GSPL-PMENU(1)

NAME

gspl-pmenu - prompt user for selection from list

SYNOPSIS

gspl-pmenu [ -h header ] [ -d delim ] [ -s start ] [ -f file ] [ -N num
] [ -F ] [ -n ] [ -m ]

DESCRIPTION

gspl-pmenu is a simple curses-based program to select one (or more) of a list of options from within a shell script.

The options are supplied on standard input, typically in the form:

item1<tab>Description1
item2<tab>Description2

in multiple columns if possible, with one of the items (often the
first) highlighted and the user is invited to move the highlight to a
selected item if appropriate using the cursor keys and then press
ENTER.

The selected row is then output on standard output.

When the options are displayed on the screen, the cursor keys, together with h, l, k and <j> may be used to move left, right, up and down respectively. The numeric keypad in numeric mode may also be used.

If available, Next page, Previous page or N and P may be used to select the next column or screenful. Any other character may be used to select the next row starting with that character.

When the correct entry has been selected, press ENTER to select it.
Alternatively press q to quit with no output.

The behaviour of gspl-pmenu may be modified by means of various options.

OPTIONS

-h text Display a heading to be centred at the top of the screen. The

heading may consist of more than one line, each of which is
centred separately. When gspl-pmenu is invoked from the shell, the heading should be enclosed in quotes.

As an alternative, the header may be provided in the standard
input. To signify this, the text should be a single = sign thus:

-h =

The standard input will be read up to the first blank line to
constitute the header, and thereafter the selection rows.

-d char Use the specified char as a delimiter rather than tab.

-s num Initialise the display to select the given item rather than the

first on entry.

-f file Take input from the specified file rather than standard input.

-N num Enables multiple selection menus to be provided for in one

file. The standard input is read up to the first line
consisting of the given number (possibly negative) and a colon. Input is terminated by a blank line. Thus the input file might look like:

1:
optiona1 description1
optiona2 description2
options3 description3

2:
optionb1 description4
optionb2 description5
optionb3 description6

With the appropriate set of options and descriptions selected
by

-N 1

or

-N 2

If headers are to be supplied in the file using "-h =", then
these should follow the numbers with a blank line, thus:

1:
Header for first group
of selections

optiona1 description1
optiona2 description2
options3 description3

2:
Header for second group

optionb1 description4
optionb2 description5
optionb3 description6

-F Just return the first field of the selection "the option" on

exit, not the whole line.

-n Return the number (starting at 1) of the row selected on exit,

rather than the text of the line.

-m Enable multi-selection mode. In this mode several lines may be

selected, by moving to each line and pressing space. Pressing
space again deselects the line. A plus sign appears against
each choice to indicate selection.

When all have been selected, press q to quit.

The ENTER key behaves slightly differently. If the last action was to select or deselect an entry, then the program exits as
if q had been pressed. If the last character was not a space, then the current line is selected or deselected.

Help files

Help files may be provided for each item in a list by providing text
files in the directory from which gspl-pmenu is run with names:

item1.menuhelp
item2/Menuhelp

where "item1" etc are the first field in each choice.

To provide a "catch all" for items without help files, a help file
named

Menu-summary

may be provided.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This is free
software. You may redistribute copies of it under the terms of the GNU General Public License <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. There
is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

AUTHOR

John M Collins, Xi Software Ltd.

GNUspool Release 1 2010-02-01 GSPL-PMENU(1)