command does not work

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

need help, trying make a command where the user presses any keys and it will go to the home page, however it doesnt work, why ?

echo -p "press any key to return to main menu" menu
if [[ $menu -gt 1 ]]; then
echo -p "\n"
home
fi
2

What system and shell are you using? What error are you getting?

3

im using unix and the error is that it wont execute it so it just shows the text "press any key to return to main menu" and finishes like that.

4

It's working as expected. The way it is, there is no variable $menu so the test fails.
Try this:

echo -p "press any key to return to main menu"
read menu
if [[ $menu -gt 1 ]]; then
echo -p "\n"
home
fi
5

That will blow up when the user just hits enter because menu will be a blank string, evaluating to [[ -gt 1 ]], which is a syntax error.

Try if [[ "$menu" -gt 1 ]]; then

6

I was focusing on the read command and not the rest. Thanks.

---------- Post updated at 02:04 PM ---------- Previous update was at 01:46 PM ----------

Actually, in the korn shell, the double brackets mean use the shell built-in test and it handles the variable being null, thus the code would not error, it would continue after the end of the if statement. Case in point:

#!/bin/ksh

unset qwaszx

if [[ $qwaszx > 1 ]]; then
  print in here
else
  print here instead
fi

Output:

 $ ./aa
here instead
$

Nonetheless, for clarity and possible portability to other shells I would still quote the variable inside the test as a matter of good practice.

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