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Display GUI Boxes for Linux bash script

 Displaying GUI Boxes in Linux Bash scripts can be done easily using whiptail.

In Windows OS, msgbox, inptubox is quite helpful on VBA, Visual Basic and even in .NET world.

Displaying Graphical boxes in Linux bash scripting is quite simple to do.

To navigate on this GUI boxes, used "Tabs","Arrow Keys" and "Space Bar" as enter key.

Here's a simple example of Whiptail that display GUI Boxes and ping the sites that are selected.

#!/bin/bash
# Step 1: Checkbox URL menu
CHOICES=$(whiptail --title "Checkbox Ping URLs Example" \
  --checklist "Select one or more options:" 15 50 5 \
  "ping -c 2 bing.com;" "Ping bing" OFF \
  "ping -c 2 duckduckgo.com;" "Ping ddg" OFF \
  "ping -c 2 search.com;" "Ping search" OFF \
  "ping -c 2 google.com" "Ping google" OFF \
  3>&1 1>&2 2>&3)
# Exit gracefully if nothing was selected or user pressed Cancel
if [ -z "$CHOICES" ]; then
    echo "No urls selected or operation canceled."
    exit 0
fi
# Step 2: Clean up whiptail quotes so we get valid bash commands
COMMANDS=$(echo "$CHOICES" | tr -d '"')
# Step 3: Confirm execution
whiptail --title "Starting Pings" \
  --msgbox "The following commands will run:\n\n$COMMANDS" 15 50
# Step 4: Run each ping command
echo -e "\n--- Executing Ping Commands ---\n"
IFS=';' read -ra CMD_LIST <<< "$COMMANDS"
for cmd in "${CMD_LIST[@]}"; do
    # Skip empty entries
    cmd=$(echo "$cmd" | xargs)
    if [ -n "$cmd" ]; then
        echo "Running: $cmd"
        eval "$cmd"
        echo "-----------------------------------"
    fi
done

The code will display the GUI Boxes like the images below:

CheckBox GUI prompt for selection:


GUI shows what was selected:


Sample output image:


The script shows how whiptail can display GUI boxes with checkboxes and ping the URLs.
Yes, it is just an example it can be used for other scenarios. It demonstrates that if ever GUI boxes are needed on Bash scripts, whiptail is there to save the day.

If whiptail is not in the system, it can easily be installed.
sudo apt install whiptail --if your distro is Ubuntu
sudo yum install whiptail --if your distro is Fedora/CentOS/Rocky/Alma



That's it till next time.. Enjoy exploring command lines.




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