zmenu

Zmenu is a small interactive menu utility used in Unix-like graphical environments to present a list of options and return the user's selection. The program operates by reading a list of items, one per line, from standard input and writing the chosen item to standard output. It is commonly used in shell scripting and window manager configurations to prompt for commands, URLs, or filenames, allowing selection via keyboard or mouse.

Implementation and characteristics: Zmenu implementations are typically lightweight, written in C, and designed to require few dependencies, often drawing a simple popup window using the X Window System. Features vary by implementation, but typical capabilities include basic filtering or incremental search, scrolling through items, and basic mouse support. The behavior is generally single-select, though some variants support multi-select.

Usage: A typical workflow is to pipe a list into zmenu and capture the output in a shell variable: choice=$(printf 'Option1\nOption2\nOption3' | zmenu); echo "$choice"

Origin and variety: There are multiple unrelated programs named zmenu; no single authoritative specification. It is often contrasted with other menu tools such as dmenu and rofi, which offer more features or different theming. Zmenu's appeal is its minimalism and small footprint.

See also: dmenu, rofi, xmenu, window manager scripting.