{
    "mode": "man",
    "parameter": "whiptail",
    "section": "1",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/whiptail/1/json",
    "generated": "2026-06-15T13:12:42Z",
    "synopsis": "whiptail  [ --title title ] [ --backtitle backtitle ] [ --clear ] [ --default-item string ] [\n--defaultno ] [ --fb ] [ --nocancel ] [ --yes-button text ] [ --no-button text ] [  --ok-but‐‐\nton  text  ] [ --cancel-button text ] [ --noitem [ ] --output-fd fd ] [ --separate-output ] [\n--scrolltext ] [ --topleft ] box-options",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "whiptail - display dialog boxes from shell scripts\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SYNOPSIS": {
            "content": "whiptail  [ --title title ] [ --backtitle backtitle ] [ --clear ] [ --default-item string ] [\n--defaultno ] [ --fb ] [ --nocancel ] [ --yes-button text ] [ --no-button text ] [  --ok-but‐‐\nton  text  ] [ --cancel-button text ] [ --noitem [ ] --output-fd fd ] [ --separate-output ] [\n--scrolltext ] [ --topleft ] box-options\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "whiptail is a program that will let you present a variety of questions  or  display  messages\nusing  dialog  boxes  from  a shell script. Currently, these types of dialog boxes are imple‐\nmented:\n\nyes/no box, menu box, input box, message box, text box, info box,  checklist  box,  radiolist\nbox, gauge box, and password box.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "OPTIONS": {
            "content": "",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "--clear",
                    "content": "The  screen  will be cleared to the screen attribute on exit.  This doesn't work in an\nxterm (and descendants) if alternate screen switching is enabled, because in that case\nslang writes to (and clears) an alternate screen.\n",
                    "long": "--clear"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--defaultno",
                    "content": "The dialog box will open with the cursor over the No button.\n\n--default-item string\nSet   the  default  item in a menu box.  Normally the first item in the box is the de‐\nfault.\n\n--fb, --fullbuttons\nUse full buttons.  (By default, whiptail uses compact buttons).\n",
                    "long": "--defaultno"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--nocancel",
                    "content": "The dialog box won't have a Cancel button.\n\n--yes-button text\nSet the text of the Yes button.\n\n--no-button text\nSet the text of the No button.\n\n--ok-button text\nSet the text of the Ok button.\n\n--cancel-button text\nSet the text of the Cancel button.\n",
                    "long": "--nocancel"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--noitem",
                    "content": "The menu, checklist and radiolist  widgets  will  display  tags  only,  not  the  item\nstrings. The menu widget still needs some items specified, but checklist and radiolist\nexpect only tag and status.\n",
                    "long": "--noitem"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--notags",
                    "content": "Don't display tags in the menu, checklist and radiolist widgets.\n",
                    "long": "--notags"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--separate-output",
                    "content": "For checklist widgets, output result one line at a time, with no quoting.  This facil‐\nitates parsing by another program.\n\n--output-fd fd\nDirect  output  to the given file descriptor.  Most whiptail scripts write to standard\nerror, but  error  messages  may  also  be written there, depending on your script.\n\n--title title\nSpecifies a title string to be displayed at the top of the dialog box.\n\n--backtitle backtitle\nSpecifies a backtitle string to be displayed on  the  backdrop,  at  the  top  of  the\nscreen.\n",
                    "long": "--separate-output"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--scrolltext",
                    "content": "Force the display of a vertical scrollbar.\n",
                    "long": "--scrolltext"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--topleft",
                    "content": "Put window in top-left corner.\n",
                    "long": "--topleft"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-h --help",
                    "content": "Print a help message and exit.\n",
                    "flag": "-h",
                    "long": "--help"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-v --version",
                    "content": "Print version information and exit.\n",
                    "flag": "-v",
                    "long": "--version"
                },
                {
                    "name": "Box Options",
                    "content": "--yesno text height width\nA yes/no dialog box of size height rows by width columns will be displayed. The string\nspecified by text is displayed inside the dialog box. If this string is too long to be\nfit  in  one line, it will be automatically divided into multiple lines at appropriate\nplaces. The text string may also contain the sub-string  \"\\n\"  or  newline  characters\n`\\n'  to control line breaking explicitly.  This dialog box is useful for asking ques‐\ntions that require the user to answer either yes or no.  The dialog box has a Yes but‐\nton and a No button, in which the user can switch between by pressing the TAB key.\n\n--msgbox text height width\nA  message box is very similar to a yes/no box.  The only difference between a message\nbox and a yes/no box is that a message box has only a single OK button.  You  can  use\nthis  dialog box to display any message you like.  After reading the message, the user\ncan press the ENTER key so that whiptail will exit and the calling  shell  script  can\ncontinue its operation.\n\n--infobox text height width\nAn info box is basically a message box.  However, in this case, whiptail will exit im‐\nmediately after displaying the message to the user. The screen  is  not  cleared  when\nwhiptail  exits, so that the message will remain on the screen until the calling shell\nscript clears it later. This is useful when you want to inform the user that some  op‐\nerations are carrying on that may require some time to finish.\n\n--inputbox text height width [init]\nAn input box is useful when you want to ask questions that require the user to input a\nstring as the answer. If init is supplied it is used to initialize the  input  string.\nWhen  inputing  the string, the BACKSPACE key can be used to correct typing errors. If\nthe input string is longer than the width of the dialog box, the input field  will  be\nscrolled. On exit, the input string will be printed on stderr.\n\n--passwordbox text height width [init]\nA password box is similar to an input box, except the text the user enters is not dis‐\nplayed. This is useful when prompting for passwords or other sensitive information. Be\naware that if anything is passed in \"init\", it will be visible in the system's process\ntable to casual snoopers. Also, it is very confusing to the user to provide them  with\na default password they cannot see. For these reasons, using \"init\" is highly discour‐\naged.\n\n--textbox file height width\nA text box lets you display the contents of a text file in a dialog box. It is like  a\nsimple  text  file  viewer.  The  user can move through the file by using the UP/DOWN,\nPGUP/PGDN and HOME/END keys available on most keyboards.  If the lines are too long to\nbe  displayed  in  the  box, the LEFT/RIGHT keys can be used to scroll the text region\nhorizontally. For more convenience, forward and backward searching functions are  also\nprovided.\n\n--menu text height width menu-height [ tag item ] ...\nAs its name suggests, a menu box is a dialog box that can be used to present a list of\nchoices in the form of a menu for the user to choose. Each menu entry  consists  of  a\ntag  string  and an item string. The tag gives the entry a name to distinguish it from\nthe other entries in the menu. The item is a short description of the option that  the\nentry  represents.  The user can move between the menu entries by pressing the UP/DOWN\nkeys, the first letter of the tag as a hot-key. There  are  menu-height  entries  dis‐\nplayed  in  the  menu at one time, but the menu will be scrolled if there are more en‐\ntries than that. When whiptail exits, the tag of the chosen menu entry will be printed\non stderr.\n\n--checklist text height width list-height [ tag item status ] ...\nA  checklist box is similar to a menu box in that there are multiple entries presented\nin the form of a menu.  You can select and deselect items using the  SPACE  key.   The\ninitial on/off state of each entry is specified by status.  On exit, a list of the tag\nstrings of those entries that are turned on will be printed on stderr.\n\n\n--radiolist text height width list-height  [ tag item status ] ...\nA radiolist box is similar to a menu box.  The only difference is that you  can  indi‐\ncate which entry is currently selected, by setting its status to on.\n\n\n--gauge text height width percent\nA  gauge box displays a meter along the bottom of the box.  The meter indicates a per‐\ncentage.  New percentages are read from standard input, one integer per line.  The me‐\nter  is  updated to reflect each new percentage.  If stdin is XXX, the first following\nline is a percentage and subsequent lines up to another XXX are used for a new prompt.\nThe gauge exits when EOF is reached on stdin.\n\n"
                }
            ]
        },
        "NOTES": {
            "content": "whiptail  interprets  arguments  starting with a dash \"-\" as being arguments.  To avoid this,\nand start some text in, for example, a menubox item, with a dash, whiptail honours the getopt\nconvention  of  accepting  the special argument \"--\" which means that all following arguments\nwith dashes are to be treated verbatim and not parsed as options.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DIAGNOSTICS": {
            "content": "Exit status is 0 if whiptail is exited by pressing the Yes or OK button, and 1 if the  No  or\nCancel button is pressed. Otherwise, if errors occur inside whiptail or whiptail is exited by\npressing the ESC key, the exit status is 255.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "AUTHOR": {
            "content": "Based on the man page for dialog(1) by:\n\nSavio Lam (lam836@cs.cuhk.hk) - version 0.3\n\nStuart Herbert (S.Herbert@sheffield.ac.uk) - patch for version 0.4\n\nModifications for whiptail by:\n\nEnrique Zanardi (ezanard@debian.org)\n\nAlastair McKinstry (mckinstry@debian.org)\n\n\n\nWhiptail Version 0.52.5                    31 January 2007                               WHIPTAIL(1)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "whiptail - display dialog boxes from shell scripts",
    "flags": [
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--clear",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "The screen will be cleared to the screen attribute on exit. This doesn't work in an xterm (and descendants) if alternate screen switching is enabled, because in that case slang writes to (and clears) an alternate screen."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--defaultno",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "The dialog box will open with the cursor over the No button. --default-item string Set the default item in a menu box. Normally the first item in the box is the de‐ fault. --fb, --fullbuttons Use full buttons. (By default, whiptail uses compact buttons)."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--nocancel",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "The dialog box won't have a Cancel button. --yes-button text Set the text of the Yes button. --no-button text Set the text of the No button. --ok-button text Set the text of the Ok button. --cancel-button text Set the text of the Cancel button."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--noitem",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "The menu, checklist and radiolist widgets will display tags only, not the item strings. The menu widget still needs some items specified, but checklist and radiolist expect only tag and status."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--notags",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Don't display tags in the menu, checklist and radiolist widgets."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--separate-output",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "For checklist widgets, output result one line at a time, with no quoting. This facil‐ itates parsing by another program. --output-fd fd Direct output to the given file descriptor. Most whiptail scripts write to standard error, but error messages may also be written there, depending on your script. --title title Specifies a title string to be displayed at the top of the dialog box. --backtitle backtitle Specifies a backtitle string to be displayed on the backdrop, at the top of the screen."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--scrolltext",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Force the display of a vertical scrollbar."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--topleft",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Put window in top-left corner."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-h",
            "long": "--help",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Print a help message and exit."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-v",
            "long": "--version",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Print version information and exit."
        }
    ],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": [],
    "tldr": {
        "source": "official",
        "description": "Display text-based dialog boxes from shell scripts.",
        "examples": [
            {
                "description": "Display a simple message",
                "command": "whiptail --title \"{{title}}\" --msgbox \"{{message}}\" {{height_in_chars}} {{width_in_chars}}"
            },
            {
                "description": "Display a boolean choice, returning the result through the exit code",
                "command": "whiptail --title \"{{title}}\" --yesno \"{{message}}\" {{height_in_chars}} {{width_in_chars}}"
            },
            {
                "description": "Customize the text on the yes/no buttons",
                "command": "whiptail --title \"{{title}}\" --yes-button \"{{text}}\" --no-button \"{{text}}\" --yesno \"{{message}}\" {{height_in_chars}} {{width_in_chars}}"
            },
            {
                "description": "Display a text input box",
                "command": "{{result_variable_name}}=\"$(whiptail --title \"{{title}}\" --inputbox \"{{message}}\" {{height_in_chars}} {{width_in_chars}} {{default_text}} 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3)\""
            },
            {
                "description": "Display a password input box",
                "command": "{{result_variable_name}}=\"$(whiptail --title \"{{title}}\" --passwordbox \"{{message}}\" {{height_in_chars}} {{width_in_chars}} 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3)\""
            },
            {
                "description": "Display a multiple-choice menu",
                "command": "{{result_variable_name}}=$(whiptail --title \"{{title}}\" --menu \"{{message}}\" {{height_in_chars}} {{width_in_chars}} {{menu_display_height}} {{\"value_1\" \"display_text_1\" \"value_2\" \"display_text_2\" ...}} 3>&1 1>&2 2>&3)"
            }
        ]
    }
}