How to show a GUI message box from a bash script in linux?

Question

I\'m writing a few little bash scripts under Ubuntu linux. I want to be able to run them from the GUI without needing a terminal window to enter any input or view any output

Answer 1

If you are using Ubuntu many distros the notify-send command will throw one of those nice perishable notifications in the top right corner. Like so:

notify-send "My name is bash and I rock da house"

B.e.a.utiful!

Answer 2

There is also dialog and the KDE version kdialog. dialog is used by slackware, so it might not be immediately available on other distributions.

Answer 3

Everyone mentions zenity, there seem to be many others. A mixed up but interesting list is at http://alternativeto.net/software/zenity/

First, an example of zenity featuring text formatting markup, window title, button label.

zenity \
--info \
--text="<span size=\"xx-large\">Time is $(date +%Hh%M).</span>\n\nGet your <b>coffee</b>." \
--title="Coffee time" \
--ok-label="Sip"

gxmessage

gxmessage "my text"

xmessage

xmessage is very old so it is stable and probably available in all distributions that use X (since it's distributed with X). It is customizable through X resources, for those that have been using Linux or Unix for long enough to know what it means (.Xdefaults, anyone ?).

xmessage -buttons Ok:0,"Not sure":1,Cancel:2 -default Ok -nearmouse "Is xmessage enough for the job ?" -timeout 10

kdialog

(not tested)

In a PPA

YAD: Zenity On Steroids [Display Graphical Dialogs From Shell Scripts] ~ Web Upd8: Ubuntu / Linux blog. Does not seem to auto-size dialogs.

echo My text | yad \
--text-info \
--width=400 \
--height=200

An bigger example

yad \
--title="Desktop entry editor" \
--text="Simple desktop entry editor" \
--form \
--field="Type:CB" \
--field="Name" \
--field="Generic name" \
--field="Comment" \
--field="Command:FL" \
--field="Icon" \
--field="In terminal:CHK" \
--field="Startup notify:CHK" "Application" "Name" "Generic name" "This is the comment" "/usr/bin/yad" "yad" FALSE TRUE \
--button="WebUpd8:2" \
--button="gtk-ok:0" \
--button="gtk-cancel:1"

Others not in Ubuntu standard repositories

• shellgui
• xdialog
• gtkdialog

Off-topic (for terminal)

whiptail --msgbox "my text" 10 20
dialog --msgbox "my text" 10 20

Feel free to edit.

Answer 4

Example bash script for using Gambas GTK/QT Controls(GUI Objects): The Gambas IDE can be used to design even large GUIs and act as a GUI server. Example expplications can be downloaded from the Gambas App store.
https://gambas.one/gambasfarm/?id=823&action=search

Answer 5

Kdialog and dialog are both good, but I'd recommend Zenity. Quick, easy, and much better looking the xmessage or dialog.

Answer 6

Here's a little Tcl script that will do what you want. The Wish interpreter should be installed by default on Ubuntu.

#!/usr/bin/wish
pack [label .msg -text [lindex $argv 0]]
pack [entry .ent]
bind .ent <KeyPress-Return> { puts [.ent get]; destroy . }
focus .ent

Call it like this:

myanswer=`gui-prompt "type your answer and press enter"`