read

\read

Reads input from user into variables

Synopsis

\read [--prompt prompt] [--silent] [--if-unset] var [var ...]

Description

The \read command reads one line of input from the console and assigns the first word of that input to var, the second word to the second var, and so on, with all remaining input provided assigned to the final var. If there are fewer words read from the input than vars provided, then the remaining vars are assigned empty values.

For example:

1> \read --prompt="Type: " x y z
Type: hello how are you?
1> \echo $x
hello
1> \echo $y
how
1> \echo $z
are you?

Options

--if-unset (-u)

Indicates that the user should only be prompted if one or more of the variable names provided does not yet have a value. For example:

1> \read --prompt="Type something: " x
Type something: Hi!
1> \read --if-unset --prompt="Type something: " x
1>

In the second instance, the read does not occur because $x already has a value.

--prompt=prompt (-p prompt)

Provides text to be used when prompting the user for input, such as:

1> \read --prompt="--> " x
-->

--silent (-s)

Indicates that the text entered by the user is sensitive and should not be echoed back to the screen, instead each character will be presented as an asterisk (*). Yes, this isn't "silent", but the parameter name is "silent" because that is what most shells indicate. For example:

1> \read --prompt="--> " --silent x --> ***