# Install dialog with Homebrew

Display user-friendly message boxes from shell scripts. Version 1.3-20260721 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-23.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:dialog
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install dialog
```

  Evidence: provider-native install command

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:dialog
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 1.3-20260721
- **Source summary:** Display user-friendly message boxes from shell scripts
- **Homepage:** <https://invisible-island.net/dialog/>
- **Last updated:** 2026-07-23T09:53:29Z
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T00:40:33+00:00

## Executables

- dialog (alias)
- dialog-config (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 1.3-20260721
## 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

- <https://invisible-island.net/dialog/>
- <https://invisible-island.net/dialog/dialog.html>
- <https://invisible-island.net/dialog/manpage/dialog.html>
- <https://invisible-island.net/dialog/CHANGES.html>


## Security Notes

generalized runtime or code generation signal.

- **Geiger risk:** yellow / medium
- generalized runtime or code generation signal


## 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

- Unix: $DIALOGRC, ~/.dialogrc, /etc/dialogrc

## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/dialog.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/dialog.yml)


## Sources

- Nucleus package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation