User Commands ckitem(1)
NAME
ckitem, erritem, helpitem - build a menu; prompt for and
return a menu itemSYNOPSIS
ckitem [-Q] [-W width] [-uno] [-f filename] [-l label]
[ [-i invis] [,]...] [-m max] [-d default] [-h help]
[-e error] [-p prompt] [-k pid [-s signal]]
[choice [...]]/usr/sadm/bin/erritem [-W width] [-e error] [choice [..]]
/usr/sadm/bin/helpitem [-W width] [-h help] [choice [..]]
DESCRIPTION
The ckitem utility builds a menu and prompts the user to choose one item from a menu of items. It then verifies the response. Options for this command define, among other things, a prompt message whose response will be a menu item, text for help and error messages, and a default value (which will be returned if the user responds with a carriage return). By default, the menu is formatted so that each item is prepended by a number and is printed in columns across the terminal. Column length is determined by the longest choice. Items are alphabetized. All messages are limited in length to 70 characters and areformatted automatically. Any white space used in the defini-
tion (including newline) is stripped. The -W option cancels
the automatic formatting. When a tilde is placed at the beginning or end of a message definition, the default text will be inserted at that point, allowing both custom text and the default text to be displayed. If the prompt, help or error message is not defined, the default message (as defined under NOTES) will be displayed. Two visual tool modules are linked to the ckitem command.They are erritem (which formats and displays an error mes-
sage) and helpitem (which formats and displays a help mes-
sage). These modules should be used in conjunction with FML objects. In this instance, the FML object defines the prompt. When choice is defined in these modules, theSunOS 5.11 Last change: 14 Sep 1992 1
User Commands ckitem(1) messages will describe the available menu choice (or choices). OPTIONS The following options are supported:-d default Define the default value as default. The
default is not validated and so does not have to meet any criteria.-e error Define the error message as error.
-f filename Define a file, filename, which contains a
list of menu items to be displayed. (The for-
mat of this file is: tokendescription. Lines beginning with a pound sign (#) are
designated as comments and ignored.)-h help Define the help messages as help.
-i invis Define invisible menu choices (those which
will not be printed in the menu). (For exam-
ple, ``all'' used as an invisible choice would mean it is a legal option but does not appear in the menu. Any number of invisible choices may be defined.) Invisible choices should be made known to a user either in the prompt or in a help message.-k pid Specify that the process ID pid is to be sent
a signal if the user chooses to abort.-l label Define a label, label, to print above the
menu.-m max Define the maximum number of menu choices
that the user can choose. The default is 1.-n Specify that menu items should not be
displayed in alphabetical order.-o Specify that only one menu token will be
returned.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 14 Sep 1992 2
User Commands ckitem(1)-p prompt Define the prompt message as prompt.
-Q Specify that quit will not be allowed as a
valid response.-s signal Specify that process ID pid defined with the
-k option is to be sent signal signal when
quit is chosen. If no signal is specified, SIGTERM is used.-u Specify that menu items should be displayed
as an unnumbered list.-W width Specify that prompt, help and error messages
will be formatted to a line length of width. OPERANDS The following operand is supported: choice Define menu items. Items should be separated by white space or newline. EXIT STATUS The following exit values are returned: 0 Successful execution.1 EOF on input, or negative width on -W option, or ina-
bility to open file on -f option, or usage error.
3 User termination (quit). 4 No choices from which to choose.ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:SunOS 5.11 Last change: 14 Sep 1992 3
User Commands ckitem(1)____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | SUNWcs ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
attributes(5) NOTES The user may input the number of the menu item if choices are numbered or as much of the string required for a unique identification of the item. Long menus are paged with 10 items per page. When menu entries are defined both in a file (by using the-f option) and also on the command line, they are usually
combined alphabetically. However, if the -n option is used
to suppress alphabetical ordering, then the entries defined in the file are shown first, followed by the options defined on the command line. The default prompt for ckitem is: Enter selection [?,??,q]: One question mark will give a help message and then redisplay the prompt. Two question marks will give a help message and then redisplay the menu label, the menu and the prompt. The default error message if you typed a number is:ERROR: Bad numeric choice specification
The default error message if you typed a string is:ERROR: Entry does not match available menu selection. Enter the number
of the menu item you wish to select, the token which is associated with the menu item, or a partial string which uniquely identifies the token for the menu item. Enter ?? to reprint the menu.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 14 Sep 1992 4
User Commands ckitem(1) The default help message is: Enter the number of the menu item you wish to select, the token which is associated with the menu item, or a partial string which uniquely identifies the token for the menu item. Enter ? to reprint the menu. When the quit option is chosen (and allowed), q is returned along with the return code 3.SunOS 5.11 Last change: 14 Sep 1992 5