How to Use Zenity

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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


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 :) ... ).

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:

Zenity info.png

Prompting User for Input

zenity --entry --text "Please enter your full name"
Here is input dialog box for user to enter input:

Zenity entry.png