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NAME

       whiptail - display dialog boxes from shell scripts

SYNOPSIS

       whiptail  [  --title  title  ]  [ --backtitle backtitle ] [ --clear ] [
       --default-item string ] [ --defaultno ] [  --fb  ]  [  --nocancel  ]  [
       --yes-button  text  ]  [  --no-button  text  ]  [  --ok-button text ] [
       --cancel-button  text  ]  [  --noitem  [   ]   --output-fd   fd   ]   [
       --separate-output ] [ --scrolltext ] [ --topleft ] box-options

DESCRIPTION

       whiptail  is a program that will let you present a variety of questions
       or display messages using dialog boxes from a shell script.  Currently,
       these types of dialog boxes are implemented:

       yes/no  box,  menu  box,  input  box,  message box, text box, info box,
       checklist box, radiolist box gauge box, and password box.

OPTIONS

       --clear
              The screen will be cleared to  the  screen  attribute  on  exit.
              This  doesn’t  work  in  an xterm (and descendants) if alternate
              screen switching is enabled, because in that case  slang  writes
              to (and clears) an alternate screen.

       --defaultno
              The dialog box will open with the cursor over the No button.

       --default-item string
              Set  the default item in a menu box.  Normally the first item in
              the box is the default.

       --fb   Use full buttons. (By default, whiptail uses compact buttons).

       --nocancel
              The dialog box won’t have a Cancel button.

       --yes-button text
              Set the text of the Yes button.

       --no-button text
              Set the text of the No button.

       --ok-button text
              Set the text of the Ok button.

       --cancel-button text
              Set the text of the Cancel button.

       --noitem
              The menu, checklist and  radiolist  widgets  will  display  tags
              only,  not  the  item  strings. The menu widget still needs some
              items specified, but checklist and radiolist expect only tag and
              status.

       --separate-output
              For checklist widgets, output result one line at a time, with no
              quoting.  This facilitates parsing by another program.

       --output-fd fd
              Direct output to  the  given  file  descriptor.   Most  whiptail
              scripts write to standard error, but  error  messages  may  also
              be written there, depending on your script.

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

       --backtitle backtitle
              Specifies a backtitle string to be displayed on the backdrop, at
              the top of the screen.

       --scrolltext
              Force the display of a vertical scrollbar.

       --topleft
              Put window in top-left corner.

       Box Options

       --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 be fit in one line, it
              will be automatically divided into multiple lines at appropriate
              places. The text string may 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.

       --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 whiptail will exit and
              the calling shell script can continue its operation.

       --infobox text height width
              An info box is basically a message box.  However, in this  case,
              whiptail  will  exit immediately after displaying the message to
              the user. The screen is not cleared when whiptail 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.

       --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
              inputing  the  string,  the BACKSPACE key can be used to correct
              typing errors. If the input string is longer than the  width  of
              the  dialog  box, the input field will be scrolled. On exit, the
              input string will be printed on stderr.

       --passwordbox text height width [init]
              A password box is similar to an input box, except 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.

       --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  UP/DOWN,  PGUP/PGDN  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. For more convenience,
              forward and backward searching functions are also provided.

       --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. 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 UP/DOWN  keys,
              the  first letter of the tag as a hot-key. 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. When whiptail
              exits, the tag of the chosen  menu  entry  will  be  printed  on
              stderr.

       --checklist text height width list-height [ tag item status ] ...
              A  checklist  box  is  similar  to  a menu box in that there are
              multiple entries presented in the  form  of  a  menu.   You  can
              select  and  deselect  items  using  the SPACE key.  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 stderr.

       --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.

       --gauge text height width percent
              A gauge box displays a meter along the bottom of the  box.   The
              meter  indicates  a  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.

NOTES

       whiptail  interprets  arguments  starting  with  a  dash  "-"  as being
       arguments.  To avoid this, and start  some  text  in,  for  example,  a
       menubox  item,  with  a dash, whiptail honours the getopt convention of
       accepting the special argument "--"  which  means  that  all  following
       arguments  with  dashes  are  to  be treated verbatim and not parsed as
       options.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Exit status is 0 if whiptail is  exited  by  pressing  the  Yes  or  OK
       button,  and  1  if  the  No or Cancel button is pressed. Otherwise, if
       errors occur inside whiptail or whiptail is exited by pressing the  ESC
       key, the exit status is -1.

AUTHOR

       Based on the man page for dialog(1) by:

       Savio Lam (lam836@cs.cuhk.hk) - version 0.3

       Stuart Herbert (S.Herbert@sheffield.ac.uk) - patch for version 0.4

       Modifications for whiptail by:

       Enrique Zanardi (ezanard@debian.org)

       Alastair McKinstry (mckinstry@debian.org)