| DIALOG(3) | Library Functions Manual | DIALOG(3) |
dialog - widgets and utilities for the dialog program
cc [ flag ... ] file ... -ldialog [ library ... ]
or
cc $(dialog-config --cflags) file ... $(dialog-config --libs) ]
#include <dialog.h>
Dialog is a program that will let you present a variety of questions or display messages using dialog boxes from a shell script. It is built from the dialog library, which consists of several widgets as well as utility functions that are used by the widgets or the main program.
This manpage documents the features from <dialog.h> which are likely to be important to developers using the widgets directly. Some hints are also given for developing new widgets.
Here is a dialog version of Hello World:
int main(void)
{
int status;
init_dialog(stdin, stdout);
status = dialog_yesno(
"Hello, in dialog-format",
"Hello World!",
0, 0);
end_dialog();
return status;
}
Exit codes (passed back to the main program for its use) are defined with a "DLG_EXIT_ prefix. The efined constants can be mapped using environment variables as described in dialog(1), e.g., DLG_EXIT_OK corresponds to $DIALOG_OK.
Useful character constants which correspond to user input are named with the "CHR_" prefix, e.g., CHR_BACKSPACE.
Colors and video attributes are categorized and associated with settings in the configuration file (see the discussion of $DIALOGRC in dialog(1)). The DIALOG_ATR(n) macro is used for defining the references to the combined color and attribute table dlg_color_table[].
The dialog application passes its command-line parameters to the widget functions. Some of those parameters are single values, but some of the widgets accept data as an array of values. Those include checklist/radiobox, menubox and formbox. When the --item-help option is given, an extra column of data is expected. The USE_ITEM_HELP(), CHECKBOX_TAGS, MENUBOX_TAGS and FORMBOX_TAGS macros are used to hide this difference from the calling application.
Most of the other definitions found in <dialog.h> are used for convenience in building the library or main program. These include definitions based on the generated <dlg_config.h> header.
All of the global data for the dialog library is stored in a few structures: DIALOG_STATE, DIALOG_VARS and DIALOG_COLORS. The corresponding dialog_state, dialog_vars and dlg_color_table global variables should be initialized to zeros, and then populated with the data to use. A few of these must be nonzero for the corresponding widgets to function. As as the case with function names, variables beginning with "dialog_" are designed for use by the calling application while variables beginning with "dlg_" are intended for lower levels, e.g., by the dialog library.
The state variables are dialog's working variables. It initializes those, uses them to manage the widgets.
This is a linked list of all subwindows created by the library. The dlg_del_window function uses this to free storage for subwindows when deleting a window.
This is a linked list of all windows created by the library. The dlg_del_window function uses this to locate windows which may be redrawn after deleting a window.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--aspect-ratio". The value gives the application 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.
When set to true, this allows calls to dlg_finish_string to discard the corresponding data which is created to speed up layout computations for the given string parameter. The gauge widget uses this feature.
This is set up in ui_getc.c to record windows which must be polled for input, e.g., to handle the background tailbox widget. One window is designated as the foreground or control window.
If the control window for DIALOG_STATE.getc_callbacks is closed, the list is transferred to this variable. Closing all windows causes the application to exit.
This is set to TRUE in dlg_will_resize or dlg_result_key when KEY_RESIZE is read, to tell dialog to ignore subsequent ERRs.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--no-mouse". If true, dialog will not initialize (and enable) the mouse in init_dialog.
This is set in the dialog application to the stream on which the application and library functions may write text results. Normally that is the standard error, since the curses library prefers to write its data to the standard output. Some scripts, trading portability for convenience, prefer to write results to the standard output, e.g., by using the "--stdout" option.
This is incremented by dlg_does_output, which is called by each widget that writes text to the output. The dialog application uses that to decide if it should also write a separator, i.e., DIALOG_STATE.separate_str, between calls to each widget.
This is set in init_dialog to a stream which can be used by the gauge widget, which must be the application's standard input. The dialog application calls init_dialog normally with input set to the standard input, but optionally based on the "--input-fd" option. Since the application cannot read from a pipe (standard input) and at the same time read the curses input from the standard input, it must allow for reopening the latter from either a specific file descriptor, or directly from the terminal. The adjusted pipe stream value is stored in this variable.
The text-formatting functions use this for the number of rows used for formatting a string.
It is used by dialog for the command-line options "--print-text-size" and "--print-text-only".
This is set in init_dialog and reset in end_dialog. It is used to check if curses has been initialized, and if the endwin function must be called on exit.
This is set in init_dialog to the output stream used by the curses library. Normally that is the standard output, unless that happens to not be a terminal (and if init_dialog can successfully open the terminal directly).
The text-formatting functions use this for the number of columns used for formatting a string.
It is used by dialog for the command-line options "--print-text-size" and "--print-text-only".
This corresponds to the command-line option "--separate-widget". The given string specifies 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.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--tab-len number". Specify the number of spaces that a tab character occupies if the "--tab-correct" option is given. The default is 8.
The text-formatting functions set this to the number of lines used for formatting a string.
It is used by dialog for the command-line options "--print-text-size" and "--print-text-only".
Dialog uses this in the command-line option "--print-text-only".
The text-formatting functions (dlg_print_text, dlg_print_line, and dlg_print_autowrap) check this to decide whether to print the formatted text to dialog's output or to the curses-display.
Also, dlg_auto_size checks the flag, allowing it to be used before init_dialog is called.
The text-formatting functions set this to the number of columns used for formatting a string.
It is used by dialog for the command-line options "--print-text-size" and "--print-text-only".
This corresponds to the command-line option "--trace file". It is the file pointer to which trace messages are written.
This is set in init_dialog if the curses implementation supports color.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--scrollbar". If true, draw a scrollbar to make windows holding scrolled data more readable.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--no-shadow". This is set in init_dialog if the curses implementation supports color. If true, suppress shadows that would be drawn to the right and bottom of each dialog box.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--visit-items". Modify the tab-traversal of the list-oriented widgets (buildlist, checklist, radiobox, menubox, inputmenu, and treeview) 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.
The dialog application resets the dialog_vars data before accepting options to invoke each widget. Most of the DIALOG_VARS members are set directly from dialog's command-line options:
In contrast to DIALOG_STATE, the members of DIALOG_VARS are set by command-line options in dialog.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--ascii-lines. It causes line-drawing to be done with ASCII characters, e.g., "+" and "-". See DIALOG_VARS.no_lines.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--backtitle backtitle". It specifies a backtitle string to be displayed on the backdrop, at the top of the screen.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--beep-after". If true, beep after a user has completed a widget by pressing one of the buttons.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--beep". It is obsolete.
This is true if the command-line option "--begin y x" was used. It specifies the position of the upper left corner of a dialog box on the screen.
This corresponds to the x value from the command-line option "--begin y x" (second value).
This corresponds to the y value from the command-line option "--begin y x" (first value).
This corresponds to the command-line option "--cancel-label string". The given string overrides the label used for “Cancel” buttons.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--no-kill". If true, this 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.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--colors". If true, interpret embedded "\Z" sequences in the dialog text by the following character, which tells dialog to set colors or video attributes:
The settings are cumulative, e.g., "\Zb\Z1" makes the following text bright red. Restore normal settings with "\Zn".
This corresponds to the command-line option "--column-separator". Dialog splits data for radio/checkboxes and menus on the occurrences of the given string, and aligns the split data into columns.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--cr-wrap". If true, 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.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--cursor-off-label". If true, 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.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--date-format string". If the host provides strftime, and the value is nonnull, the calendar widget uses this to format its output.
This is set by the command-line option "--default-button. It is used by dlg_default_button.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--default-item string". The given string is used as the default item in a checklist, form or menu box. Normally the first item in the box is the default.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--defaultno". If true, 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 was given that option overrides this, making the default button always “Yes” (internally the same as “OK”).
This corresponds to the command-line option "--clear". This option is implemented in the main program, not the library. If true, the screen will be cleared on exit. This may be used alone, without other options.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--erase-on-exit". If true, remove the dialog widget on program exit, erasing the entire screen to its native background color, and place the terminal cursor at the lower left corner of the screen.
This is useful for making the window contents invisible at the end of a series of dialog boxes. It can also be used at earlier stages of a series of invocations of dialog, if the series may be aborted before it is fully completed.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--exit-label string". The given string overrides the label used for “EXIT” buttons.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--extra-button". If true, some widgets show an extra button, between “OK” and “Cancel” buttons, or “Yes” and “No” buttons.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--extra-label string". The given string overrides the label used for “Extra” buttons. Note: for inputmenu widgets, this defaults to “Rename”.
This is set by the command-line option "--passwordform" to tell the form widget that its text fields should be treated like password widgets.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--help-button". If true, some widgets show a help-button after “OK” and “Cancel” buttons, i.e., in checklist, radiolist and menu boxes, or the “Yes” and “No” buttons for the yesno box.
If --item-help is also given, on exit the return status will be the same as for the “OK” button, and the item-help text will be written to dialog's output after the token “HELP”. Otherwise, the return status will indicate that the Help button was pressed, and no message printed.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--hfile string". The given filename is passed to dialog_helpfile when the user presses F1.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--help-label string". The given string overrides the label used for “Help” buttons.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--hline string". The given string is displayed in the bottom of dialog windows, like a subtitle.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--help-status". If true, and the the help-button is selected, writes the checklist or radiolist information after the item-help “HELP” information. This can be used to reconstruct the state of a checklist after processing the help request.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--help-tags". If true, dlg_add_help_formitem and dlg_add_help_listitem use the item's tag value consistently rather than using the tag's help-text value when DIALOG_VARS.item_help is set.
This is nonzero if DIALOG_VARS.input_result is allocated, versus being a pointer to the user's local variables.
This flag is set to denote whether the menubox widget implements a menu versus a inputmenu widget.
This may be either a user-supplied buffer, or a buffer dynamically allocated by the library, depending on DIALOG_VARS.input_length:
Certain widgets copy a result to this buffer. If the pointer is NULL, or if the length is insufficient for the result, then the dialog library allocates a buffer which is large enough, and sets DIALOG_VARS.input_length. Callers should check for this case if they have supplied their own buffer.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--insecure". If true, make the password widget friendlier but less secure, by echoing asterisks for each character.
This variable is used to prevent dialog_helpfile from showing anything, e.g., if F1 were pressed within a help-file display.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--iso-week". It is used in the calendar widget to tell how to compute the starting week for the year:
This corresponds to the command-line option "--item-help". If true, interpret the tags data for checklist, radiolist and menu boxes adding a column whose text is displayed in the bottom line of the screen, for the currently selected item.
This is set by the command-line option "--keep-tite" to tell dialog to not attempt to cancel the terminal initialization (termcap ti/te) sequences which correspond to xterm's alternate-screen switching. Normally dialog does this to avoid flickering when run several times in a script.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--keep-window". If true, do not remove/repaint the window on exit. This is useful for keeping the window contents visible when several widgets are run in the same process. Note that curses will clear the screen when starting a new process.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--last-key".
This corresponds to the command-line option "--max-input size". Limit input strings to the given size. If not specified, the limit is 2048.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--no-hot-list".
Some widgets (buildlist, checklist, inputmenu, menu, radiolist, treeview) display a list for which the leading capital letter in each entry is accepted as a hot-key, to quickly move the focus to that entry.
Setting this variable to TRUE disables the feature.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--no-items". Some widgets (checklist, inputmenu, radiolist, menu) display a list with two columns (a “tag” and “item”, i.e., “description”). This tells dialog to read shorter rows from data, omitting the “list”.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--no-label string". The given string overrides the label used for “No” buttons.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--no-lines. It suppresses line-drawing. See DIALOG_VARS.ascii_lines.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--no-nl-expand". If false, dlg_trim_string converts literal "\n" substrings in a message into newlines.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--no-tags". Some widgets (checklist, inputmenu, radiolist, menu) display a list with two columns (a “tag” and “item”, also known as “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.
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.
Here is a table showing how the no_tags and no_items values interact:
| Widget | Fields Shown | Fields Read | .no_items | .no_tags |
| buildlist | item | tag,item | 0 | 0* |
| buildlist | item | tag,item | 0 | 1 |
| buildlist | tag | tag | 1 | 0* |
| buildlist | tag | tag | 1 | 1 |
| checklist | tag,item | tag,item | 0 | 0 |
| checklist | item | tag,item | 0 | 1 |
| checklist | tag | tag | 1 | 0 |
| checklist | tag | tag | 1 | 1 |
| inputmenu | tag,item | tag,item | 0 | 0 |
| inputmenu | item | tag,item | 0 | 1 |
| inputmenu | tag | tag | 1 | 0 |
| inputmenu | tag | tag | 1 | 1 |
| menu | tag,item | tag,item | 0 | 0 |
| menu | item | tag,item | 0 | 1 |
| menu | tag | tag | 1 | 0 |
| menu | tag | tag | 1 | 1 |
| radiolist | tag,item | tag,item | 0 | 0 |
| radiolist | item | tag,item | 0 | 1 |
| radiolist | tag | tag | 1 | 0 |
| radiolist | tag | tag | 1 | 1 |
| treeview | item | tag,item | 0 | 0* |
| treeview | item | tag,item | 0 | 1 |
| treeview | tag | tag | 1 | 0* |
| treeview | tag | tag | 1 | 1 |
This corresponds to the command-line option "--no-cancel". If true, 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.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--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. It true, that feature is disabled. Note that dialog will still wrap text, subject to the --cr-wrap option.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--no-ok. Dialog will suppress the “ok” (or “yes”) button from the widget.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--ok-label string". The given string overrides the label used for “OK” buttons.
When set, force dlg_set_timeout to use 10 milliseconds rather than using the DIALOG_VARS.timeout_secs value.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--print-size". If true, each widget prints its size to dialog's output when it is invoked.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--quoted. Normally dialog quotes the strings returned by checklist's as well as the item-help text. If true, dialog will quote all string results.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--reorder. By default, the buildlist widget uses the same order for the output (right) list as for the input (left). If true, dialog will use the order in which a user adds selections to the output list.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--separate-output". If true, checklist widgets output result one line at a time, with no quoting. This facilitates parsing by another program.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--single-quoted". If true, 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 uses double quotes around each item. The latter requires occasional use of backslashes to make the output useful in shell scripts.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--size-err". If true, 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).
This corresponds to the command-line option "--sleep secs". This option is implemented in the main program, not the library. If nonzero, this is the number of seconds after to delay after processing a dialog box.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--tab-correct". If true, convert each tab character of the text to one or more spaces. Otherwise, tabs are rendered according to the curses library's interpretation.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--time-format string". If the host provides strftime, and the value is nonnull, the timebox widget uses this to format its output.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--timeout secs". If nonzero, timeout input requests (exit with error code) if no user response within the given number of seconds.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--title title". Specifies a title string to be displayed at the top of the dialog box.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--trim". If true, eliminate leading blanks, trim literal newlines and repeated blanks from message text.
This corresponds to the command-line option "--week-start". It is used in the calendar widget to set the starting day for the week. The string value can be
This corresponds to the command-line option "--yes-label string". The given string overrides the label used for “Yes” buttons.
Functions that implement major functionality for the command-line dialog program, e.g., widgets, have names beginning "dialog_".
All dialog boxes have at least three parameters:
Other parameters depend on the box type.
implements the "--buildlist" option.
implements the "--calendar" option.
implements the "--checklist" and "--radiolist" options depending on the flag parameter.
implements the "--dselect" option.
implements the "--editbox" option.
implements the "--form" option.
implements the "--fselect" option.
implements the "--gauge" option. Alternatively, a simpler or customized gauge widget can be set up using dlg_allocate_gauge, dlg_reallocate_gauge, dlg_update_gauge and dlg_free_gauge.
implements the "--inputbox" or "--password" option, depending on the value of password.
implements the "--hfile" option.
implements the "--menu" or "--inputmenu" option depending on whether dialog_vars.input_menu is set.
implements the "--mixedform" option.
implements the "--mixedgauge" option
implements the "--msgbox" or "--infobox" option depending on whether pauseopt is set.
implements the "--pause" option.
implements the "--prgbox" option.
implements the "--progressbox" option.
implements the "--rangebox" option.
implements the "--tailbox" or "--tailboxbg" option depending on whether bg_task is set.
implements the "--textbox" option.
implements the "--timebox" option. See dlg_auto_size for layout using height and width parameters.
implements the "--treeview" option.
implements the "--yesno" option.
Most functions that implement lower-level functionality for the command-line dialog program or widgets, have names beginning "dlg_". Bowing to longstanding usage, the functions that initialize the display and end it are named init_dialog and end_dialog.
The only non-widget function whose name begins with "dialog_" is dialog_version, which returns the version number of the library as a string.
A few functions are prefixed "_dlg_", because they are required for internal use, but not intended as part of the library application programming interface.
Here is a brief summary of the utility functions and their parameters:
Add a callback, used to allow polling input from multiple tailbox widgets.
Like dlg_add_callback, but passes a reference to the DIALOG_CALLBACK as well as a pointer to a cleanup function which will be called when the associated input ends.
This is a utility function used enforce consistent behavior for the DIALOG_VARS.help_tags and DIALOG_VARS.item_help variables.
This is a utility function used enforce consistent behavior for the DIALOG_VARS.help_tags and DIALOG_VARS.item_help variables.
Report the last key entered by the user. This implements the --last-key command-line option, using dialog_vars.last_key.
Add a quoted string to the result buffer (see dlg_add_result). If no quotes are necessary, none are used. If dialog_vars.single_quoted is set, single-quotes are used. Otherwise, double-quotes are used.
Add a string to the result buffer dialog_vars.input_result.
Add an output-separator to the result buffer dialog_vars.input_result. If dialog_vars.output_separator is set, use that. Otherwise, if dialog_vars.separate_output is set, use newline. If neither is set, use a space.
Add a quoted or unquoted string to the result buffer (see dlg_add_quoted) and dlg_add_result), according to whether dialog_vars.quoted is true.
Copy and reformat an array of pointers to strings, aligning according to the column separator dialog_vars.column_separator. If no column separator is set, the array will be unmodified; otherwise it is copied and reformatted.
Allocates a gauge widget. Use dlg_update_gauge to display the result.
returns its parameter transformed to the corresponding "+" or "-", etc., for the line-drawing characters used in dialog. If the parameter is not a line-drawing or other special character such as ACS_DARROW, it returns 0.
Set window to the given attribute.
Compute window size based on the size of the formatted prompt and minimum dimensions for a given widget.
Dialog sets dialog_state.text_height and dialog_state.text_width for the formatted prompt as a side-effect.
Normally dialog writes the formatted prompt to the curses window, but it will write the formatted prompt to the output stream if dialog_state.text_only is set.
Like dlg_auto_size, but use a file contents to decide how large the widget should be.
If dialog_vars.beep_signal is nonzero, this calls beep once and sets dialog_vars.beep_signal to zero.
returns its chtype parameter transformed as follows:
returns a suitable x-ordinate (column) for a new widget. If dialog_vars.begin_set is 1, use dialog_vars.begin_x; otherwise center the widget on the screen (using the width parameter).
returns a suitable y-ordinate (row) for a new widget. If dialog_vars.begin_set is 1, use dialog_vars.begin_y; otherwise center the widget on the screen (using the height parameter).
This is an alternate interface to the buildlist widget which allows the application to read the list item states back directly without putting them in the output buffer.
Count the buttons in the list.
If a key was bound to one of the button-codes in dlg_result_key, fake a button-value and an “Cancel” key to cause the calling widget to return the corresponding status.
See dlg_ok_buttoncode, which maps settings for ok/extra/help and button number into exit-code.
Make sure there is enough space for the buttons by computing the width required for their labels, adding margins and limiting based on the screen size.
Compute the size of the button array in columns.
Find the first uppercase character in the label, which we may use for an abbreviation. If the label is empty, return -1. If no uppercase character is found, return 0. Otherwise return the uppercase character.
Normally dlg_draw_buttons and dlg_char_to_button use the first uppercase character. However, they keep track of all of the labels and if the first has already been used in another label, they will continue looking for another uppercase character. This function does not have enough information to make that check.
Compute the step-size needed between elements of the button array.
Calculate the minimum width for the list, assuming none of the items are truncated.
Calculate new height and list_height values.
This function is obsolete, provided for library-compatibility. It is replaced by dlg_calc_list_width.
Given a list of button labels, and a character which may be the abbreviation for one, find it, if it exists. An abbreviation will be the first character which happens to be capitalized in the label. If the character is found, return its index within the list of labels. Otherwise, return DLG_EXIT_UNKNOWN.
This entrypoint provides the --checklist or --radiolist functionality without the limitations of dialog's command-line syntax (compare to dialog_checklist).
given a function key (or other key that was mapped to a function key), check if it is one of the up/down scrolling functions:
Some widgets use these key bindings for scrolling the prompt-text up and down, to allow for display in very small windows.
The function returns 0 (zero) if it finds one of these keys, and -1 if not.
Set window to the default dialog screen attribute. This is set in the rc-file with screen_color.
Free storage used for the result buffer (dialog_vars.input_result). The corresponding pointer is set to NULL.
Return the number of colors that can be configured in dialog.
Initialize the color pairs used in dialog.
Count the entries in an argument vector.
Returns the number of columns used for a string. This is not necessarily the number of bytes in a string.
Returns the number of columns used for a string, accounting for "\Z" sequences which can be used for coloring the text if dialog_vars.colors is set. This is not necessarily the number of bytes in a string.
Returns the number of wide-characters in the string.
Create a configuration file, i.e., write internal tables to a file which can be read back by dialog as an rc-file.
If dialog_vars.size_err is true, check if the given window size is too large to fit on the screen. If so, exit with an error reporting the size of the window.
If dialog_vars.default_button is positive, return the button-index for that button code, using dlg_ok_buttoncode to test indices starting with zero. Otherwise (or if no match was found for the button code), return zero.
If dialog_vars.default_item is not null, find that name by matching the name field in the list of form items. If found, return the index of that item in the list. Otherwise, return zero.
This function is obsolete, provided for library-compatibility. It is replaced by dlg_default_formitem and dlg_default_listitem.
If dialog_vars.defaultno is true, and dialog_vars.nocancel is not, find the button-index for the “Cancel” button. Otherwise, return the index for “OK” (always zero).
Remove a window, repainting everything else.
create a derived window, e.g., for an input area of a widget
This is called each time a widget is invoked which may do output. It increments dialog_state.output_count, so the output function in dialog can test this and add a separator.
Draw up/down arrows on a window, e.g., for scrollable lists. It calls dlg_draw_arrows2 using the menubox_color and menubox_border_color attributes.
Draw up/down arrows on a window, e.g., for scrollable lists.
Draw a partial box at the bottom of a window, e.g., to surround a row of buttons. It is designed to merge with an existing box around the whole window (see dlg_draw_box), so it uses tee-elements rather than corner-elements on the top corners of this box.
Draw a partial box at the bottom of a window, e.g., to surround a row of buttons. It is designed to merge with an existing box around the whole window (see dlg_draw_box2), so it uses tee-elements rather than corner-elements on the top corners of this box.
Draw a rectangular box with line drawing characters.
Draw a rectangular box with line drawing characters.
Print a list of buttons at the given position.
draw the text in dialog_vars.help_line at the bottom of the given window.
If dialog_state.use_scrollbar is set, draw a scrollbar on the right margin of windows holding scrollable data. Also (whether or not the scrollbar is drawn), annotate the bottom margin of the window with the percentage of data by the bottom of that window, and call dlg_draw_arrows2 to put markers on the window showing when more data is available.
Draw shadows along the right and bottom edge of a window to give it a 3-dimensional look. (The height, etc., may not be the same as the window's actual values).
Draw a title centered at the top of the window.
This is a utility function which supports the --inputmenu option of the dialog program. If dialog_vars.input_menu is set, dialog_menu passes this pointer to dlg_menu as the rename_menutext parameter. Otherwise, it passes dlg_dummy_menutext.
The function should only return DLG_EXIT_ERROR.
Write all user-defined key-bindings to the given stream, e.g., as part of dlg_create_rc.
Write all user-defined key-bindings to the given stream, e.g., as part of dlg_create_rc.
Remove one or more items from an argument vector.
Given the character-offset in the string, returns the display-offset where dialog should position the cursor. In this context, “characters” may be multicolumn, since the string can be a multibyte character string.
Updates the string and character-offset, given various editing characters or literal characters which are inserted at the character-offset. Returns true if an editing change was made (and the display should be updated), and false if the key was something like KEY_ENTER, which is a non-editing action outside this function.
Given an internal exit code, check if the corresponding environment variable is set. If so, remap the exit code to match the environment variable. Finally call exit with the resulting exit code.
The dialog program uses this function to allow shell scripts to remap the exit codes so they can distinguish ESC from ERROR.
Returns the name of an exit-code, e.g., “OK” for DLG_EXIT_OK.
Returns an exit-code as the reverse of dlg_exitcode2n, e.g., 0 (DLG_EXIT_OK) for the “OK” string.
Map the given button index for dlg_exit_label into dialog's exit-code.
Return a list of button labels. If dialog_vars.extra_button is true, return the result of dlg_ok_labels. Otherwise, return a list with the “Exit” label and (if dialog_vars.help_button is set) the “Help” button as well.
Quit program killing all tailboxbg widgets.
Given the character-offset to find in the list, return the corresponding array index.
If DIALOG_STATE.finish_string is true, this function discards data used to speed up layout computations.
Cancel the local data saved by dlg_last_getc.
This entrypoint provides the --editbox functionality without the limitations of dialog's command-line syntax (compare to dialog_editbox).
This entrypoint provides the --form functionality without the limitations of dialog's command-line syntax (compare to dialog_form).
Free data allocated by dlg_align_columns.
Free memory owned by a list of DIALOG_FORMITEM's.
Remove the gauge widget from the screen and free its associated memory.
Read a character from the given window. Handle repainting here (to simplify things in the calling application). Also, if input-callback(s) are set up, poll the corresponding files and handle the updates, e.g., for displaying a tailbox. Returns the key-code.
Get a number from the environment:
Get a string from the environment, rejecting those which are entirely blank.
extract the video attributes from the given window.
passes the given key-code ch to the current window that has established a callback. If the callback returns zero, remove it and try the next window. If no more callbacks remain, return. If any callbacks were found, return true, otherwise false.
Build a list of the display-columns for the given multibyte string's characters.
Build an index of the wide-characters in the string, so the caller can easily tell which byte-offset begins a given wide-character.
Draw the string for the dialog_vars.item_help feature.
This performs the check and modifications for the command-line option "--keep-tite", used in init_dialog as well as for the command-line option --erase-on-exit.
If dialog has callbacks active, purge the list of all that are not marked to keep in the background. If any remain, run those in a background process.
returns the most recent character that was read via dlg_getc.
Given a column limit, count the number of wide characters that can fit into that limit. The offset is used to skip over a leading character that was already written.
Check for a key-binding. If there is no binding associated with the widget, it simply returns the given curses-key. Otherwise, it returns the result of the binding
Limit the parameter according to dialog_vars.max_input
Match a given character against the beginning of the string, ignoring case of the given character. The matching string must begin with an uppercase character.
This entrypoint provides the --menu functionality without the limitations of dialog's command-line syntax (compare to dialog_menu).
Moves/resizes the given window to the given position and size.
Retrieve the big-region under the pointer.
Free the memory associated with mouse regions.
Creates a region on which the mouse-clicks will return a specified code.
Retrieve the frame under the mouse pointer
Sets a base for subsequent calls to dlg_mouse_mkregion, so they can make regions relative to the start of a given window.
Sets a value used internally by dlg_mouse_mkregion which is added to the code parameter. By providing different values, e.g., multiples of KEY_MAX, it is possible to support multiple “big” regions in a widget. The buildlist widget uses this feature to recognize mouse-clicks in the left/right panes.
is a wrapper for dlg_getc which additionally maps mouse-clicks (if the curses library supports those) into extended function-keys which encode the position according to the mode in dlg_mouse_mkbigregion. Returns the corresponding key-code.
This is a non-blocking variant of dlg_mouse_wgetch.
Check if an output-separator is needed. If dialog_vars.output_separator is set, return true. Otherwise, if dialog_vars.input_result is nonempty, return true. If neither, return false.
Create a modal window, optionally with a shadow. The shadow is created if dialog_state.use_shadow is true.
Create a window, optionally with a shadow. The shadow is created if dialog_state.use_shadow is true.
Return the next index in the list of labels.
Assuming that the caller is using dlg_ok_labels to list buttons, find the next index in the list of buttons.
Map the given button index for dlg_ok_labels into dialog's exit-code.
Calls dlg_button_key with the “Cancel” button disabled, e.g., for the textbox widget.
Returns a list with the “Ok” label, and if dialog_vars.help_button is true, the “Help” label as well.
Return a list of button labels for the OK/Cancel group of widgets.
Decode the string as an integer, decrement if greater than zero to make a curses-ordinate from a dialog-ordinate.
Parse the parameters of the “bindkeys” configuration-file entry. This expects widget name which may be "*", followed by curses key definition and then dialog key definition.
Parse the configuration file and set up variables.
Open a pipe which ties the standard error and output together. The popen function captures only the standard output of a command.
Return the previous index in the list of labels.
This is a helper function used for the various “list” widgets, e.g., checklist, menu, buildlist, treeview. Each list-widget has “tag” and “description” values for each item which can be displayed. If dialog_vars.no_tags is true, the “tag” value is not shown. The first character of the first value shown (tag or description) is highlighted to indicate that the widget will match it for quick navigation.
This is a wrapper for dlg_print_autowrap which allows the user to scroll too-long prompt text up/down.
See dlg_check_scrolled for a function which updates the offset variable used as a parameter here. It complements this function; you need both. If pauseopt is set, this function returns an updated last parameter, needed for dlg_check_scrolled calls.
Print one line of the prompt in the window within the limits of the specified right margin. The line will end on a word boundary and a pointer to the start of the next line is returned, or a NULL pointer if the end of *prompt is reached.
Find the previous button index in the list from dlg_ok_labels.
Print a string of text in a window, automatically wrap around to the next line if the string is too long to fit on one line. Note that the string may contain embedded newlines. The text is written starting at the top of the window.
If dialog_vars.print_siz is true, print the given height/width (from a widget) to dialog_state.output, e.g., Size: height, width.
Print up to cols columns from text, optionally rendering dialog's escape sequences for attributes and color.
implements the "--prgbox" and "--progressbox" options.
Display the background title if dialog_vars.backtitle is non-null. The background title is shown at the top of the screen.
Allocates or reallocates a gauge widget (see dlg_allocate_gauge). Use dlg_update_gauge to display the result.
The widget developer should call this function after dlg_register_window, for the list of button labels associated with the widget. One may bind a key to a button, e.g., “OK” for DLGK_OK,
For a given named widget's window, associate a binding table.
Remove a callback.
This is a utility function which supports the --inputmenu option of the dialog program. If dialog_vars.input_menu is set, dialog_menu passes this pointer to dlg_menu as the rename_menutext parameter. Otherwise, it passes dlg_dummy_menutext.
The function should add “RENAMED” to dialog_vars.input_result , followed by the menu item's name and the newtext value (with a space separating the three items), and return DLG_EXIT_EXTRA.
Calls wtimeout with the value saved for a window in the last call to dlg_set_timeout.
Restore dialog's variables from the given variable (see dialog_save_vars).
The DIALOG_VARS.input_length and DIALOG_VARS.input_result members are treated specially, since these are used by a widget to pass data to the caller. They are not modified by this function.
Test a dialog internal keycode to see if it corresponds to one of the push buttons on the widget such as “OK”. This is only useful if there are user-defined key bindings, since there are no built-in bindings that map directly to DLGK_OK, etc. Return true if a mapping was done.
Save dialog's variables into the given variable (see dlg_restore_vars).
Set focus on the given window, making it display above other windows on the screen.
Setup a fixed-buffer for the result in dialog_vars.input_result
Calls wtimeout to establish a preferred timeout for nonblocking reads, e.g., to allow the gauge widget to handle window-resizing events. The dlg_may_resize function temporarily overrides this value, to allow it to skip over the error codes returned while the ncurses library processes window-resizing events. It restores the value established in this call by calling dlg_restore_timeout.
Displays the string, shifted as necessary, to fit within the box and show the current character-offset.
duplicate the string, like strdup.
compare two strings, ignoring case.
Convert a string to an argument vector returning an index (which must be freed by the caller). The string is modified:
create a subwindow, e.g., for an input area of a widget
If the dialog_vars.tab_correct is true, convert tabs to single spaces. Return the converted result. The caller is responsible for freeing the string.
If the parameter is non-null, opens a trace file with that name and stores the file pointer in dialog_state.trace.
logs a numeric value as a comment.
logs a string value as a comment. If the value contains embedded newlines, the comment is continued with “#+” markers.
If dialog_state.trace is set, translate the parameters into a printable representation, log it on a “chr” line.
Write a formatted message to the trace file.
Use the DLG_TRACE macro for portability, in case the trace feature is not compiled into the library. It uses an extra level of parentheses to work with a variable number of parameters, e.g.,
DLG_TRACE(("this is dialog version %s\n", dialog_version()));
Write a formatted message to the trace file.
This is used in dlg_exiterr to capture error messages in the trace file:
va_start(ap, fmt); dlg_trace_msg("## Error: "); dlg_trace_va_msg(fmt, ap); va_end(ap);
Unlike dlg_trace_msg, an extra macro is not needed.
Returns the screensize without using curses. That allows the function to be used before initializing the screen.
If dialog_state.trace is set, log a printable picture of the given window.
This is an alternate interface to 'treeview' which allows the application to read the list item states back directly without putting them in the output buffer.
The dialog program uses this in each widget to adjust the message string, which may contain the newline character (referred to as '\n') and/or the special substring "\n" (which can be translated into a newline character).
There are several optional features:
Remove the bindings for a given window.
Update a gauge widget to show a different percentage value.
This filters out bursts of KEY_RESIZE values. Call this after dlg_getc returns KEY_RESIZE, to improve performance.
Map the given button index for dlg_yes_labels into dialog's exit-code.
Return a list of buttons for Yes/No labels.
End use of dialog functions.
Do some initialization for dialog.
Thomas E. Dickey
| $Date: 2022/06/15 20:15:28 $ |