How to Get User Input in Shell Script

Sometimes you may need to get user input in shell script. In this article, we will look at the different ways to get user input using read command in shell script.

How to Get User Input in Shell Script

You can use read command to accept user input in your shell script. Here is its syntax

read <variable_name>

We will look at different use cases to use read command.

1. Get single input

You can simply mention your variable name after read command to read and store user input in that variable. Here is an example of shell script

#/home/test.sh
#!/bin/sh

echo "enter name:"
read name
echo "you entered $name"

In the above code, we use read command to read a single input and store it in variable name.

$ /home/test.sh
enter name:fedingo
you entered fedingo

2. Get Multiple User Input

You can also read multiple variables by mentioning them one after the other after read command. Here is its syntax.

read variable1 variable2 variable3

Here is an example where we accept multiple variables first_name, last_name and age as user input.

#/home/test.sh
#!/bin/sh

echo "enter first_name, last_name and age:"
read first_name last_name age
echo "you entered $first_name, $last_name, $age

You need to enter the different user inputs in a space-separated format. When you have typed all input variable, press enter to pass them to shell script.

$ /home/test.sh
enter name:john doe 42
you entered john, doe, 42

You may also use an array to store multiple inputs

#/home/test.sh
#!/bin/sh

echo "enter first_name, last_name and age"
read -a details
echo "you entered ${details[0]},${details[1]},$details{details[2]}

In this case, type the user input values in a space separated manner, and press enter when you are ready to submit, just like above.

$ /home/test.sh
enter first name, last name, age:john doe 42
you entered john, doe, 42

The main difference in this case is that since you are using an array, users can enter any number of input values and shell script will automatically store them in array elements.

3. Hide User Input

Sometimes you may need to hide user input as they are typing. For example, if you are reading password, then you will need to hide user input but read it correctly. For this purpose, use read command with -sp option. In this case, -s stands for silent mode and -p stands for command prompt. Here is an example

#/home/test.sh
#!/bin/sh

echo "enter password:"
read -sp password
echo "you entered $password"

In this case, your users will see the prompt, but when they enter input, it will not be visible. Only when they press enter key it will be submitted.

$ /home/test.sh
enter password:
you entered 1234

4. Get User input without variable

If you don’t use variable in read statement, then shell script will store user input in REPLY system variable.

#/home/test.sh
#!/bin/sh

echo "enter name"
read
echo "you entered $REPLY"

In the above case, you can echo the value of $REPLY variable.

$ /home/test.sh
enter name: fedingo
you entered fedingo

Read is a very versatile command to process input in shell script. In this article, we have looked at different use cases to read user input in shell script.

How to Get User Input in Shell Script