pmconfirm,
pmmessage,
pmquery - general purpose dialog box
pmconfirm [
-c] [
-b button-name] [
-B
default-button-name] [
-t string] [
-file
filename] [
-icon icontype] [
-font font] [
-header titlebar-string] [
-useslider] [
-noslider] [
-noframe] [
-exclusive]
pmmessage [
-buttons
label1[:
value1][,
label2[:
value2][,...]]] [
-center] [
-nearmouse] [
-default button] [
-file filename] [
-print] [
-timeout sec]
message...
pmquery [
-input] [
all above options...] [
message...]
pmquery provides a command-line-option compatible implementation of the
xconfirm and
xmessage tools, using a look-and-feel that is
consistent with
pmchart. Several extensions to the functionality of the
original tools have been made, in order to improve their specific utility for
pmchart, but wherever possible the original semantics remain.
pmconfirm displays a line of text for each
-t option specified (or
a file when the
-file option is used), and a button for each
-b
option specified. When one of the buttons is pressed, the label of that button
is written to
pmquery's standard output. This provides a means of
communication/feedback from within shell scripts and a means to display useful
information to a user from an application.
pmmessage displays a window containing a message from the command line, a
file, or standard input. It additionally allows buttons to be associated with
an exit status, and only optionally will write the label of the button to
standard output.
pmquery extends the above tools to additionally support limited user
input, as free form text. In this
-input mode, any text entered will be
output when the default button is pressed. A default text can be entered using
the same mechanisms as the other tools.
Command line options are available to specify font style, frame style, modality
and one of several different icons to be presented for tailored visual
feedback to the user.
The available command line options are:
- -c, -center
- Center the window on the display.
- -nearmouse
- Pop up the window near the mouse cursor.
- -b button-name
- Displays a button with the label button-name. If
button-name is the empty string, the button in that position is not
displayed. If no -b options are present, the default is a button
with the label Continue. The exit status associated with
button-name is zero.
- -B button-name
- Displays a button with the label button-name and
specifies it as the button to be activated when enter is pressed. The exit
status associated with button-name is zero.
- -buttons button,button,...
- This option will create one button for each comma-separated
button option. Each button consists of a label optionally
followed by a colon and an exit value. The exit value will be returned if
that button is selected. The default exit value is 100 plus the button
number. Buttons are numbered from the left starting with one.
- -default label
- Defines the button with a matching label to be the
default. If not specified there is no default. The corresponding resource
is defaultButton. Pressing Return anywhere in the xmessage
window will activate the default button. The default button has a wider
border than the others.
- -t message
- Displays message. Any number of strings can be listed on
the command line (each must be preceded with the -t option).
- -file filename
- Displays the file filename. All -t options
will be ignored. A filename of `-' reads from standard
input.
- -icon icontype
- Displays the icon icontype where icontype is one of:
info, error, question, warning,
critical. action is also accepted as a synonym for
error for backward compatibility. pmquery introduces the
additional archive and host icon types as well as the
original xconfirm types listed earlier.
- -font fontname
- Use fontname as the font. This option is only available
when using the X Window System.
- -header string
- Use string as the window title.
- -print
- This causes the program to write the label of the button
pressed to standard output. It is the default behaviour for
pmconfirm and pmquery.
- -noprint
- This causes the program to not write the label of the
button pressed to standard output. It is the default behaviour for
pmmessage.
- -geometry geometry-string
- This provides the tool with an X-compatible geometry string
specification. This option is only available when using the X Window
System.
- -useslider
- When displaying a file, always use a slider instead of
determining automatically whether a slider is necessary.
- -noslider
- Do not create a slider, and clip text to the window size,
instead of determining automatically whether a slider is necessary..
- -noframe
- Do not display a frame around the contents.
- -exclusive
- Grab the keyboard/pointer and do not allow further input
until a button is pressed.
- -timeout secs
- Exit with status 0 after secs seconds if the user
has not clicked on a button yet. The corresponding resource is
timeout.
- -?, -h, -help
- Display usage message and exit.
The following shell script will display a window with an information icon,
asking the user a yes or no question with "Yes" as the default.
#! /bin/sh
case `pmquery -t "Really power down?" -b No -B Yes -icon question
in
Yes) shutdown;;
No) ;;
esac
A second example, which prompts for a hostname then starts a terminal with an
ssh session connected to the requested host.
#! /bin/sh
host=`pmquery -input -icon host -b Cancel -B OK \
-header "Remote Terminal - Secure Shell"
[ "$host" = "Cancel" -o -z "$host" ] && exit
gnome-terminal -e "ssh $host"
pmquery is an excellent choice of utility for the
PCP_XCONFIRM_PROG Performance Co-Pilot configuration parameter (refer
to
pcp.conf(5) for details).
Note that
PCP_XCONFIRM_PROG will be automatically set to
pmquery
inside tools like
pmchart, unless
PCP_XCONFIRM_PROG is already
set in the environment.
If it detects an error,
pmquery always returns 1, so this value should
not be associated with a button. Unless
-button option has not been
used, the return code will be zero on success.
pmchart(1) and
pcp.conf(5).