Read a variable in bash with a default value

Question

I need to read a value from the terminal in a bash script. I would like to be able to provide a default value that the user can change.

# Please enter your          


        

Answer 1

I found this question, looking for a way to present something like:

Something interesting happened.  Proceed [Y/n/q]:

Using the above examples I deduced this:-

echo -n "Something interesting happened.  "
DEFAULT="y"
read -e -p "Proceed [Y/n/q]:" PROCEED
# adopt the default, if 'enter' given
PROCEED="${PROCEED:-${DEFAULT}}"
# change to lower case to simplify following if
PROCEED="${PROCEED,,}"
# condition for specific letter
if [ "${PROCEED}" == "q" ] ; then
  echo "Quitting"
  exit
# condition for non specific letter (ie anything other than q/y)
# if you want to have the active 'y' code in the last section
elif [ "${PROCEED}" != "y" ] ; then
  echo "Not Proceeding"
else
  echo "Proceeding"
  # do proceeding code in here
fi

Hope that helps someone to not have to think out the logic, if they encounter the same problem