How to Use Zenity

Definition of Zenity

Zenity is a Linux / Unix command that uses dialog boxes to make shell script more graphical to end-users.

Here is a link to the Wikipedia definition of the Zenity command: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenity

Features of Zenity

There are many different types of dialog boxes that the Zenity command can create. The following is a table that uses options (starting with -- symbol immediately followed by a word to indicate the type dialog box to generate. You are encouraged to use the online man pages to refer to all options, but here are a couple of options:

--calendar	Display calendar dialog
--entry	Display text entry dialog
--error	Display error dialog
--file-selection	Display file selection dialog
--info	Display info dialog
--list	Display list dialog
--notification	Display notification icon
--progress	Display progress indication dialog
--question	Display question dialog
--text-info	Display text information dialog
--warning	Display warning dialog
--scale	Display scale dialog

Adding the --text option provides the dialog box to contain text to provide information for the user (output, or helping guide the user when prompting for a question).

Don't Make it Complicated

Using Zenity is easy - don't make it complicated!

For example, think of Zenity as a replacement for the echo command to display output. You can use --info to display standard input, and --error to display standard error messages.

To obtain input, think of Zenity as a replacement for the read command. You can use --entry to prompt the user for input. When the user enters text and clicks the OK button, or presses the <ENTER> key, zenity will return the value of that entered text.

To store it into a variable to be used later in the program, you can use command substitution (enough said, since this is being used for an assignment! You figure it out :) ... ).

To obtain more options with this command, you should use the man pages... (eg. man zenity).

Simple Examples

Displaying Output

zenity --info --text "Here is an example of using zenity command to display text in a dialog box instead instead of a shell..."

Here is output from above command:

Prompting User for Input

zenity --entry --text "Please enter your full name"

Here is input dialog box for user to enter input:

Displaying Text Over Several Lines

zenity --info --text "Sentence1\n\nSentence2\n\nSentence3"

Here is output from above command. Notice how each sentence appears on a separate line. The "\n" character represents a new-line:

Have fun :)

Murray Saul