macOS
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brew install dialogprovider-native install command
brew / rank 1097
Install dialog with Homebrew
Display user-friendly message boxes from shell scripts. Version 1.3-20260721 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-23.
install
Additional install commands
overview
Package summary
Display user-friendly message boxes from shell scripts
Project links
Commands and aliases
- dialog
- dialog-config
history
Project history and usage
dialog is the classic curses-based program for showing message boxes, menus, gauges, forms, and other text user-interface widgets from shell scripts.
Project history
The official history traces dialog to Savio Lam's initial 0.1 release on 1993-12-17, when the program had inputbox, msgbox, and yesno options. Through 1994 and 1995, contributors added checklist, menu, textbox, color, shadows, radiolist, gauge, mouse support, and related features.
Adoption history
dialog became part of Unix installer and system-script culture because shell scripts could ask structured questions without depending on a graphical desktop. The official history notes FreeBSD's fork and its use around sysinstall, and the project page compares related tools such as whiptail, Xdialog, gdialog, zenity, kdialog, and bsddialog.
How it is used
The manpage describes dialog as a program that lets scripts present questions or display messages using dialog boxes. Common package-manager users install it so shell scripts can use widgets such as checklist, menu, gauge, inputbox, passwordbox, textbox, and yesno.
Why package nerds care
dialog matters to package people because it is one of the small tools that makes source builds, installers, and distribution scripts feel interactive while still being plain shell. Its long compatibility story explains why many packages also know about whiptail and other dialog-like front ends.
Timeline
- 1993: dialog 0.1 released by Savio Lam.
- 1994: checklist, menu, color, shadow, radiolist, and gauge-era functionality appeared across early releases and forks.
- 2001: Vincent Stemen sent patches that were folded into ongoing dialog snapshots.
- 2012: dialog 1.2-era widget coverage and compatibility history were documented on the official site.
Related projects
- Official related and compatibility discussion covers lxdialog, Xdialog, whiptail, gdialog, zenity, kdialog, and bsddialog.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: yellow
generalized runtime or code generation signal.
Risk classifier
yellow risk · medium confidence · runtime
Why
- generalized runtime or code generation signal
Signals
- text:shell
Install behavior
- No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
local files
Configuration and credential file locations
These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.
Configuration files
Config paths the tool may read or write during local use.
- Unix
$DIALOGRC~/.dialogrc/etc/dialogrc
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
dialog | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
dialog-config | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-08-03
manager version1.3-20260721
manager updated2026-07-23
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:dialog |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.3-20260721 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://invisible-island.net/dialog/ |
| Last updated | 2026-07-23T09:53:29Z |
| Pulse | updated |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- Nucleus package database
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation