pmquery(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EXAMPLES | ENVIRONMENT | EXIT STATUS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

PMQUERY(1)               General Commands Manual              PMQUERY(1)

NAME         top

       pmconfirm, pmmessage, pmquery - general purpose dialog box

SYNOPSIS         top

       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...]

DESCRIPTION         top

       pmquery 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 option specified
       (or a file when the -file option is used), and a button for each
       -b option 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 display 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 associated 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 tailored visual feedback to the user.

OPTIONS         top

       The available command line options are:

       -c, -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 options 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 option.  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.  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 the tool 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.

       -?, -h, -help
            Display usage message and exit.

EXAMPLES         top

       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"

ENVIRONMENT         top

       pmquery is an excellent choice of utility for the
       PCP_XCONFIRM_PROG Performance Co-Pilot configuration parameter
       (refer to pcp.conf(5) 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         top

       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 ALSO         top

       pmchart(1) and pcp.conf(5).

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the PCP (Performance Co-Pilot) project.
       Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.pcp.io/⟩.  If you have a bug report for this manual
       page, send it to pcp@groups.io.  This page was obtained from the
       project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/performancecopilot/pcp.git⟩ on 2023-12-22.
       (At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found
       in the repository was 2023-12-16.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

Performance Co-Pilot                                          PMQUERY(1)

Pages that refer to this page: pmchart(1)pmie(1)pmrecord(3)