kmquery
provides a command-line-option compatible implementation of the
xconfirm
and
xmessage
tools, using a look-and-feel that is consistent with
kmchart.
Several extensions to the functionality of the original tools have been made,
in order to improve their specific utility for
kmchart,
but wherever possible the original semantics remain.
kmconfirm
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
argument specified.
When one of the buttons is pressed, the label of that button is written to
kmquery's
standard output.
This provides a means of communication/feedback from within shell
scripts and a means to display useful information to a user from
an application.
kmmessage
displays a window containing a message from the command line, a file,
or standard input.
It additionally allows buttons to be associated with an exit status,
and only optionally will write the label of the button to standard output.
kmquery
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 tailored
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 command 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.
kmquery
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
kmconfirm
and
kmquery.
-noprint
This causes the program to not write the label of the button pressed to
standard output.
It is the default behaviour for
kmmessage.
-geometry geometry-string
This provides xconfirm with an X-compatible geometry string specification.
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 `kmquery -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.
kmquery
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
kmquery
inside tools like
kmchart,
unless PCP_XCONFIRM_PROG is already set in the environment.
EXIT STATUS
If it detects an error,
kmquery
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.