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 create:

--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

The --text option is used to provide text in the dialog box for additional information to help the user.

Don't Make it Complicated

Using Zenity is easy.

For example, think of using Zenity as a replacement for the echo command to display output.

eg. 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: