How do I use SSFT (Shell Scripts Frontend Tool) on Ubuntu (or any Linux)?

Question

I can't find a man page or any help for ssft. I want to use it in my bash scripts to select either kdialog (if on KDE) or zenity (if on gnome).

See Shell Scripts Frontend Tool

Surely the help pages are somewhere, but I must be overlooking them.

Answer 1

I am running Debian 6.0 Squeeze stable right now, and it has a manpage for ssft.sh. Try man ssft.sh. If that doesn't do what you want, let me know and you and I will figure out what does.

Update: All right. You have tried the manpage, which doesn't tell you what you want to know. There does not appear to exist any more thorough documentation for Ssft (maybe, when this is all over, you will write and contribute that very documentation). However, in Ssft's source appears to be a test script that makes the software do the various things it is designed to do. Sometimes, a good example is even better than a manual. That test script may be just what you need.

To extract the test script, issue a sequence of commands like the following sequence.

$ cd /tmp
$ apt-get source ssft
$ ls
$ cd ssft-0.9.13 # (Your version number may differ from 0.9.13.)
$ ls
$ cd tests
$ ls

When I do the above, the last ls listing reveals a shell script named ssft-test.sh. Inside that script appear to be several examples of how to use ssft.sh correctly.

Answer 2

http://man.devl.cz/man/1/ssft.sh

ssft.sh(1)
SSFT
Name

ssft.sh - library of shell script frontend functions Synopsis

. ssft.sh
Description

ssft.sh is a library of shell functions that must be sourced from other scripts. If the script is executed without arguments it prints an usage message and also supports the options --doc, --help and --version.

To get a list of available functions call the script with the --doc argument and to get a description of what a given function does call the script with --doc FUNCTION_NAME.

On the typical case the library must be sourced and the SSFT_FRONTEND variable must be set to the desired frontend (zenity, dialog or text); if the variable is not set the default frontend is noninteractive.

To choose the theorically best looking frontend use the function ssft_choose_frontend as follows:

. ssft.sh [ -n "$SSFT_FRONTEND" ] || SSFT_FRONTEND="$( ssft_choose_frontend )"

Written by Sergio Talens-Oliag .

$ /usr/bin/ssft.sh
Shell Script Frontend Tool (version 0.9.13)
Usage: . ssft.sh

When called directly the program supports the following options:

• -d,--doc [FUNCTIONS] Prints the list of available functions. If function names are given prints functions' documentation.
• -h,--help This message
• -v,--version File version

functions:

$ /usr/bin/ssft.sh -d 

ssft_set_textdomain
ssft_reset_textdomain
ssft_choose_frontend
ssft_print_text_title
ssft_display_message
ssft_display_error
ssft_display_emsg
ssft_file_selection
ssft_directory_selection
ssft_progress_bar
ssft_read_string
ssft_read_password
ssft_select_multiple
ssft_select_single
ssft_yesno
ssft_show_file