Learning Linux Shell Scripting - Second Edition

Summarizing the read command with options

The following table summarizes various read command-related options that you learned in the previous sections:

Format	Meaning
read	This command will read text from a keyboard and store the received text in a built-in variable REPLY.
read value	This reads text from a keyboard or standard input and stores it into the variable value.
read first last	This will read the first word in a variable first and the remaining text of the line in a variable last. The first word is separated by white space from the remaining words in the line.
read -e	This is used in interactive shells for command-line editing. If vi editor is used, then vi commands can be used.
read -a array_name ...