Where do I put the actual command when it comes to Y/N confirmation?

Question

I was reading this post and found it useful for a script I am trying to write, but where do I put the code to execute if the proper input is given.

My code is as such:

while true; do
    read -p "Do you wish to install this program?" yn 
    case $yn in
        [Yy]* ) make install; break;;
        [Nn]* ) exit;;
        * ) echo "Yes or No";; 
    esac 
done

Now the code i am trying to execute (with confirmation) is:

apt-get install vsftpd

So where does that code actually go? I might just be dumb when it comes to this, but I cannot figure this out.

use a process of elimination. Does it make sense to execute the `N` branch and `exit`? What is left? Or do you need to search for a tutorial that includes a `case ... esac` example? There should be many out there, or search here `[bash] esac` would probably be enough. Good luck. — shellter, Jan 30 '18 at 00:29

Gavin Morton · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-08T14:21:05.287

0

Thanks to @that other guy and @Charles Duffy, i fixed my script by making the script code as follows:

while true; do
    read -p "Do you wish to install $program-name?: " yn 
    case $yn in
        [Yy]* ) echo "some code here"; break;;
        [Nn]* ) break;;
        * ) echo "Yes or No";; 
     esac 
done

Replace $program-name with whatever, and $code with the code you want confirmation for.

edited Feb 08 '18 at 14:21

answered Jan 30 '18 at 00:42

Gavin Morton

15
8

Or you could put the code *after* the loop, not inside it at all. – Charles Duffy Jan 31 '18 at 18:23
No, I mean after the `done`, so outside the loop altogether -- which is where flow control will jump after `break` is executed. – Charles Duffy Feb 01 '18 at 00:41
where does exit go then? – Gavin Morton Feb 01 '18 at 12:49
`exit` stops the script entirely; it doesn't go *anywhere*. – Charles Duffy Feb 01 '18 at 16:27
oh, so if i want the script to keep going, i would use `break` in the `[Nn]` line? – Gavin Morton Feb 02 '18 at 01:29
Correct; if you don't want the script to exit immediately, you shouldn't use `exit`. – Charles Duffy Feb 02 '18 at 01:51
BTW, insofar as `$code` implies that you actually have some code in a variable, [doing that is a Very Bad Idea](http://mywiki.wooledge.org/BashFAQ/050). – Charles Duffy Feb 02 '18 at 01:51

Where do I put the actual command when it comes to Y/N confirmation?

1 Answers1