Mastering Linux Shell Scripting - Second Edition

Limiting the number of entered characters

We have not needed this functionality in the scripts we have used so far, but we may need to ask users to hit any key to continue. At the moment, we have set it up in such a way that the variable is not populated until we hit the Enter key. Users have to hit Enter to continue. If we use the -n option followed by an integer, we can specify the number of characters to accept before continuing; we will set 1 in this case. Take a look at the following code extract:

#!/bin/bashread -p "May I ask your name: " nameecho "Hello $name"read -n1 -p "Press any key to exit"echoexit 0

Now the script will pause after displaying the name until we press any key; we can literally press any key before continuing, as ...