How to create a list of option and selecting it using arrow key in shell

Question

I need to create a list of option and allow the user to choose from the list using an arrow key, just like how we select the presets when creating a vue project

Have a look at [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/27875395/1765658), there are several ways and tools. (Try the demo!!) — F. Hauri - Give Up GitHub, Nov 29 '20 at 17:20

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 29 '20 at 16:49

Maybe the dialogue utility will help you. It lets you build a menu with options that looks like this, given the following command:

dialog --checklist "Choose toppings:" 10 40 3 \
    1 Cheese on \
    2 "Tomato Sauce" on \
    3 Anchovies off

This example is a multi-select, but there is a radio-select option too.

This page provides examples and a greater description than I ever could:
https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/2807

I refer to it any time I want to build an interactive options in a script; maybe it will help.

score -5 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 25 '19 at 11:29

From what I understand you want something like this

#!/bin/bash
# Bash Script with selection

PS3='What would you like for breakfast? '
menu=("Bacon and Eggs" "PB&J Sandwich" "Cereal" "Quit")
select option in "${menu[@]}"
do
    case $option in
        "Bacon and Eggs")
            echo "Option 1 selected"
            ;;
        "PB&J Sandwich")
            echo "Option 2 selected"
            ;;
        "Cereal")
            echo "Option 3 selected"
            ;;
        "Quit")
            break
            ;;
        *) echo "invalid option $REPLY";;
    esac
done

You can check it out by saving it as menu.sh and run by

sh menu.sh

but this wont allow the user to select the option using arrow key right? — Tan Vee Han, Oct 25 '19 at 11:47

How to create a list of option and selecting it using arrow key in shell

2 Answers2