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

The -e and -t parameter does not work together. i tried some expressions and the result was the following code snippet :

QMESSAGE="SHOULD I DO YES OR NO"
YMESSAGE="I DO"
NMESSAGE="I DO NOT"
FMESSAGE="PLEASE ENTER Y or N"
COUNTDOWN=2
DEFAULTVALUE=n
#----------------------------------------------------------------#
function REQUEST ()
{
read -n1 -t$COUNTDOWN -p "$QMESSAGE ? Y/N " INPUT
    INPUT=${INPUT:-$DEFAULTVALUE}
    if  [ "$INPUT" = "y" -o "$INPUT" = "Y" ] ;then
        echo -e "\n$YMESSAGE\n"
        #COMMANDEXECUTION
    elif    [ "$INPUT" = "n" -o "$INPUT" = "N" ] ;then
        echo -e "\n$NMESSAGE\n"
        #COMMANDEXECUTION
    else
        echo -e "\n$FMESSAGE\n"
    REQUEST
    fi
}
REQUEST