“kdialog” is a command-line tool that allows you to display graphical dialog boxes from within shell scripts. It is part of the KDE desktop environment, which is a popular open-source desktop environment for Linux and Unix-like operating systems.
The kdialog tool provides a simple way to create dialog boxes, such as message boxes, input boxes, and file selection dialogs, that can be used to interact with the user in a shell script. This allows developers to create shell scripts that can be run on a Linux or Unix-like system with a graphical user interface, and provide an easy way to interact with the user. The tool also supports different types of dialogs like warning, error, information, and so on and also can be used to display progress bars.
It is useful for shell scripts that are intended to be run on a Linux or Unix-like system with a KDE desktop environment, as it allows for a more user-friendly and interactive experience.
If you encounter the below error while running the command kdialog:
kdialog: command not found
you may try installing the below package as per your choice of distribution:
| Distribution | Command |
|---|---|
| Debian | apt-get install kdialog |
| Ubuntu | apt-get install kdialog |
| Arch Linux | pacman -S kdialog |
| Kali Linux | apt-get install kdialog |
| CentOS | yum install kdialog |
| Fedora | dnf install kdialog |
| Raspbian | apt-get install kdialog |
kdialog Command Examples
1. Open a dialog box displaying a specific message:
# kdialog --msgbox "message" "optional_detailed_message"
2. Open a question dialog with a `yes` and `no` button, returning `0` and `1`, respectively:
# kdialog --yesno "message"
3. Open a warning dialog with a `yes`, `no`, and `cancel` button, returning `0`, `1`, or `2` respectively:
# kdialog --warningyesnocancel "message"
4. Open an input dialog box and print the input to stdout when `OK` is pressed:
# kdialog --inputbox "message" "optional_default_text"
5. Open a dialog to prompt for a specific password and print it to stdout:
# kdialog --password "message"
6. Open a dialog containing a specific dropdown menu and print the selected item to stdout:
# kdialog --combobx "message" "item1" "item2" "..."
7. Open a file chooser dialog and print the selected file’s path to stdout:
# kdialog --getopenfilename
8. Open a progressbar dialog and print a DBUS reference for communication to stdout:
# kdialog --progressbar "message"