how to customize select loop in bash

Question

I was wondering if is possible customize the select loop for bash.

I have this code:

select varName in list
do
case $varName in
    pattern1)
        command1;;
    pattern2)
        command2;;
    pattern1)
        command3;;
    *)
        echo "Error select option 1..3";;
esac            
done

Output is something like this:

 1) columbia    3) challenger  5) atlantis    7) pathfinder
 2) endeavour   4) discovery   6) enterprise
 #?

I would like to order the options in landscape view and also change the prompt [#?] by something else

Thanks

This question might be better suited for: unix.stackexchange.com — Seth McClaine
– Seth McClaine, Commented Nov 17, 2015 at 4:19

jmunsch · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-17 04:39:48Z

2

select displays the PS3 prompt.

You could try something like:

echo $PS3
old_PS3=$PS3
export PS3="make a selection :D"
list='columbia challenger atlantis pathfinder endeavour discovery enterprise'
select varName in $list
do
case $varName in
    pattern1)
        command1;;
    pattern2)
        command2;;
    pattern1)
        command3;;
    *)
        echo "Error select option 1..3";;
esac            
done
# set PS3 back to original
export PS3=$old_PS3

answered Nov 17, 2015 at 4:39

jmunsch

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3 Comments

shaveax Over a year ago

This works thanks, and what about landscape view ? , i appreciate it ;)

jmunsch Over a year ago

@shaveax Without getting into some quirky things using awk, and setting IFS and OFS, i would suggest looking into something like whiptail if you want to format the menus.

jmunsch Over a year ago

Also see: unix.stackexchange.com/questions/203309/… basically instead of trying to force select into a format you could use different tools to do the formatting something like column or printf or just plain old echo and a case statement.

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