Interpreting Logicals/Environment Variables using the read command

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi All

I have something that from the outset seems really trivial but in practice is not quite working.

I have the following code sample in my shell script which illustrates the problem

echo "enter home directory"
read home
mkdir $home/newdir

The user then enters a logical $HOME in the prompt. This is what is displayed on the screen

enter home directory
$HOME
mkdir: cannot create directory `$HOME/newdir': No such file or directory

If I type the full name into the prompt, it works fine. But this isn't ideal as in the real script, the directory structure could be 10 directories deep. Typing the full path could lead to potential issues.

Is there some way for the read command to interpret environment variables?

Thanks

2 
echo "enter home directory"
read home
eval mkdir $home/newdir
3

try eval

echo "enter home directory"
read home
eval mkdir $home/newdir
4

Thank you, works a treat..