bash script - request input via gui

Question

I'm currently writing a nemo action script in bash, and I need a way to get input from the user.

How?, the terminal isn't showing when running an action script.

is there anyway to popup a query window in the GUI to ask the user for input?

Answer 1

Zenity is a good tool for that.

user_input=$(zenity --entry)

That assigns to variable user_input whatever the user types in the GUI window, unless the user presses cancel, in which case the exit code is not zero.

user_input=$(zenity --entry)
if [ $? = 0 ]; then 
    echo "User has pressed OK. The input was:"
    echo "$user_input"
else
    echo "User has pressed cancel"
fi

Gxmessage is an alternative, with very similar syntax.

user_input=$(gxmessage --entry "Enter your input")

More information in man zenity and man gxmessage.

Answer 2

• If you want to stay in the shell use dialog (On pretty much every distribution it is already installed by default).
  Before using it, read the manpage so that you can configure it to do exactly what you want. A tiny example:

dialog --inputbox "Please input something" 0 0 2> /tmp/file_that_will_contain_your_input

• If want a X11-window to appear, checkout xdialog. But I recommend staying in the shell:
  Writing scripts that partially use X11 and partially the console is asking for problems without gaining any advantage.
  The syntax for xdialog is pretty much equal to that of dialog for compatibility reasons. So if you put a x in front of the example above it would do exactly the same but with a X11-window instead. Again, check out the manpage for more info.