[description] zenity is a program that will display GTK dialogs, and return (either in the return code, or on standard output) the users input. This allows you to present information, and ask for information from the user, from all manner of shell scripts.

For example, zenity --question will return either 0, 1 or 5, depending on whether the user pressed OK, Cancel or timeout has been reached. zenity --entry will output on standard output what the user typed into the text entry field.

Comprehensive documentation is also available in the GNOME Help Browser. [examples] Display a file selector with the title Select a file to remove. The file selected is returned on standard output.

    zenity --title="Select a file to remove" --file-selection

Display a text entry dialog with the title Select Host and the text Select the host you would like to flood-ping. The entered text is returned on standard output.

    zenity --title "Select Host" --entry --text "Select the host you would like to flood-ping"

Display a dialog, asking Microsoft Windows has been found! Would you like to remove it?. The return code will be 0 (true in shell) if OK is selected, and 1 (false) if Cancel is selected.

    zenity --question --title "Alert" --text "Microsoft Windows has been found! Would you like to remove it?"

Show the search results in a list dialog with the title Search Results and the text Finding all header files....

    find . -name '*.h' | zenity --list --title "Search Results" --text "Finding all header files.." --column "Files"

Show a passive notification

    zenity --notification --icon=software-update-available --text "System update necessary!"

Display a weekly shopping list in a check list dialog with Apples and Oranges pre selected

    zenity --list --checklist --column "Buy" --column "Item" TRUE Apples TRUE Oranges FALSE Pears FALSE Toothpaste

Display a progress dialog while searching for all the postscript files in your home directory

find $HOME -name '*.ps' | zenity --progress --pulsate [author]

Zenity was originally written by Glynn Foster <glynn.foster@sun.com>. It has since been maintained by a number of contributors since then.

This manual page was originally written by Ross Burton <ross@burtonini.com>. It currently contains portions which are automatically generated, and other portions written by its original author. [see also] dialog(1)