whiptail

Terminal dialog boxes for shell scripts

TLDR

Display a simple message box

$ whiptail --title "[title]" --msgbox "[message]" [height] [width]

Display a yes/no choice

$ whiptail --title "[title]" --yesno "[message]" [height] [width]

Customize yes/no button text

$ whiptail --title "[title]" --yes-button "[text]" --no-button "[text]" --yesno "[message]" [height] [width]

Display a text input box

$ result=$(whiptail --title "[title]" --inputbox "[message]" [height] [width] [default] 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3)

Display a password input box

$ result=$(whiptail --title "[title]" --passwordbox "[message]" [height] [width] 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3)

Display a menu with choices

$ result=$(whiptail --title "[title]" --menu "[message]" [height] [width] [menu_height] "val1" "text1" "val2" "text2" 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3)

SYNOPSIS

whiptail [--title title] [--backtitle backtitle] box-type [box-options] height width

whiptail displays text-based dialog boxes from shell scripts, providing a user-friendly interface for input and selection. It creates ncurses-based dialogs that work in terminal environments, supporting various dialog types including messages, input boxes, menus, and progress bars.Output from input dialogs goes to stderr, requiring file descriptor redirection (3>&1 1>&2 2>&3) to capture in shell variables. Exit codes indicate user choices (0 for OK/Yes, 1 for Cancel/No).

PARAMETERS

--title title

Dialog title

--backtitle text

Background title

--msgbox text height width

Display message with OK button

--yesno text height width

Display yes/no dialog

--inputbox text height width [init]

Text input dialog

--passwordbox text height width

Password input (hidden text)

--menu text height width menu-height [tag item]...

Selection menu

--checklist text height width list-height [tag item status]...

Multiple choice checklist

--radiolist text height width list-height [tag item status]...

Radio button list

--gauge text height width percent

Progress bar

--yes-button text

Custom yes button label

--no-button text

Custom no button label

CAVEATS

Dialog dimensions must be specified in characters and should fit the terminal. Results go to stderr, requiring fd redirection for capture. A lightweight alternative to dialog with fewer features but smaller dependencies.

HISTORY

Created as a lightweight, newt-based reimplementation of the dialog utility. Part of the newt library developed by Red Hat. Commonly used in Debian installer and system configuration scripts due to its small footprint.