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<title>Xdialog documentation - FAQ</title>
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<h1>Xdialog documentation - FAQ</h1>
<hr width=30%>
</center>
<p>
<p align="justify">Xdialog FAQ v1.51, compiled by Thierry Godefroy <<a href="mailto:xdialog@free.fr">xdialog@free.fr</a>>
<hr>
<h2>FAQ contents:</h2>
<ol>
<li><a href="#Q01">Can I use Xdialog from a Perl script ?</a>
<li><a href="#Q02">How to recover the output of Xdialog in the Perl script then ?</a>
<li><a href="#Q03">How to make Xdialog windows to appear at a given position (in absolute coordinates) on the screen ?</a>
<li><a href="#Q04">What are the ways to customize Xdialog windows look for a given script ?</a>
<li><a href="#Q05">How could I make the printer used by Xdialog user-dependant ?</a>
<li><a href="#Q06">Why does the --fill option of Xdialog sometimes fails to make the text fit the boxes ?</a>
<li><a href="#Q07">How to force the use of fixed width fonts in all Xdialog widgets ?</a>
<li><a href="#Q08">How to select hidden files/directories with the file/directory selector ?</a>
<li><a href="#Q09">How to build dynamically a menu using Xdialog ?</a>
<li><a href="#Q10">I just compiled Xdialog but I sometimes get core dumps or segfaults with some menus: what's wrong with it ?</a>
</ol>
<hr>
<ol>
<h2><li><a name="Q01">Can I use Xdialog from a Perl script ?</a></h2>
<p align="justify">Yes, in fact you can use Xdialog from any scripting language supporting external command calls.
<br>
<hr>
<h2><li><a name="Q02">How to recover the output of Xdialog in the Perl script then ?</a></h2>
<p align="justify">I found three ways (but there are perhaps more; I'm not a Perl guru !):
<p align="justify">a.- Using the "system" command (not the best way IMHO):
<p align="justify">Just redirect the Xdialog output into a temp file, then use the "open" command to read the result, put it in a table and use it (here just printing it):
<pre>
system('Xdialog --inputbox "Please enter something below:" 0 0 2>/tmp/my_temp_file');
if ($? == 0) {
open(RESULT, "/tmp/my_temp_file");
@result=<RESULT>;
close(RESULT);
print @result;
}
</pre><p align="justify">Finally, destroy the temp file (may be there is a better way to do this...):<pre>
system("rm -f /tmp/my_temp_file");
</pre>
<p align="justify">b.- Using backquotes (just like in "sh": IMHO the best way...):
<pre>
$result=`Xdialog --stdout --inputbox "Please enter something below:" 0 0`;
if ($? == 0) {
print $result;
}
</pre>
<p align="justify">c.- Using "open" and streams (useful if you want the result to be put in a table):
<pre>
open(RESULT, 'Xdialog --stdout --inputbox "Please enter something below:" 0 0 |');
if ($? == 0) {
@result=<RESULT>;
print @result;
}
close(RESULT);
</pre>
<p align="justify">Note the use of <a href="common.html#OUTPUT">--stdout</a> in (b) and (c) so to send the result returned by Xdialog to the proper output stream...
<br>
<hr>
<h2><li><a name="Q03">How to make Xdialog windows to appear at a given position (in absolute coordinates) on the screen ?</a></h2>
<p align="justify">There are two ways but the result is not guaranteed as some window managers will simply ignore or override the GTK+ placement requirements and place the windows where they feel like.
<p align="justify">a.- As of v2.0.0, Xdialog takes into account the origin coordinates given into a "-geometry"-like parameter; e.g. passing 240x120+150+80 as a size parameter to Xdialog will place its window (which size will be 240x120 pixels) at Xorg=150 and Yorg=80. In this example, you may as well let Xdialog auto-size by passing 0x0+150+80 instead. E.g;:
<pre>
Xdialog --title ppp.log --tailbox /var/log/ppp.log 0x0+150+80
</pre>
<p align="justify">b.- Some window manager do allow to place a window with a given title or class name at a given position on the screen. Xdialog therefore provides a way to set its window manager class name through the <a href="common.html#WMCLASS">--wmclass</a> option. E.g.:
<pre>
Xdialog --wmclass ppp_log_tailbox --title ppp.log --auto-placement \
--tailbox /var/log/ppp.log 0 0
</pre>
<p align="justify">Now this Xdialog tailbox is registered with the "ppp_log_tailbox" name. With twm and fvwm(2/95) you will have to edit the .Xdefaults file in your home directory, adding "ppp_log_tailbox*geometry" parameters so to set the Xdialog position and/or size. With sawfish, just move the Xdialog window to the place of your choice, pull down the window manager options menu (clicking on a given button in the Xdialog window title bar or on the title bar itself: this is user configurable and may also depend from your sawfish theme) and choose the "History"/"Remember position" item in the menu; the next time an Xdialog window with a "ppp_log_tailbox" wmclass will be open, it will pop up at the remembered position...
<br>
<hr>
<h2><li><a name="Q04">What are the ways to customize Xdialog windows look for a given script ?</a></h2>
<p>a.- Windows decorations:
<p align="justify">Through <a href="common.html#WMCLASS">--wmclass</a> option provided your window manager makes use of the wmclass name of the windows so to decorate them differently. The method is the same as in 3 (just use the Xdialog <a href="common.html#WMCLASS">--wmclass</a> option and RTFM of your window manager; hints: "winoptions" editing for IceWM, window manager option menu use for sawfish, ".Xdefaults" editing for twm/fvwm, etc...).
<p>b.- GTK+ themes:
<p align="justify">As of v1.4.6, Xdialog accepts a new <a href="common.html#RCFILE">--rc-file</a> option. Thanks to this feature Xdialog can be instructed to use a given GTK+ theme (which may therefore be different from the theme currently in use).
<p>c.- User defined icons:
<p align="justify">As of v1.4.6, Xdialog accepts the new <a href="transient.html#ICON">--icon</a> option that will make a user defined icon (in XPM format only) to appear on the left of the <a href="syntax.html#TEXT"><text></a> (for the Xdialog box options using this parameter, the box options without a <a href="syntax.html#TEXT"><text></a> parameter in their syntax are not taking the <a href="transient.html#ICON">--icon</a> option into account).
<br>
<hr>
<h2><li><a name="Q05">How could I make the printer used by Xdialog user-dependant ?</a></h2>
<p align="justify">The name of the printer to be used by Xdialog is to be passed after the <a href="transient.html#PRINT">--print</a> option in the Xdialog command line. Nothing prevents you to make this printer name a variable which will be set via an sh include file. Here is an example of how to do it:
<pre>
#!/bin/sh
# Sample script with per-user costumizable printer name.
# First set the default printer.
XDIALOG_PRINTER="lp"
# Check if the user wants to use its own printer.
if [ -f ~/.xdialog-printer] ; then
. ~/.xdialog-printer
fi
Xdialog --print $XDIALOG_PRINTER .../...
</pre>
<hr width="30%">
<p align="justify">Then for each user, the following <b>.xdialog-printer</b> file may be put in its home directory:
<pre>
# /home/foo/.xdialog-printer include file for user "foo".
# Let's use the "bar" printer...
XDIALOG_PRINTER="bar"
</pre>
<hr>
<h2><li><a name="Q06">Why</a> does the <a href="common.html#JUSTIFICATION">--fill</a> option of Xdialog sometimes fails to make the text fit the boxes ?</h2>
<p align="justify">Because this option must use the GTK+ auto-wrapping mode and alas this only really works when the box auto-sizing feature of GTK+ is used. The work around is therefore to let GTK+ calculate the size of the box by passing a 0x0 (or 0 0) size to Xdialog.
</pre>
<hr>
<h2><li><a name="Q07">How</a> to force the use of fixed width fonts in all Xdialog widgets ?</h2>
<p align="justify">With some scripts written for <b>dialog</b>, some pre-formatted text may appear mis-aligned in Xdialog menus. This is because GTK+ uses proportional fonts while the console tools such as dialog may only use fixed width fonts.
<p align="justify">While the <a href="transient.html#FIXEDFONT">--fixed-font</a> intructs Xdialog to use a fixed width font (more exactly a monospacing one) into the text windows of the <a href="box.html#TAILBOX">tailbox</a>, <a href="box.html#TEXTBOX">textbox</a> and <a href="box.html#EDITBOX">editbox</a> widgets, the labels and backtitle of Xdialog still use the font defined in the GTK+ theme in force when Xdialog is started. There are two ways around this, by using either the (c)dialog <a href="compatibility.html#HIGH">high compatibility</a> mode, or the <a href="common.html#RCFILE">--rc-file</a> option together with a gtkrc file where the font parameter is set for a monospacing font name. E.g.:
<pre>
style 'fixed_font' {
font = "-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-*-*-*-m-70-iso8859-1"
}
widget '*' style 'fixed_font'
</pre>
<hr>
<h2><li><a name="Q08">How</a> to select hidden files/directories with the <a href="box.html#FSELECT">file</a>/<a href="box.html#DSELECT">directory</a> selector ?</h2>
<p align="justify">In the exact same way as with any software using the GTK+ file selector: type a "." into the text entry field and then press the TAB key: the hidden files/directories will then be presented into the selector lists, allowing you to select one with the mouse.
<p align="justify">Also, appending ".*" to the default directory name into the Xdialog command line, makes all the hidden file/directory names (and only them) to appear into the fselect/dselect widgets when poped up. E.g.:
<pre>
Xdialog --fselect "/home/foo/.*" 0 0
</pre>
<hr>
<h2><li><a name="Q09">How</a> to build dynamically a menu using Xdialog ?</h2>
<p align="justify">You may need to build dynamically a menu for some scripts. Although Xdialog does not accept to take its parameters from a file (in which you could put the menu entries), nothing prevents you to build dynamically a sub-script containing a Xdialog command, and then call it from you main script. Take a look to the <a href="samples/xlock-wrapper">xlock-wrapper</a> script which uses such a trick.
<br>
<hr>
<h2><li><a name="Q10">I</a> just compiled Xdialog but I sometimes get core dumps or segfaults with some menus: what's wrong with it ?</h2>
<p align="justify">There is currently no known bug in Xdialog code (and I use Xdialog on four different Linux systems without problem so far). But here are some hints on why it may fail to run on some systems:
<p align="justify">a.- Xdialog can <b>theorically</b> be used with GTK+ v1.2.0 and upper but it has only been extensively tested with GTK+ v1.2.8 to v1.2.10: if you are using an older GTK+ version, please upgrade (some segfaults have been reported when using GTK+ v1.2.6 that disappeared once upgraded to GTK+ v1.2.8).
<p align="justify">b.- GCC is a fine compiler, but GCC v2.95 is broken ! It sometimes fails to notice that the stack has been tidied on return of self-tidying functions (mostly math functions)... As a result, compiling any program with the <b>-fomit-frame-pointer</b> flag may result in instable binaries (or even instable Linux kernel: I recompiled mine with <b>-fno-omit-frame-pointer</b> and some strange crashes I got in the past are now history !): If you compile Xdialog with this flag you <b>WILL</b> get into trouble... Please use the <b>-fno-omit-frame-pointer</b> flag when compiling Xdialog with gcc v2.95.x (as of Xdialog v1.5.0, the <b>configure</b> script takes care of adding automatically this compile option when a bugged gcc version is detected) !
<br>The x86 binary RPMs on http://xdialog.free.fr are compiled (on a Mandrake v7.2 distro) with the proper settings and dynamically linked to glibc v2.1.3, XFree86 v4.1.0 and GTK+ v1.2.10.
<p align="justify">If you meet the requirements above and still get segfaults with Xdialog, then this is probably a Xdialog bug that you should report to <a href="mailto:xdialog@free.fr">me</a>; please be precise and give example(s) of how to reproduce the bug (I am generally pretty quick to diagnoze/fix bugs provided they were properly reported).
<br>
</ul>
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