Bash / Linux

How to prompt for Yes/No/Cancel input in a Linux shell script?

- by ᴾᴿᴼᵍʳᵃᵐᵐᵉʳ

The simplest and most widely available method to get user input at a shell prompt is the read command. The best way to illustrate its use is a simple demonstration:

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 method is Bash’s select command. Here is the same example using select:

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

With select you don’t need to sanitize the input – it displays the available choices, and you type a number corresponding to your choice. It also loops automatically, so there’s no need for a while true loop to retry if they give invalid input.

Also, Léa Gris demonstrated a way to make the request language-agnostic in her answer. Adapting my first example to better serve multiple languages might look like this:

set -- $(locale LC_MESSAGES)
yesexpr="$1"; noexpr="$2"; yesword="$3"; noword="$4"

while true; do
    read -p "Install (${yesword} / ${noword})? " yn
    if [[ "$yn" =~ $yesexpr ]]; then make install; exit; fi
    if [[ "$yn" =~ $noexpr ]]; then exit; fi
    echo "Answer ${yesword} / ${noword}."
done

Obviously, other communication strings remain untranslated here (Install, Answer) which would need to be addressed in a more fully completed translation, but even a partial translation would be helpful in many cases.

How to prompt for Yes/No/Cancel input in a Linux shell script?

There are at least five answers for one generic question.

Depending on

  • posix compliant: could work on poor systems with generic shell environments
  • bash specific: using so called bashisms

and if you want

  • simple “in line” question / answer (generic solutions)
  • pretty formatted interfaces, like ncurses or more graphical using libgtk or libqt…
  • use powerful readline history capability

1. POSIX generic solutions

You could use the read command, followed by if ... then ... else:

printf 'Is this a good question (y/n)? '
read answer

# if echo "$answer" | grep -iq "^y" ;then

if [ "$answer" != "${answer#[Yy]}" ] ;then # this grammar (the #[] operator) means that the variable $answer where any Y or y in 1st position will be dropped if they exist.
    echo Yes
else
    echo No
fi

POSIX, but single key feature

But if you don’t want the user to have to hit Return, you could write:

(Edited:Ssaving stty’s configuration could be better than simply force them to sane.)

printf 'Is this a good question (y/n)? '
old_stty_cfg=$(stty -g)
stty raw -echo ; answer=$(head -c 1) ; stty $old_stty_cfg # Careful playing with stty
if echo "$answer" | grep -iq "^y" ;then
    echo Yes
else
    echo No
fi

Note: This was tested under sh, bash, ksh, dash and busybox!

Same, but waiting explicitly for y or n:

#/bin/sh
printf 'Is this a good question (y/n)? '
old_stty_cfg=$(stty -g)
stty raw -echo
answer=$( while ! head -c 1 | grep -i '[ny]' ;do true ;done )
stty $old_stty_cfg
if echo "$answer" | grep -iq "^y" ;then
    echo Yes
else
    echo No
fi

Using dedicated tools

There are many tools which were built using libncurses, libgtk, libqt or other graphical libraries. For example, using whiptail:

if whiptail --yesno "Is this a good question" 20 60 ;then
    echo Yes
else
    echo No
fi

Depending on your system, you may need to replace whiptail with another similiar tool:

dialog --yesno "Is this a good question" 20 60 && echo Yes

gdialog --yesno "Is this a good question" 20 60 && echo Yes

kdialog --yesno "Is this a good question" 20 60 && echo Yes

where 20 is height of dialog box in number of lines and 60 is width of the dialog box. These tools all have near same syntax.

DIALOG=whiptail
if [ -x /usr/bin/gdialog ] ;then DIALOG=gdialog ; fi
if [ -x /usr/bin/xdialog ] ;then DIALOG=xdialog ; fi
...
$DIALOG --yesno ...

2. Bash-specific solutions

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

3. Some tricks for dedicated tools

More sophisticated dialog boxes, beyond simple yes - no purposes:

dialog --menu "Is this a good question" 20 60 12 y Yes n No m Maybe

Progress bar:

dialog --gauge "Filling the tank" 20 60 0 < <(
    for i in {1..100};do
        printf "XXX\n%d\n%(%a %b %T)T progress: %d\nXXX\n" $i -1 $i
        sleep .033
    done
)

Little demo:

#!/bin/sh
while true ;do
    [ -x "$(which ${DIALOG%% *})" ] || DIALOG=dialog
    DIALOG=$($DIALOG --menu "Which tool for next run?" 20 60 12 2>&1 \
            whiptail       "dialog boxes from shell scripts" >/dev/tty \
            dialog         "dialog boxes from shell with ncurses" \
            gdialog        "dialog boxes from shell with Gtk" \
            kdialog        "dialog boxes from shell with Kde" ) || exit
    clear;echo "Choosed: $DIALOG."
    for i in `seq 1 100`;do
        date +"`printf "XXX\n%d\n%%a %%b %%T progress: %d\nXXX\n" $i $i`"
        sleep .0125
      done | $DIALOG --gauge "Filling the tank" 20 60 0
    $DIALOG --infobox "This is a simple info box\n\nNo action required" 20 60
    sleep 3
    if $DIALOG --yesno  "Do you like this demo?" 20 60 ;then
        AnsYesNo=Yes; else AnsYesNo=No; fi
    AnsInput=$($DIALOG --inputbox "A text:" 20 60 "Text here..." 2>&1 >/dev/tty)
    AnsPass=$($DIALOG --passwordbox "A secret:" 20 60 "First..." 2>&1 >/dev/tty)
    $DIALOG --textbox /etc/motd 20 60
    AnsCkLst=$($DIALOG --checklist "Check some..." 20 60 12 \
        Correct "This demo is useful"        off \
        Fun        "This demo is nice"        off \
        Strong        "This demo is complex"        on 2>&1 >/dev/tty)
    AnsRadio=$($DIALOG --radiolist "I will:" 20 60 12 \
        " -1" "Downgrade this answer"        off \
        "  0" "Not do anything"                on \
        " +1" "Upgrade this anser"        off 2>&1 >/dev/tty)
    out="Your answers:\nLike: $AnsYesNo\nInput: $AnsInput\nSecret: $AnsPass"
    $DIALOG --msgbox "$out\nAttribs: $AnsCkLst\nNote: $AnsRadio" 20 60
  done

5. Using readline’s history

Example:

#!/bin/bash

set -i
HISTFILE=~/.myscript.history
history -c
history -r

myread() {
    read -e -p '> ' $1
    history -s ${!1}
}
trap 'history -a;exit' 0 1 2 3 6

while myread line;do
    case ${line%% *} in
        exit )  break ;;
        *    )  echo "Doing something with '$line'" ;;
      esac
  done

This will create a file .myscript.history in your $HOME directory, than you could use readline’s history commands, like Up, Down, Ctrl+r and others.

Answer #3:

You can use the built-in read command ; Use the -p option to prompt the user with a question.

Since BASH4, you can now use -i to suggest an answer :

read -e -p "Enter the path to the file: " -i "/usr/local/etc/" FILEPATH
echo $FILEPATH

(But remember to use the “readline” option -e to allow line editing with arrow keys)

If you want a “yes / no” logic, you can do something like this:

read -e -p "
List the content of your home dir ? [Y/n] " YN

[[ $YN == "y" || $YN == "Y" || $YN == "" ]] && ls -la ~/

How to prompt user for choice in a Bash shell script?

Bash has select for this purpose.

select result in Yes No Cancel
do
    echo $result
done

Alternative answer:

read -p "Are you alright? (y/n) " RESP
if [ "$RESP" = "y" ]; then
  echo "Glad to hear it"
else
  echo "You need more bash programming"
fi

Answer #5:

Here’s something I put together:

#!/bin/sh

promptyn () {
    while true; do
        read -p "$1 " yn
        case $yn in
            [Yy]* ) return 0;;
            [Nn]* ) return 1;;
            * ) echo "Please answer yes or no.";;
        esac
    done
}

if promptyn "is the sky blue?"; then
    echo "yes"
else
    echo "no"
fi

I’m a beginner, so take this with a grain of salt, but it seems to work.

Answer #6:

You want:

  • Bash builtin commands (i.e. portable)
  • Check TTY
  • Default answer
  • Timeout
  • Colored question

Snippet

do_xxxx=y                      # In batch mode => Default is Yes
[[ -t 0 ]] &&                  # If TTY => Prompt the question
read -n 1 -p $'\e[1;32m
Do xxxx? (Y/n)\e[0m ' do_xxxx  # Store the answer in $do_xxxx
if [[ $do_xxxx =~ ^(y|Y|)$ ]]  # Do if 'y' or 'Y' or empty
then
    xxxx
fi

Explanations

  • [[ -t 0 ]] && read ... => Call command read if TTY
  • read -n 1 => Wait for one character
  • $'\e[1;32m ... \e[0m ' => Print in green
    (green is fine because readable on both white/black backgrounds)
  • [[ $do_xxxx =~ ^(y|Y|)$ ]] => bash regex

Timeout => Default answer is No

do_xxxx=y
[[ -t 0 ]] && {                   # Timeout 5 seconds (read -t 5)
read -t 5 -n 1 -p $'\e[1;32m
Do xxxx? (Y/n)\e[0m ' do_xxxx ||  # read 'fails' on timeout
do_xxxx=n ; }                     # Timeout => answer No
if [[ $do_xxxx =~ ^(y|Y|)$ ]]
then
    xxxx
fi

Answer #7:

The easiest way to achieve this with the least number of lines is as follows:

read -p "<Your Friendly Message here> : y/n/cancel" CONDITION;

if [ "$CONDITION" == "y" ]; then
   # do something here!
fi

The if is just an example: it is up to you how to handle this variable.

Answer #8:

Single keypress only

Here’s a longer, but reusable and modular approach:

  • Returns 0=yes and 1=no
  • No pressing enter required – just a single character
  • Can press enter to accept the default choice
  • Can disable default choice to force a selection
  • Works for both zsh and bash.

Defaulting to “no” when pressing enter

Note that the N is capitalsed. Here enter is pressed, accepting the default:

$ confirm "Show dangerous command" && echo "rm *"
Show dangerous command [y/N]?

Also note, that [y/N]? was automatically appended. The default “no” is accepted, so nothing is echoed.

Re-prompt until a valid response is given:

$ confirm "Show dangerous command" && echo "rm *"
Show dangerous command [y/N]? X
Show dangerous command [y/N]? y
rm *

Defaulting to “yes” when pressing enter

Note that the Y is capitalised:

$ confirm_yes "Show dangerous command" && echo "rm *"
Show dangerous command [Y/n]?
rm *

Above, I just pressed enter, so the command ran.

No default on enter – require y or n

$ get_yes_keypress "Here you cannot press enter. Do you like this [y/n]? "
Here you cannot press enter. Do you like this [y/n]? k
Here you cannot press enter. Do you like this [y/n]?
Here you cannot press enter. Do you like this [y/n]? n
$ echo $?
1

Here, 1 or false was returned. Note that with this lower-level function you’ll need to provide your own [y/n]? prompt.

Code

# Read a single char from /dev/tty, prompting with "$*"
# Note: pressing enter will return a null string. Perhaps a version terminated with X and then remove it in caller?
# See https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/367880/143394 for dealing with multi-byte, etc.
function get_keypress {
  local REPLY IFS=
  >/dev/tty printf '%s' "$*"
  [[ $ZSH_VERSION ]] && read -rk1  # Use -u0 to read from STDIN
  # See https://unix.stackexchange.com/q/383197/143394 regarding '\n' -> ''
  [[ $BASH_VERSION ]] && </dev/tty read -rn1
  printf '%s' "$REPLY"
}

# Get a y/n from the user, return yes=0, no=1 enter=$2
# Prompt using $1.
# If set, return $2 on pressing enter, useful for cancel or defualting
function get_yes_keypress {
  local prompt="${1:-Are you sure [y/n]? }"
  local enter_return=$2
  local REPLY
  # [[ ! $prompt ]] && prompt="[y/n]? "
  while REPLY=$(get_keypress "$prompt"); do
    [[ $REPLY ]] && printf '\n' # $REPLY blank if user presses enter
    case "$REPLY" in
      Y|y)  return 0;;
      N|n)  return 1;;
      '')   [[ $enter_return ]] && return "$enter_return"
    esac
  done
}

# Credit: http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/14444/143394
# Prompt to confirm, defaulting to NO on <enter>
# Usage: confirm "Dangerous. Are you sure?" && rm *
function confirm {
  local prompt="${*:-Are you sure} [y/N]? "
  get_yes_keypress "$prompt" 1
}    

# Prompt to confirm, defaulting to YES on <enter>
function confirm_yes {
  local prompt="${*:-Are you sure} [Y/n]? "
  get_yes_keypress "$prompt" 0
}

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About ᴾᴿᴼᵍʳᵃᵐᵐᵉʳ

Linux and Python enthusiast, in love with open source since 2014, Writer at programming-articles.com, India.

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