PMQUERY(1)PMQUERY(1)NAME
pmconfirm, pmmessage, pmquery - general purpose dialog box
SYNOPSIS
pmconfirm [-c] [-b button-name] [-B default-button-name] [-t string]
[-file filename] [-icon icontype] [-font font] [-header titlebar-
string] [-useslider] [-noslider] [-noframe] [-exclusive]
pmmessage [-buttons label1[:value1][,label2[:value2][,...]]] [-center]
[-nearmouse] [-default button] [-file filename] [-print] [-timeout sec]
message...
pmquery [-input] [all above options...] [message...]
DESCRIPTIONpmquery provides a command-line-option compatible implementation of the
xconfirm and xmessage tools, using a look-and-feel that is consistent
with pmchart. Several extensions to the functionality of the original
tools have been made, in order to improve their specific utility for
pmchart, but wherever possible the original semantics remain.
pmconfirm displays a line of text for each -t argument specified (or a
file when the -file argument is used), and a button for each -b argu‐
ment specified. When one of the buttons is pressed, the label of that
button is written to pmquery's standard output. This provides a means
of communication/feedback from within shell scripts and a means to dis‐
play useful information to a user from an application.
pmmessage displays a window containing a message from the command line,
a file, or standard input. It additionally allows buttons to be asso‐
ciated with an exit status, and only optionally will write the label of
the button to standard output.
pmquery extends the above tools to additionally support limited user
input, as free form text. In this -input mode, any text entered will
be output when the default button is pressed. A default text can be
entered using the same mechanisms as the other tools.
Command line options are available to specify font style, frame style,
modality and one of several different icons to be presented for tai‐
lored visual feedback to the user.
-c or -center
Center the window on the display.
-nearmouse
Pop up the window near the mouse cursor.
-b button-name
Displays a button with the label button-name. If button-name is
the empty string, the button in that position is not displayed.
If no -b arguments are present, the default is a button with the
label Continue. The exit status associated with button-name is
zero.
-B button-name
Displays a button with the label button-name and specifies it as
the button to be activated when enter is pressed. The exit status
associated with button-name is zero.
-buttons button,button,...
This option will create one button for each comma-separated button
argument. Each button consists of a label optionally followed by
a colon and an exit value. The exit value will be returned if
that button is selected. The default exit value is 100 plus the
button number. Buttons are numbered from the left starting with
one.
-default label
Defines the button with a matching label to be the default. If
not specified there is no default. The corresponding resource is
defaultButton. Pressing Return anywhere in the xmessage window
will activate the default button. The default button has a wider
border than the others.
-t message
Displays message. Any number of strings can be listed on the com‐
mand line (each must be preceded with the -t option).
-file filename
Displays the file filename. All -t options will be ignored. A
filename of `-' reads from standard input.
-icon icontype
Displays the icon icontype where icontype is one of: info, error,
question, warning, critical. action is also accepted as a synonym
for error for backward compatibility. pmquery introduces the
additional archive and host icon types as well as the original
xconfirm types listed earlier.
-font fontname
Use fontname as the font. This option is only available when
using the X Window System.
-header string
Use string as the window title.
-print
This causes the program to write the label of the button pressed
to standard output. It is the default behaviour for pmconfirm and
pmquery.
-noprint
This causes the program to not write the label of the button
pressed to standard output. It is the default behaviour for
pmmessage.
-geometry geometry-string
This provides xconfirm with an X-compatible geometry string speci‐
fication. This option is only available when using the X Window
System.
-useslider
When displaying a file, always use a slider instead of determining
automatically whether a slider is necessary.
-noslider
Do not create a slider, and clip text to the window size, instead
of determining automatically whether a slider is necessary..
-noframe
Do not display a frame around the contents.
-exclusive
Grab the keyboard/pointer and do not allow further input until a
button is pressed.
-timeout secs
Exit with status 0 after secs seconds if the user has not clicked
on a button yet. The corresponding resource is timeout.
EXAMPLES
The following shell script will display a window with an information
icon, asking the user a yes or no question with "Yes" as the default.
#! /bin/sh
case `pmquery -t "Really power down?" -b No -B Yes -icon question
in
Yes) shutdown;;
No) ;;
esac
A second example, which prompts for a hostname then starts a terminal
with an ssh session connected to the requested host.
#! /bin/sh
host=`pmquery -input -icon host -b Cancel -B OK \
-header "Remote Terminal - Secure Shell"
[ "$host" = "Cancel" -o -z "$host" ] && exit
gnome-terminal -e "ssh $host"
ENVIRONMENTpmquery is an excellent choice of utility for the "PCP_XCONFIRM_PROG"
Performance Co-Pilot configuration parameter (refer to pcp.conf(4) for
details).
Note that PCP_XCONFIRM_PROG will be automatically set to pmquery inside
tools like pmchart, unless PCP_XCONFIRM_PROG is already set in the
environment.
EXIT STATUS
If it detects an error, pmquery always returns 1, so this value should
not be associated with a button. Unless -button option has not been
used, the return code will be zero on success.
SEE ALSOpmchart(1), xconfirm(1), xmessage(1), pcp.conf(4).
Performance Co-Pilot PMQUERY(1)
