Shell Programming and Scripting

Hi, i facing a problem when run the script below..


while [ -z "$ea_ident" -o -n "`grep 2>/dev/null \"^EA $ea_ident$\" $EA_run_file`" ]
do

if [ $all_OMC -ne 1 ]
then
printf "Please enter a name : [${omc_ident}] "
read response # the problem occur here

if [ -z "$response" ]
then
ea_ident=${omc_ident}
else
#
# Check that name does not contain invalid characters
#
ea_ident=`echo $response | tr -d "/ \011"`

if [ -z "${ea_ident}" -o "${ea_ident}" != "${response}" ]
then
echo
echo "Sorry, not a valid name!"
echo "Must not contain spaces, tabs or '/'."
echo
ea_ident=
fi
fi
else
ea_ident=${omc_ident}
fi


if [ -n "`grep 2>/dev/null \"EA $ea_ident$\" $EA_run_file`" ]
then
echo "That name is already in use."
fi

done



$ea_ident is a data , when get into the loop, when excute read command, shell suppose to pause and wait for user input...

But in my case, its not and straight away execute the
next statement -> if [ -z "$response" ] ,

i did try to use </dev/tty but yet still no use..

Please post me any solution for this... Thanks

Maybe silly question :
Why "printf "Please ..."
All your other lines, you used echo...

I just simply put it..
but i dont think it will cause this problem...

How can you be sure you entered in the loop?

Im pretty sure if I put:

printf "Please enter a name : [${omc_ident}] "
read response # the problem occur here

in a script, it would display and prompt for answer

actually in my scritps, i did follow the flow by put echo messages
and it was entered the loop
and execute both printf and read command, but it didnt pause for user input..

do u have any idea,how to solve this problem ... Thanks

ant:/home/vbe/scripts $ all_OMC=2
ant:/home/vbe/scripts $ if [ $all_OMC -ne 1 ]^Jthen^Jprintf "Please enter a name : [>
Please enter a name : []

It does works...
So I believe it before and you dont enter the condition...
Why not try with sh -x ?

Your code seems to work fine for me as well, both on Linux and HP-UX.

How are you actually running this script? In what shell and on what OS?