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@jmatthewturner
Last active May 29, 2025 15:47
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This is the ask.sh BASH script that I downloaded a number of years ago. Apparently it's gone now, so here is my copy. I did not write this, and have made no modifications to it.
# This is a general-purpose function to ask Yes/No questions in Bash, either
# with or without a default answer. It keeps repeating the question until it
# gets a valid answer.
ask() {
# https://gist.github.com/davejamesmiller/1965569
local prompt default reply
if [ "${2:-}" = "Y" ]; then
prompt="Y/n"
default=Y
elif [ "${2:-}" = "N" ]; then
prompt="y/N"
default=N
else
prompt="y/n"
default=
fi
while true; do
# Ask the question (not using "read -p" as it uses stderr not stdout)
echo -n -e "$1 [$prompt] "
# Read the answer (use /dev/tty in case stdin is redirected from somewhere else)
read reply </dev/tty
# Default?
if [ -z "$reply" ]; then
reply=$default
fi
# Check if the reply is valid
case "$reply" in
Y*|y*) return 0 ;;
N*|n*) return 1 ;;
esac
done
}
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