whiptail

Whiptail may refer to several things, most commonly a group of lizards or a software utility used in Unix-like systems.

In biology, whiptail refers to a group of slender, fast-moving lizards in the genus Aspidoscelis (formerly Cnemidophorus). These lizards are native to the Americas and are characterized by long, whiplike tails and agile, diurnal activity. They occupy a range of habitats, including deserts, grasslands, and scrublands, and feed on insects and other small invertebrates. Reproduction varies by species; some whiptails reproduce sexually, while others are parthenogenetic, with females capable of producing offspring without fertilization. Whiptails play roles as both predators and prey in their ecosystems and are often studied in ecological and physiological research.

In computing, Whiptail is a text-based user interface utility used to render dialog-style boxes in shell scripts. It provides menus, input prompts, checklists, and yes/no dialogs, serving as a lightweight alternative to the dialog program. Whiptail is commonly included in many Unix-like distributions and relies on libraries such as libnewt to render its interfaces. Scripts invoke whiptail with options that specify the dialog type, size, title, and message, enabling simple interactive prompts in environments without graphical user interfaces. While some distributions have shifted toward newer tools, whiptail remains available and compatible with the dialog-style syntax used in many legacy and minimal systems.