Diff for "BashFAQ/065"

Differences between revisions 1 and 3 (spanning 2 versions)

Is there a "PAUSE" command in bash like there is in MSDOS batch scripts? To prompt the user to press any key to continue?

Use the following to wait until the user presses enter:

# Bash
read -p "Press [enter] to continue..."

# Bourne
echo "Press [enter] to continue..."
read junk

Or use the following to wait until the user presses any key to continue:

# Bash
read -sn 1 -p "Press any key to continue..."

If you want to put a timeout on that, use the -t option to read:

# Bash
echo "WARNING: You are about to do something stupid."
echo -n "Press a key within 5 seconds to cancel."
if ! read -sn 1 -t 5
then something_stupid
fi

If you just want to pause for a while, regardless of the user's input, use sleep:

echo "The script is tired.  Please wait a minute."
sleep 60

-  ⇤ ← Revision 1 as of 2007-05-02 23:59:39 → 
  Size: 323
  Editor: redondos
  Comment:
+   ← Revision 3 as of 2008-04-30 13:12:57 → ⇥
  Size: 870
  Editor: GreyCat
  Comment: portability
-Deletions are marked like this.
+Additions are marked like this.
 Line 4:
-No, but you can use these:
+Use the following to wait until the user presses enter:
 Line 6:
-echo press enter to continue; read
+# Bash
read -p "Press [enter] to continue..."

# Bourne
echo "Press [enter] to continue..."
read junk
-Line 8:
+Line 13:
+Or use the following to wait until the user presses any key to continue:
-Line 9:
+Line 16:
-echo press any key to continue; read -n 1
+# Bash
read -sn 1 -p "Press any key to continue..."
-Line 11:
+Line 19:
+If you want to put a timeout on that, use the `-t` option to `read`:
-Line 12:
+Line 22:
-read -p 'press enter to continue'
+# Bash
echo "WARNING: You are about to do something stupid."
echo -n "Press a key within 5 seconds to cancel."
if ! read -sn 1 -t 5
then something_stupid
fi
-Line 14:
+Line 29:
+If you just want to pause for a while, regardless of the user's input, use `sleep`:
{{{
echo "The script is tired.  Please wait a minute."
sleep 60
}}}