XMESSAGE(1)XMESSAGE(1)NAME
xmessage - display a message or query in a window (X-based
/bin/echo)
SYNOPSIS
xmessage [ -buttons label1[:value1],label2[:value2],... ]
[ options ] -file filename
xmessage [ -buttons label1[:value1],label2[:value2],... ]
[ options ] message ...
DESCRIPTION
Xmessage displays a window containing a message from the
command line, a file, or standard input. Along the lower
edge of the message is row of buttons; clicking the left
mouse button on any of these buttons will cause xmessage
to exit. Which button was pressed is returned in the exit
status and, optionally, by writing the label of the button
to standard output.
Xmessage is typically used by shell scripts to display
information to the user or to ask the user to make a
choice.
OPTIONS
These are the command line options that xmessage under-
stands.
-buttons button,button,...
This option will cause xmessage to create one but-
ton for each comma-separated button argument. The
corresponding resource is buttons. Each button
consists of a label optionally followed by a colon
and an exit value. The label is the name of the
Command button widget created and will be the
default text displayed to the user. Since this is
the name of the widget it may be used to change
any of the resources associated with that button.
The exit value will be returned by xmessage if
that button is selected. The default exit value
is 100 plus the button number. Buttons are num-
bered from the left starting with one. The
default string if no -buttons option is given is
okay:0.
-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.
-file filename
File to display. The corresponding resource is
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file. A filename of `-' reads from standard
input. If this option is not supplied, xmessage
will display all non-option arguments in the style
of echo. Either -file or a message on the command
line should be provided, but not both.
-print This will cause the program to print the label of
the button pressed to standard output. Equivalent
to setting the printValue resource to TRUE. This
is one way to get feedback as to which button was
pressed.
WIDGET HIERARCHY
Knowing the name and position in the hierarchy of each
widget is useful when specifying resources for them. In
the chart below, the class and name of each widget is
given.
Xmessage (xmessage)
Form form
Text message
Command (label1)
Command (label2)
.
.
.
RESOURCES
Xmessage has a few top-level application resources that
allow customizations that are specific to xmessage.
file A String resource specifying the file to display.
buttons A String resource specifying the buttons to dis-
play. See the -buttons command-line option.
defaultButton
A String resource specifying a default button by
label.
printValue
A Boolean resource that determines whether or not
the label of the button pressed to exit the pro-
gram is printed. The default is FALSE.
ACTIONSexit(value)
exit immediately with an exit status of value
(default 0). This action can be used with trans-
lations to provide alternate ways of exiting xmes-
sage.
default-exit()
exit immediately with the exit status specified by
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the default button. If there is no default but-
ton, this action has no effect.
EXIT STATUS
If it detects an error, xmessage returns 1, so this value
should not be used with a button.
SEE ALSOX(1), echo(1), cat(1)AUTHORS
Chris Peterson, MIT Project Athena
Stephen Gildea, X Consortium
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