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

Question

I want to pause input in a shell script, and prompt the user for choices.
The standard Yes, No, or Cancel type question.
How d

Answer 1

The easiest way to achieve this with the least number of lines is as follows:

read -p "<Your Friendly Message here> : y/n/cancel" CONDITION;

if [ "$CONDITION" == "y" ]; then
   # do something here!
fi

The if is just an example: it is up to you how to handle this variable.

Answer 2

inquire ()  {
  echo  -n "$1 [y/n]? "
  read answer
  finish="-1"
  while [ "$finish" = '-1' ]
  do
    finish="1"
    if [ "$answer" = '' ];
    then
      answer=""
    else
      case $answer in
        y | Y | yes | YES ) answer="y";;
        n | N | no | NO ) answer="n";;
        *) finish="-1";
           echo -n 'Invalid response -- please reenter:';
           read answer;;
       esac
    fi
  done
}

... other stuff

inquire "Install now?"

...

Answer 3

echo "Please enter some input: "
read input_variable
echo "You entered: $input_variable"

Answer 4

Multiple choice version:

ask () {                        # $1=question $2=options
    # set REPLY
    # options: x=..|y=..
    while $(true); do
        printf '%s [%s] ' "$1" "$2"
        stty cbreak
        REPLY=$(dd if=/dev/tty bs=1 count=1 2> /dev/null)
        stty -cbreak
        test "$REPLY" != "$(printf '\n')" && printf '\n'
        (
            IFS='|'
            for o in $2; do
                if [ "$REPLY" = "${o%%=*}" ]; then
                    printf '\n'
                    break
                fi
            done
        ) | grep ^ > /dev/null && return
    done
}

Example:

$ ask 'continue?' 'y=yes|n=no|m=maybe'
continue? [y=yes|n=no|m=maybe] g
continue? [y=yes|n=no|m=maybe] k
continue? [y=yes|n=no|m=maybe] y
$

It will set REPLY to y (inside the script).

Answer 5

Inspired by the answers of @Mark and @Myrddin I created this function for a universal prompt

uniprompt(){
    while true; do
        echo -e "$1\c"
        read opt
        array=($2)
        case "${array[@]}" in  *"$opt"*) eval "$3=$opt";return 0;; esac
        echo -e "$opt is not a correct value\n"
    done
}

use it like this:

unipromtp "Select an option: (a)-Do one (x)->Do two (f)->Do three : " "a x f" selection
echo "$selection"

Answer 6

read -p "Are you alright? (y/n) " RESP
if [ "$RESP" = "y" ]; then
  echo "Glad to hear it"
else
  echo "You need more bash programming"
fi