The "program" in your 1st posting is not a valid shell script (although most shells will accept it without complaining. The only valid uses of break and continue are when they are used within a for loop, an until loop, or a while loop. If the script you posted:

Code:

echo "Wanna continue (y/n):\c"
read answer
if [ "$answer" = y ]
then
continue
else
break
fi

is run using bash on OS X, it will either say:

Code:

filename: line 7: break: only meaningful in a `for', `while', or `until' loop

or:

Code:

filename: line 5: continue: only meaningful in a `for', `while', or `until' loop

By the logic you're using above and the shell program below:

Code:

printf "Wanna continue (y/n): "
read answer
if [ "$answer" = y ]
then    exit 0
else    printf "This script will continue.\n"
fi
... ... ...

there is a link between read, exit, and printf (or any other utilities you happen to execute if the value of a condition based on the value of a variable is true or false.

What I was saying about awk is that it can be used interactively or non-interactively. I can also say that bash, ksh, and perl can be used interactively or non-interactively. I have seen a sudoku game that reads the initial values from a file and then interactively reads commands from the user to set open positions to values supplied by the user (and optionally notes all values that could be entered into any unset position based on values that have already been set in that position's quadrant, row, and column). I have seen a similar sudoku game written in ksh93. I have a lot of shell scripts that perform non-interactive updates to homegrown databases (sometimes invoking awk to perform some of the work). Classifying awk, bash, ksh, or perl as interactive or non-interactive seems to me to just show a lack of imagination.

There are many non-interactive scripts where I would find all of the above tools to be bad choices depending on what the script is supposed to do. There are many interactive scripts where I would find all of the above tools to be bad choices depending on what the script is supposed to do. There are many interactive and non-interactive scripts where any or all of the above tools would be good choices depending on what the script is supposed to do.

Look at the requirements for a project and choose appropriate tools to fulfill those requirements. Don't restrict the tools you have in your toolbox based on someone's predefined notion of how those tools are most frequently used.

And hanson44 has just supplied you with several real life examples of using break and continue in loops. Whether these uses are interactive or non-interactive depends on where the input is coming from and what else is going on in the code before and after the given fragments.