How to detect when user press ESC and do something in shell script

Question

I want to create a poll in a shell script:

echo "1 - What is your name?"
read name
echo "your name is $name"

echo "2 - What is your country?"
read country
echo "your country is $country"
...
...etc...
...

I want if the user press ESC in a question, cancel the question an jump to the next question.

Thanks! I keep in wait for possibles answers!

Have a look here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5297638/bash-how-to-end-infinite-loop-with-any-key-pressed — Bart, Jul 14 '13 at 08:46

score 11 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 14 '13 at 11:21

11

this is how to know if user selected escape :

read -s -n1  key

 case $key in
     $'\e') echo "Escape";;
 esac

answered Jul 14 '13 at 11:21

Nimrod007

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This will only work in `bash` (not all operating systems use `bash` for `/bin/sh` by default). – chepner Jul 14 '13 at 22:35
1

/!\ Important precision, use `$'\e'` as-is (with the `$` and single quotes), not `$"\e"` nor `'\e'`. – Pascal Polleunus Jan 19 '21 at 09:37
2

Actually it doesn't detect only ESC. It's positive also at least with arrows and function keys. – Pascal Polleunus Jan 19 '21 at 09:45

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 14 '13 at 15:04

1

If you end up using bash shell, you might be interested in the "trap" command, which allows you to trap and act on interupts (e.g. ctrl-C)

E.g: http://kb.mit.edu/confluence/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=3907156

answered Jul 14 '13 at 15:04

fig

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How to detect when user press ESC and do something in shell script

2 Answers2