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
The xmessage program displays a window containing a mes-
sage 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.
The program is typically used by shell scripts to display
information to the user or to ask the user to make a
choice.
Unless a size is specified, xmessage sizes itself to fit
the message, up to a maximum size. If the message is too
big for the window, xmessage will display scroll bars.
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
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 write 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.
-center Pop up the window at the center of the screen.
Equivalent to setting the center resource to TRUE.
-nearmouse
Pop up the window near the mouse cursor. Equiva-
lent to setting the nearMouse resource to TRUE.
-timeout secs
Exit with status 0 after secs seconds if the user
has not clicked on a button yet. The correspond-
ing resource is timeout.
WIDGET HIERARCHY
Knowing the name and position in the hierarchy of each
widget is useful when specifying resources for them. In
the following chart, the class and name of each widget is
given.
Xmessage (xmessage)
Form form
Text message
Command (label1)
Command (label2)
.
.
.
RESOURCES
The program has a few top-level application resources that
allow customizations that are specific to xmessage.
file A String specifying the file to display.
buttons A String specifying the buttons to display. See
the -buttons command-line option.
defaultButton
A String specifying a default button by label.
printValue
A Boolean value specifying whether the label of
the button pressed to exit the program is written
to standard output. The default is FALSE.
center A Boolean value specifying whether to pop up the
window at the center of the screen. The default
is FALSE.
nearMouse
A Boolean value specifying whether to pop up the
window near the mouse cursor. The default is
FALSE.
timeout The number of seconds after which to exit with
status 0. The default is 0, which means never
time out.
maxHeight (class Maximum)
The maximum height of the text part of the window
in pixels, used if no size was specified in the
geometry. The default is 0, which means use 70%
of the height of the screen.
maxWidth (class Maximum)
The maximum width of the text part of the window
in pixels, used if no size was specified in the
geometry. The default is 0, which means use 70%
of the width of the screen.
ACTIONS
exit(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
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 ALSO
X(1) echo(1) cat(1)
AUTHORS
Chris Peterson, MIT Project Athena
Stephen Gildea, X Consortium