NAME
line — read one line from user input
DESCRIPTION
line
copies one line (up to a new-line) from the standard input
and writes it on the standard output.
It returns an exit code of 1 on
EOF
and always prints at least a new-line.
It is often used within shell files to read from the user's terminal.
Options
line
recognizes the following command-line option:
- -t timeout
Timeout after
timeout
seconds where
timeout
is an integer value (if a non-integer value is specified,
it is converted to an integer; i.e., rounded down).
A blank is required between
-t
and the
timeout
argument.
This option is not documented in
POSIX
and other industry standards, and should not be used in portable applications.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES
International Code Set Support
Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.
EXAMPLES
The following lines in a shell script prompt for a file name
and display information about the file:
echo 'Enter file name: \c'
reply=`line`
ls -l $reply
To limit the response time to 10 seconds, use the form:
then test for no response.
If no response occurs before timeout expires,
a default behavior should be provided.
WARNINGS
This command is likely to be withdrawn from X/Open standards. Applications
using this command might not be portable to other vendors' systems. As
an alternative
read
is recommended.
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
line: SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG3
