Creating a menu within a script file

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I am very new to Unix and know the basic commands. I have to write a script file and I'm completely lost. The script file is to show the following at the beginning:

Menu of Options

  1. Display all files in a user's home directory.
  2. Welcome yourself to the program.
  3. Display System Information
  4. Exit back to Windows

I have been able to get this to display by use of the echo command. Beyond that, I have no idea what to do. I have search endlessly online for a way to create a menu in Unix and this is all I have to show for it. I also need a line that says "Please enter your choice." Once the user enters a choice, I have no idea how to write the various commands to perform what needs to be done.

Options 3 and 4 seem straightforward if I could get started. However, in option 1 the following criteria have to be met:

  1. Display all files in a user's home directory. This should allow the user to look at any user's home directory, provided they enter the correct user name.
  2. Put in a safeguard that if the user does not enter a name, that the current user's home directories display.

I have no idea how to work with Option 2.

I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone would please help me with this. Thank you.

2

have a look at this

#!/bin/ksh
print "Select a terminal type"
cat << ENDINPUT
sun
ansi
wyse50
ENDINPUT
print -n "Which would you prefer? "
read termchoice

# this kind of code will let you display a menu and get input.
# and then use a case statmet to do each menu item selected.

case $termchoice
sun)
print "do stuff for a sun terminal"
;;
ansi)
print "do other stuff for a ansi terminal"
;;
wyse50)
print "do stuff for a wyse terminal"
;;
*)
print "Invalid option, Please try again. Use �1�-�3�"
;;
esac

3

Robs,

Thank you for the reply, but I'm still confused after reading it. For example, I have no idea what the "cat << ENDINPUT" means. What do "sun," "ansi," and "wyse50" have to do with anything? It would be much easier if you could use the information I provided to include with your response.

I can kinda figure out that "termchoice" relates to the selection that the user makes from the menu. However, you then have "sun", ansi, and wyse50 followed by a single parentheses on the following line. I don't get that at all either. Please provide an example that has to do with the information I gave. I could understand that much better. Thank you.

4

The example he's given is just that - an example. Start by adapting that to get you close to what you need then we can help make the changes to get it just right.

cat << ENDINPUT
sun
ansi
wyse50
ENDINPUT

Just means to output to the screen everything up until 'ENDINPUT'. It's just an easier way to print multiple lines.
the ';;' within each case tells the script to stop checking the rest of the case options once it gets a match.

5

#!/bin/ksh
while true
do
print "What do you need to do today?"

cat << ENDINPUT # this is the start of a "here document"

  1. Display all files in a user's home directory.
  2. Welcome yourself to the program.
  3. Display System Information
  4. Exit back to Windows
    ENDINPUT # this marks the end of the "here document"

print -n "Please enter your choice."
read option

case $option # this is a case statment , much like many if/then statments
1)
print "here we do all the code for option 1"
;;
2)
print "here we do all the code for option 2"
;;
3)
print "here we do all the code for option 3"
;;
4)
print "here we do all the code for option 4"
exit 0 # this will exit back to the shell
;;

*) # this line will catch anything other than 1-4 options.
print "Invalid option, Please try again. Use �1�-�4�"
;;
esac # this ugly bit is the end marker of the case statment.
done

for more infomation on the "here document" stuff have a read on google.
BTW this code is untested and so probly has bugs :slight_smile:

6

Robs,

Thanks again. I'm now able to get the menu to display and I'm starting to slowly understand what you're posting. However, after the second "endinput", I have print -n "Please make a choice:" The problem is that when I run the program it says this:

print: Command not found.

I'd appreciate your help with this.

7

try echo insted of print.

8

Robs,

Echo produces the same result:

Echo: command not found

9

Robs,

Please ignore that last post. I tried echo and it worked. I must've done something wrong the first time I tried it. Now it's on to doing the code. I'll keep this thread going with the code I use and any problems I run into. Thank you very, very much for your help.:slight_smile: