bash - How do I prompt for Yes/No/Cancel input in a Linux shell script? -

i want pause input in shell script, , prompt user choices. standard 'yes, no, or cancel' type question. how accomplish in typical bash prompt?

the simplest , available method user input @ shell prompt read command. best way illustrate use simple demonstration:

while true;     read -p "do wish install program?" yn     case $yn in         [yy]* ) make install; break;;         [nn]* ) exit;;         * ) echo "please answer yes or no.";;     esac done 

another method, pointed out steven huwig, bash's select command. here same example using select:

echo "do wish install program?" select yn in "yes" "no";     case $yn in         yes ) make install; break;;         no ) exit;;     esac done 

with select don't need sanitize input – displays available choices, , type number corresponding choice. loops automatically, there's no need while true loop retry if give invalid input.

also, please check out excellent answer f. hauri.