Creating dialog boxes with the dialog utility

The dialog utility is used to create a basic-level graphical user interface. We can use this in shell script to create very useful programs.

To install the dialog utility in Debian or Ubuntu Linux, enter the following command:

$ sudo apt-get update$ sudo apt-get install l dialog

Similarly, enter the following command to install the utility dialog in CentOS or Red Hat Linux:

$ sudo yum install dialog

The typical syntax of the dialog command is as follows:

$ dialog --common-options --boxType "Text" Height Width                                   --box-specific-option

The common-options utility is used to set the background color, title, and so on in dialog boxes.

The option details are as follows:

• Text: The caption or contents of the box
• Height: The height of the dialog box
• Width: The width of the dialog box

Creating a message box (msgbox)

To create a simple message box, we can use the following command:

$ dialog --msgbox "This is a message." 10 50

Creating a...