Provided by: whiptail_0.52.21-4ubuntu2_amd64 bug

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, --fullbuttons
              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.

       --notags
              Don't display tags in the menu, checklist and radiolist widgets.

       --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.

       -h, --help
              Print a help message and exit.

       -v, --version
              Print version information and exit.

       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,  the  first
              following  line is a percentage and 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 255.

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)