Menu Driven Shell Script bash

Question

As a complete novice to this i am trying to make a Shell Script. This will be driven by a menu with options such as delete file. The part i am scuppered by is for example, when the menu is up, how to get from pressing '1', to actually creating a new file (as this is option 1 on my menu) I appreciate this may not be the easiest of questions to understand as my use of technical terms is limited, however i would appreciate any help. Below is an example of the first section of my menu. I feel once i know where to start i'll be fine Menu

[1] Create File
[2] Delete File
[3] Rename file

I'm not very sure that sh or bash is the best tool for that (scripting languages are probably much more adequate). But you need to learn about the read builtin of sh and read tldp.org/LDP/abs/html (which does have shortcomings). — Basile Starynkevitch
– Basile Starynkevitch, Commented Mar 11, 2013 at 18:50
It specifically has to be bash for the task ive been asked to complete. Thanks for your reply tho! — user2157995
– user2157995, Commented Mar 11, 2013 at 18:54

Gilles Quénot · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-11 18:59:51Z

5

Try doing this for example :

select x in "Create File" "Delete File" "Rename file"; do
    echo "$x choosen"
    break
done

Sample output

1) Create File
2) Delete File
3) Rename file
>

Search select in the conditional construct paragraph here

Going further

To run some specific tasks with the result of the $x variable, you can use the case statement (like switch in other languages) like this :

case $x in
    Create*) touch file.txt ;;
    Delete*) rm -f file.txt ;;
    Rename*) mv file.txt file_old.txt ;;
esac

edited Mar 11, 2013 at 18:59

answered Mar 11, 2013 at 18:53

Gilles Quénot

188k43 gold badges232 silver badges229 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

Gilles Quénot Over a year ago

Added case to treat the result

Brahim Gaabab · Accepted Answer · 2013-03-11 18:54:15Z

2

You can do it using switch/case statement. Please have a look on the bash manual or look for similar examples on the Web. Just google "switch case shell example"

Good luck

answered Mar 11, 2013 at 18:54

Brahim Gaabab

3103 silver badges9 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Menu Driven Shell Script bash

2 Answers 2

Sample output

Going further

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Sample output

Going further

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related