify these messages and exit-status.

This option can be applied to other widgets, which have an “OK” button, whether or not the “Cancel” button is used. The return status and output are not treated specially for the other widgets; the help-button is just an extra button.

--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.

--help-tags

Modify the messages written on exit for --help-button by making them always just the item's tag. This does not affect the exit status code.

--hfile filename

Display the given file using a textbox when the user presses F1.

--hline string

Display the given string centered at the bottom of the widget.

--ignore

Ignore options that dialog 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 descriptor. 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 dialog 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 widget friendlier but less secure, by echoing asterisks for each character.

--iso-week

Set the starting point for the week-number shown in the “--calendar” option according to ISO-8601, which starts numbering with the first week which includes a Thursday in January.

--item-help

Interpret the tags data for checklist, radiolist and menu boxes adding a column which is displayed in the bottom line of the screen, for the currently selected item.

--keep-tite

When built with ncurses, dialog normally 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 alternate screen. Switching between the normal and alternate screens is visually distracting in a script which runs dialog several times. Use this option to allow dialog to use those initialization strings.

--keep-window

Normally when dialog performs several tailboxbg 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.

--last-key

At exit, report the last key which the user entered. This is the curses key code rather than a symbol or literal character, and is only reported for keys which are bound to an action. It can be used by scripts to distinguish between two keys which are bound to the same action.

--max-input size

Limit input strings to the given size. If not specified, the limit is 2048.

--no-cancel

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 disable that feature. Note that dialog will still wrap text, subject to the “--cr-wrap” and “--trim” options.

The no-collapse feature is implemented subject to these conditions:

For more information, see Whitespace Options.

--no-hot-list

Tells dialog to suppress the hotkey feature for lists, e.g., the checkbox, menus.

Normally, the first uppercase character of a list entry will be highlighted, and typing that character will move the focus to that entry. This option suppresses both the highlighting and the movement.

Hotkeys for buttons (“OK” , “Cancel”, etc.) are unaffected.

--no-items

Some widgets (checklist, inputmenu, radiolist, menu) display a list with two columns (a “tag” and “item”, i.e., “description”). This option tells dialog to read shorter rows, omitting the “item” part of the list. This is occasionally useful, e.g., if the tags provide enough information.

See also --no-tags. If both options are given, this one is ignored.

--no-kill

Tells dialog to put the tailboxbg box in the background, printing its process id to dialog's output. SIGHUP is disabled for the background process.

--no-label string

Override the label used for “No” buttons.

--no-lines

Rather than draw lines around boxes, draw spaces in the same place. See also “--ascii-lines”.

--no-mouse

Do not enable the mouse.

--no-nl-expand

Do not convert “\n” substrings of the message/prompt text into literal newlines.

The no-nl-expand feature is used only if the string contains “\n” so that there is something to convert.

For more information, see Whitespace Options.

--no-ok

Suppress the “OK” button, so that it is not displayed. A script can still test if the user pressed the “Enter” key to accept the data:

--no-shadow

Suppress shadows that would be drawn to the right and bottom of each dialog box.

--no-tags

Some widgets (checklist, inputmenu, radiolist, menu) display a list with two columns (a “tag” and “description”). The tag is useful for scripting, but may not help the user. The --no-tags option (from Xdialog) may be used to suppress the column of tags from the display. Unlike the --no-items option, this does not affect the data which is read from the script.

Xdialog does not display the tag column for the analogous buildlist and treeview widgets; dialog does the same.

Normally dialog allows you to quickly move to entries on the displayed list, by matching a single character to the first character of the tag. When the --no-tags option is given, dialog matches against the first character of the description. In either case, the matchable character is highlighted.

--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 messages may also be written there, depending on your script.

--separator string

--output-separator string

Specify a string that will separate the output on dialog's output from checklists, rather than a newline (for --separate-output) or a space. This applies to other widgets such as forms and editboxes which normally use a newline.

--print-maxsize

Print the maximum size of dialog boxes, i.e., the screen size, to dialog's output. This may be used alone, without other options.

--print-size

Prints the size of each dialog box to dialog's output when the box is initialized.

--print-text-only string [ height [ width ] ]

Prints the string as it would be wrapped in a message box to dialog's output.

Because the optional height and width default to zero, if they are omitted, dialog autosizes according to the screen dimensions.

--print-text-size string [ height [ width ] ]

Prints the size of the string as it would be wrapped in a message box, to dialog's output, as

height width

Because the optional height and width parameters default to zero, if they are omitted, dialog autosizes according to the screen dimensions.

--print-version

Prints dialog's version to dialog's output. This may be used alone, without other options. It does not cause dialog to exit by itself.

--quoted

Normally dialog quotes the strings returned by checklist's as well as the item-help text. Use this option to quote all string results as needed (i.e., if the string contains whitespace or a single or double-quote character).

--reorder

By default, the buildlist widget uses the same order for the output (right) list as for the input (left). Use this option to tell dialog to use the order in which a user adds selections to the output list.

--scrollbar

For widgets holding a scrollable set of data, draw a scrollbar on its right-margin. This does not respond to the mouse.

--separate-output

For certain widgets (buildlist, checklist, treeview), output result one line at a time, with no quoting. This facilitates parsing by another program.

--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 separator string is a tab character.

--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 may use double quotes around each item. In either case, dialog adds backslashes to make the output useful in shell scripts.

Single quotes would be needed if the string contains whitespace or a single or double-quote character.

--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).

--sleep secs

Sleep (delay) for the given number of seconds after processing a dialog 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 Xdialog, 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 display. Depending on the platform and your environment, that may fail.

--tab-correct

Convert each tab character to one or more spaces (for the textbox widget; otherwise to a single space). Otherwise, tabs are rendered according to the curses library's interpretation. The --no-collapse option disables tab expansion.

--tab-len n

Specify the number of spaces that a tab character occupies if the “--tab-correct” option is given. The default is 8. This option is only effective for the textbox widget.

--time-format format

If the host provides strftime, this option allows you to specify the format of the time printed for the --timebox widget. The day, month, year values in this case are for the current local time.

--timeout secs

Timeout if no user response within the given number of seconds. A timeout of zero seconds is ignored.

Normally a timeout causes an ESC character to be entered in the current widget, cancelling it. Other widgets may still be on the screen; these are not cancelled. Set the DIALOG_TIMEOUT environment variable to tell dialog to directly exit instead, i.e., cancelling all widgets on the screen.

This option is ignored by the “--pause” widget. It is also overridden if the background “--tailboxbg” option is used to set up multiple concurrent widgets.

--title title

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

--trace filename

logs the command-line parameters, keystrokes and other information to the given file. If dialog reads a configure file, it is logged as well. Piped input to the gauge widget is logged. Use control/T to log a picture of the current dialog window.

The dialog program handles some command-line parameters specially, and removes them from the parameter list as they are processed. For example, if the first option is --trace, then that is processed (and removed) before dialog initializes the display.

--week-start day

sets the starting day for the week, used in the “--calendar” option. The day parameter can be

--trim

eliminate leading blanks, trim literal newlines and repeated blanks from message text.

The trim feature is implemented subject to these conditions:

For more information, see Whitespace Options.

See also the “--cr-wrap” and “--no-collapse” options.

--version

Prints dialog's version to the standard output, and exits. See also “--print-version”.

--visit-items

Modify the tab-traversal of checklist, radiolist, 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, abbreviations apply to the buttons.

--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.

--buildlist text height width list-height [ tag item status ] ...

A buildlist dialog displays two lists, side-by-side. The list on the left shows unselected items. The list on the right shows selected items. As items are selected or unselected, they move between the lists.

Use a carriage return or the “OK” button to accept the current value in the selected-window and exit. The results are written using the order displayed in the selected-window.

The initial on/off state of each entry is specified by status.

The dialog behaves like a menu, using the --visit-items to control whether the cursor is allowed to visit the lists directly.

Whether or not --visit-items is given, it is possible to move the highlight between the two lists using the default “^” (left-column) and “$” (right-column) keys.

On exit, a list of the tag strings of those entries that are turned on will be printed on dialog's output.

If the "--separate-output" option is not given, the strings will be quoted as needed to make it simple for scripts to separate them. By default, this uses double-quotes, as needed. See the “--single-quoted” option, which modifies the quoting behavior.

--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. The format can be overridden using the --date-format option.

--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. Another difference is that you can indicate which entry is currently selected, by setting its status to on. 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 dialog's output.

If the “--separate-output” option is not given, the strings will be quoted as needed to make it simple for scripts to separate them. By default, this uses double-quotes (as needed). 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 window 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 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 directory 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.

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 written 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 directory 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 integer 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. An OK exit status is 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 entering 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:

--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 through 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 dialog's output. If the “--help-button” option is given, the corresponding 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:

--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 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.

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 or the user presses the OK button (status OK) or the user presses the CANCEL button or Esc key.

--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.

--prgbox text command height width

--prgbox command height width

A prgbox is very similar to a programbox.

This dialog box is used to display the output of a command that is specified as an argument to prgbox.

After the command completes, the user can press the ENTER key so that dialog will exit and the calling shell script can continue its operation.

If four parameters are given, it displays the text under the title, delineated from the scrolling file's contents. If only three parameters are given, this text is omitted.

--programbox text height width

--programbox height width

A programbox is very similar to a progressbox. The only difference between a program box and a progress box is that a program box displays an OK button (but only after the command completes).

This dialog box is used to display the piped output of a command. After the command completes, the user can press the ENTER key so that dialog will exit and the calling shell script can continue its operation.

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.

--progressbox text height width

--progressbox height width

A progressbox is similar to an tailbox, except that

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 tag of the selected item is written to dialog's output.

--rangebox text height width min-value max-value default-value

Allow the user to select from a range of values, e.g., using a slider. The dialog shows the current value as a bar (like the gauge dialog). Tabs or arrow keys move the cursor between the buttons and the value. When the cursor is on the value, you can edit it by:

Some keys are also recognized in all cursor positions:

--tailbox file height width

Display text from a file in a dialog box, as in a “tail -f” command. 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 performance, 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, and 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 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 tab or backtab to move between windows.

On exit, the result is printed in the form hour:minute:second. The format can be overridden using the --time-format option.

--treeview text height width list-height [ tag item status depth ] ...

Display data organized as a tree. Each group of data contains a tag, the text to display for the item, its status (“on” or “off”) and the depth of the item in the tree.

Only one item can be selected (like the radiolist). The tag is not displayed.

On exit, the tag of the selected item is written to dialog's output.

--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 button 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 status 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.

Whitespace Options

These options can be used to transform whitespace (space, tab, newline) as dialog reads the script:

The options are not independent:

• Dialog checks if the script contains at least one “\n” and (unless --no-nl-expand is set) will ignore the --no-collapse and --trim options.
• After checking for “\n” and the --no-nl-expand option, dialog handles the --trim option.

If the --trim option takes effect, then dialog ignores --no-collapse. It changes sequences of tabs, spaces (and newlines unless -cr-wrap is set) to a single space.

•

If neither the “\n” or --trim cases apply, dialog checks --no-collapse to decide whether to reduce sequences of tabs and spaces to a single space.

In this case, dialog ignores --cr-wrap and does not modify newlines.

Taking those dependencies into account, here is a table summarizing the behavior for the various combinations of options. The table assumes that the script contains at least one “\n” when the --no-nl-expand option is not set.

Widget Names

Some widgets (such as the formbox) have an area where fields can be edited. Those are managed in a subwindow of the widget, and may have separate keybindings from the main widget because the subwindows are registered using a different name.

Some widgets are actually other widgets, using internal settings to modify the behavior. Those use the same widget name as the actual widget:

Built-in Bindings

This manual page does not list the key bindings for each widget, because that detailed information can be obtained by running dialog. If you have set the --trace option, dialog writes the key-binding information for each widget as it is registered.

A few bindings are built-in, independent of particular widgets:

Example

Normally dialog uses different keys for navigating between the buttons and editing part of a dialog versus navigating within the editing part. That is, tab (and back-tab) traverse buttons (or between buttons and the editing part), while arrow keys traverse fields within the editing part. Tabs are also recognized as a special case for traversing between widgets, e.g., when using multiple tailboxbg widgets.

Some users may wish to use the same key for traversing within the editing part as for traversing between buttons. The form widget is written to support this sort of redefinition of the keys, by adding a special group in dlgk_keys.h for “form” (left/right/next/prev). Here is an example binding demonstrating how to do this:

bindkey formfield TAB  form_NEXT
bindkey formbox   TAB  form_NEXT
bindkey formfield BTAB form_prev
bindkey formbox   BTAB form_prev

That type of redefinition would not be useful in other widgets, e.g., calendar, due to the potentially large number of fields to traverse.

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:

Xdialog

This is an X application, rather than a terminal program. 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 Xdialog:

Xdialog's manpage has a section discussing its compatibility with dialog. There are some differences not shown in the manpage. For example, the html documentation states

Dialog has not used a different separator; the difference was likely due to confusion regarding some script.

Whiptail

Then there is whiptail. For practical purposes, it is maintained by Debian (very little work is done by its upstream developers). Its documentation (README.whiptail) 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 environments 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 757 KB. The comparable number for dialog (counting ncurses) is 520 KB. 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 original mid-1990s dialog 0.4 program.

whiptail's manpage borrows features from dialog, e.g., but oddly cites only dialog versions up to 0.4 (1994) as a source. That is, its manpage refers to features which were borrowed from more recent versions of dialog, e.g.,

• --gauge (from 0.5)
• --passwordbox (from Debian changes in 1999),
• --default-item (from dialog 2000/02/22),
• --output-fd (from dialog 2002/08/14).

Debian uses whiptail for the official dialog variation.

The dialog program ignores or maps these options which are recognized by whiptail:

There are visual differences which are not addressed by command-line options:

• dialog centers lists within the window. whiptail typically puts lists against the left margin.
• whiptail uses angle brackets (“<” and “>”) for marking buttons. dialog uses square brackets.
• whiptail marks the limits of subtitles with vertical bars. dialog does not mark the limits.
• whiptail attempts to mark the top/bottom cells of a scrollbar with up/down arrows. When it cannot do this, it fills those cells with the background color of the scrollbar and confusing the user. dialog uses the entire scrollbar space, thereby getting better resolution.