Hi there. I'm trying to teach myself UNIX but the book I bought is a bit confusing. I'm trying out this exercise and I think I'm on the right track, but I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to improve what I have so far. Also, I'm not clear on how to use the read command to utilize the user's input (#'s 4-7). I appreciate your help!

 
#!/bin/bash
while:
do
clear
# Display menu
echo
echo  "*************************************************************"    
echo  "Please choose from the following options; type the" 
echo  "option number and hit the <Enter> key."
echo
echo  "   1) To list names of the files in the current DIR"
echo  "   2) Display today's date and time"
echo  "   3) Display a sorted list of people currently logged on"
echo  "   4) Display whether a file is a file or a DIR"
echo  "   5) Create a backup for a file"
echo  "   6) Find a user by First of Last name in /etc/passwd file"
echo  "   7) Find the manual pages for a specific command"
echo  "   8) Exit"
echo
echo  "*************************************************************"  
 
read option
 
case "$option" in 
    1)    echo "The files in the current DIR are: " 
          ls -l 
          echo "Hit <Enter> to continue." 
          read ignore 
          ;; 
 
    2)    echo "The current date is: " 
          date 
          unset date 
          echo "Hit <Enter> to continue." 
          read ignore 
          ;; 
 
    3)    echo "The following is a list of the academic scholars" 
          echo "currently logged in:" 
          who | cut -d " " -f1 | sort     
          echo "Hit <Enter> to continue." 
          read ignore 
          ;; 
 
    4)    echo "Enter file to determine whether a "simple" file or a" 
          echo "directory:" 
 
    5)    echo "Enter the file you would like to create a backup for:" 
 
 
    6)    echo "Enter user's first or last name:" 
 
 
    7)    echo "Enter command for which you would like the manual:" 
 
 
    8)    echo "Thank You for using Skynet" 
          echo "Remember: Skynet is the Future" 
          sleep 1.5 
          clear 
          exit 0 
          ;; 
 
    *)   echo "Invalid option; try running the program again." 
         exit 1 
         ;;    
 
esac
 
done.
 
exit 0