Mike Branda wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-10-05 at 18:19 -0400, Kwan Lowe wrote:
>
>>Mike Branda wrote:
>>
>>>anybody know how to in essence "auto fill" a read in sh/bash??
>>>
>>>for example:
>>>
>>>foo.sh runs another program inside itself that asks a question and then
>>>waits for a return off of a read. Based on a test of the question
>>>(redirected from stdout?) a predefined variable is entered as the answer
>>>and then returned somehow to the inside program.
>>>
>>>Is this possible? I have a config program that has to be run multiple
>>>times (different machines) with the same answers.
>>
>>I'm not certain but are you talking about some sort of default entry?
>>
>
>
> Yes
>
>
>>Can you give a more concrete example of what you're trying to accomplish?
>
>
> I'm not sure how but I'll try to explain it better. If you're asking
> for an example script...I'm not sure where to start this one... but if
> need be after this, I will try.
>
> Basically, I dont want to have to answer the same exact questions
> dozens of times. I want to do it once by hand, record the questions and
> my answers, look for what's unique in each question with the outer
> script and insert the proper answer stored in a variable form. All
> automated after the first one by hand. The alternative would be to hack
> the config file not to ask the questions (input reads) and just set it
> to the answers although there are a lot of if's to handle the returned
> possibilities.
>
> If the idea (auto filling the answers) is too clunky it's o.k. but I was
> wondering if it's even possible.
As Eben had mentioned, this sounds like something for 'expect'. You can
use it to "listen" for a particular string and then send a response.
Another option if you control the script that asks the questions is to
set default entries with the following syntax:
${foo:=bar}
This can be used like this:
---start
#!/bin/sh
echo "Enter something"
read foo
userinput=${foo:="yabbadabba"}
echo "foo is ${userinput}"
---end
If you run the script and enter a value, $userinput will contain the
value. If you just press enter, it will default to "yabbadabba".
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