Bash Script

Prompt (y/n) ?

Basic in line method

read -p "Is this a good question (y/n)? " answer
case ${answer:0:1} in
    y|Y )
        echo Yes
    ;;
    * )
        echo No
    ;;
esac

I prefer to use case so I could even test for yes | ja | si | oui if needed...

In line with single key feature

Under bash, we can specify the length of intended input for for the read command:

read -n 1 -p "Is this a good question (y/n)? " answer

Under bash, read command accepts a timeout parameter, which could be useful.

read -t 3 -n 1 -p "Is this a good question (y/n)? " answer
[ -z "$answer" ] && answer="Yes"  # if 'yes' have to be default choice

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Backlinks

• 2022-06-14