Adding yes no cancel prompts in shell script

Question

Hi. I want to know if I can add a prompt asking the user for input in a shell script? How can I do this in bash prompt?

Answer 1

You can use the read command. Here's an example:

while true; do
    read -p "Do you wish to install this program?" yn
    case $yn in
        [Yy]* ) make install; break;;
        [Nn]* ) exit;;
        * ) echo "Please answer yes or no.";;
    esac
done

Another way you can use it is by using Bash select command. example:

echo "Do you wish to install this program?"
select yn in "Yes" "No"; do
    case $yn in
        Yes ) make install; break;;
        No ) exit;;
    esac
done

If you choose select you won't have to sanitize the input i.e. it will display the choices and you'll have to type a number matching your choice.