xmessage(1)              USER COMMANDS                xmessage(1)



NAME
     xmessage - X window system message display program.

SYNOPSIS
     xmessage [-options ...] -m <message>

DESCRIPTION
     _X_m_e_s_s_a_g_e opens a window on the screen that will contain  the
     text  of  a  message  from either the command line or stdin.
     This text may have a scroll bar along the left side to allow
     the  user to browse through relatively long messages.  Along
     the lower edge of the message is list of  words  with  boxes
     around  them, clicking the left mouse button on any of these
     "buttons" (words with boxes around them) will cause the mes-
     sage  to  go  away.  If there is more than one "button" then
     some state will be returned to the invoker of  the  xmessage
     process via a change of the exit status of the program.

     This program serves two  functions,  firstly  it  can  be  a
     method  for  shell scripts to present the user with informa-
     tion much as 'echo' allows in a tty environment, as well  as
     allowing  the user you answer simple questinos.  Secondly it
     allows much of the functionality of 'cat' again in a window-
     ing verses tty environment.

     It should be noted that this program is intended  for  short
     messages,  and  will be quite slow when asked to handle long
     files from stdin.  Although xmessage can accept  input  from
     stdin, this input is not allowed to come from a tty, if this
     is attempted, and error message will be printed. If xmessage
     is  executed with an incorrect argument then it will print a
     usage message to standard out, as well  as  to  an  xmessage
     window.

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
     These are the command  line  options  that  xmessage  under-
     stands.   Please  note that some of these are inherited from
     the XToolkit and as the  list  of  default  toolkit  options
     changes xman will follow.

     -printlabel
                     This will case  the  program  to  print  the
                     label of the button pressed to standard out-
                     put (stdout), I envision this to  be  useful
                     when  popping  up  a message to a friend, as
                     in: "ready to go to lunch".  This allows you
                     to know if he clicked the yes or the no but-
                     ton.

     -noscroll (-nsb)
                     The scroll bar is active on the text  window
                     by default, this causes it to be removed.



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xmessage(1)              USER COMMANDS                xmessage(1)



     -buttons <button> <button> ...
                     This option will cause  xmessage  to  create
                     one button for each arguement the follows it
                     until something  starts  with  a  '-'.   The
                     string  passed  to the button is the name of
                     the Command button widget created  and  will
                     be  the  default text displayed to the user.
                     Since this is the name of the widget it  may
                     be  used  to  change  any  of the Xresources
                     associated with that button.

     -message <word> <word> ...
                     This must be the last argument in  the  com-
                     mand  list, as every argument after this one
                     is assumed to be part of the message.  There
                     is no limit to the length of this message.

     -geometery (height)x(width)+(x_offset)+(y_offset)
                     Sets the size and  location  of  the  window
                     created by xmessage.

     -bw <pixels>

     -borderwidth <pixels>
                     Specifies the width of the  border  for  all
                     windows in xmessage.

     -bd <color>

     -bordercolor <color>
                     Specifies the color of the  borders  of  all
                     windows in xmessage.

     -fg <color>

     -foreground <color>
                     Specifies the foreground color to be used.

     -bg <color>

     -background <color>
                     Specifies the background color to be used.

     -fn <font>

     -font <font>
                     Specifies the font to use  for  all  buttons
                     and text.

     -display <host:display[.screen]>
                     Specifies a display other than  the  default
                     specified   by   the   DISPLAY   environment



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xmessage(1)              USER COMMANDS                xmessage(1)



                     variable to use to use.

     -name <name>
                     Specifies the name to  use  when  retrieving
                     resources.

     -title <title>
                     Specifies the title of this application.

     -xrm <resource>
                     Allows a resource to  be  specified  on  the
                     command line.

WIDGET AND RESOURCE NAMES
     Resource management is an important part of X Toolkit appli-
     cations, and xmessage is not exception, all objects in xmes-
     sage can have many of their  distinguishing  characteristics
     changed  by  changing  the  resources  associated with them,
     below is a brief list of the resources and what they modify.

     foreground                         - foreground color

     background                         - background color

     width & height                     - size

     borderWidth                        - border width

     borderColor                        - border color

     In order  to  change  the  default  values  for  the  widget
     resources  you  need  to  have the names, thus, below I have
     specified the names of some of the most common widgets.

     xmessage - (argv[0])               - shell widget that  con-
                                        tains          everything
                                        displayed.

     text                               - the text window.

     <button name>                      - each  of  the  buttons.
                                        "okay" is default.

     You can also  reference  Widgets  by  class,  The  important
     classes for this application are: Command and Text.

     Here are a few example of how to string all this information
     together  into a resource specification, that can be used on
     the command line with  the  -xrm  flag,  or  added  to  your
     .Xresource file.

     xmessage*Command.foreground: Blue  All command buttons  will



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xmessage(1)              USER COMMANDS                xmessage(1)



                                        be blue.

     xmessage*foreground: Blue          Everything in  the  xmes-
                                        sage  window  has  a blue
                                        foreground.

     xmessage*Text.border: Red          The text widget has a red
                                        border.

     In  addition  Xmessage  has  a  few   specific   application
     resources,  that  allow  customizations that are specific to
     xmessage.

     ScrollText
             A Boolean reasource that determines whether you  are
             allowed  to scroll the text widget the default value
             is TRUE.

     printLabel
             A Boolean resource that determines  whether  or  not
             the  label  of the buton pressed to exit the program
             is printed, default value is FALSE.

ERROR MESSAGES
     Xmessage errors may be printed into their owm xmessage  win-
     dow, this invocation of xmessage has a different name.  This
     allows its resources to be specified seperatly, the name  of
     xmessage error program is xmessage_error.

EXIT STATUS
     Xmessage will exit with status zero (0) when there  is  only
     one button in the list, and it is clicked to exit.  If there
     is more than one button in the list  then  the  exit  status
     will  corrospond  the number of the button pressed, starting
     at one hundred and one  (101)  for  the  first  button,  and
     counting  up.  Zero (0) is not used because no button should
     have a prefered place over the others.

SEE ALSO
     X(1), X(8C), echo(1), cat(1)

BUGS
     There must be some, somewhere.

AUTHORS
     Copyright 1988 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
     Chris Peterson, MIT Project Athena








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