Bash script "read" not pausing for user input when executed from SSH shell

Question

I'm new to Bash scripting, so please be gentle.

I'm connected to a Ubuntu server via SSH (PuTTY) and when I run this command, I expect the bash script that downloads and executes to allow user input and then echo that input. It seems to just write out the echo label for the input request and terminate.

wget -O - https://raw.github.com/aaronhancock/pub/master/bash/readtest.sh | bash

Any clue what I might be doing wrong?

UPDATE: This bash command does exactly what I wanted

bash <(wget -q -O - https://raw.github.com/aaronhancock/pub/master/bash/readtest.sh)

There is no need to update the question with the contents of the answer. The accepted answer is visible below anyway. — Michał Politowski
– Michał Politowski, Commented Nov 30, 2012 at 17:26
My update was slightly different than the accepted answer below, so I thought I would share. — Aaron Hancock
– Aaron Hancock, Commented Nov 30, 2012 at 18:00

bmk · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-30 16:20:14Z

1

Jonathan already mentioned: bash takes its stdin from the pipe. And therefore you cannot pipe the script into bash when you want to interactively input something. But you could use the process substitution feature of bash (assumed your login shell is a bash):

bash <(wget -O - https://raw.github.com/aaronhancock/pub/master/bash/readtest.sh)

answered Nov 30, 2012 at 16:20

bmk

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Michał Politowski Over a year ago

Or just wget to a file and then execute. No need for rocket science, I would say.

Jonathan · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-30 16:12:48Z

0

Bash is taking stdin from the pipe, not from the terminal. So you can't pipe a script to bash and still use the "read" command for user input.

Notice that you have the same problem if you save the script to a local file and pipe it to bash:

less readtest.sh | bash

answered Nov 30, 2012 at 16:12

Jonathan

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Aaron Hancock Over a year ago

Jonathan, is there a way to get user input from the bash script through SSH then?

Aaron Hancock · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-30 17:10:19Z

0

I found this also works and helps keep the data in the current scope.

eval "wget -q -O - https://raw.github.com/aaronhancock/pub/master/bash/readtest.sh"

answered Nov 30, 2012 at 17:10

Aaron Hancock

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