Shell Programming and Scripting

Would it not be better practice to avoid the while true ..... break altogether and code the function like this:-

Code:

_prompt () {
var=no
while [ "$var" != "yes" ]
do
   echo "$1"
   read var
done }

This is assuming that yes is the only allowed input, not Yes, YES, y or yes! Are any variations to be allowed?


I hate break almost as much as goto or switch in other languages because inserting extra code are change the whole logic and (as you have found out) it's hard to work out where it will break to.


Does this give you clarity?

Robin

Or keep the original order of commands but make the read part of the loop condition; if it fails the loop will end.

Code:

_prompt () {
  while
    echo "$1"
    read var && [ "$var" != "yes" ]
  do
    :
  done
}

The shell allows a code list between while-do (and if-then) - just like the usual code list between do-done (and then-fi). The code list may not be empty, at least must have a nop command like :.