Linux script select menu

Question

I need to create a select menu with six options using the select loop and the case instruction BUT NOT THE ECHO COMMAND FOR THE MENU OPTION and they have to display like this:

1) opt1
2) opt2
3) opt3
4) opt4
5) opt5
6) opt6

And not like:

1) opt1 3) opt3 5) opt5
2) opt2 4) opt4 6) opt6

So far I have this code, but the problem is with the display, with 5 options it displays vertically, but with 6 it displays side by side:

#! /bin/sh
PS3="Enter your choice :"
select choice in "opt1" "opt2" "opt3" "opt4" "opt5" "Exit"; do
case $REPLY in
    1) echo "$choice";;
    2) echo "$choice";;
    3) echo "$choice";;
    4) echo "$choice";;
    5) echo "$choice";;
    6) echo "see you next time";break;;
    *) echo "Wrong choice!";;
esac
done

You may find a number of solutions over here: askubuntu.com/questions/1705/… — ayaz
– ayaz, Commented May 25, 2013 at 14:12
on the ubuntu 12.04 system I'm on, /bin/sh is a symlink to dash which does not even have the select command. using bash, the select menu shows up in one column. what shell/distro are you using? — glenn jackman
– glenn jackman, Commented May 25, 2013 at 16:17
bash and ksh have select, but yes, the output is in one column like in my example below even with 6 options on my box as well. What version of bash do you have? — Adrian Frühwirth
– Adrian Frühwirth, Commented May 25, 2013 at 18:46

mpersico · Accepted Answer · 2022-05-03 14:00:28Z

5

Adjusting the COLUMNS variable helps to limit the number of columns in the menu. I typically do (in a script):

COLUMNS=1
select ...

when I want one column all the time.

To be precise, COLUMNS=1 means that your TERMINAL is ONE CHARACTER wide. The select command then has no choice but to then print ONE COLUMN of menu items.

To be REALLY accurate, you could

find the length of the longest item (itemLen)

THIS IS INCORRECT=> 2. find the number of items and mod by ten to get the max number of digits (numberLen) <=

find the total number of items "n" and calculate int(log10(n))+1 (numberLen)
COLUMNS=((itemLen + numberLen = 2))

where the '2' is for the paren and space between the menu item number and the item. But this is not necessary.

edited May 3, 2022 at 14:00

answered Feb 29, 2016 at 16:23

mpersico

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Comments

Uroc327 · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-25 14:31:35Z

3

Try something like this:

menu()
{
    cat <<EOF
  1) opt1
  2) opt2
  3) opt3
  4) opt4
  5) opt5
  6) opt6
  q) quit
EOF

    echo -n "make your choice > <^H^H"
    read -n 1 foo
    echo

    case "$foo" in
        1|opt1) echo "opt1" ;;
        2|opt2) echo "opt2" ;;
        3|opt3) echo "opt3" ;;
        4|opt4) echo "opt4" ;;
        5|opt5) echo "opt5" ;;
        6|opt6) echo "opt6" ;;
        q|quit) echo "bye bye!" ;;
    esac
}

The ^Hs stand for the ASCII sequence 0x08 or BS (backspace).

(In vim you can type this with CTRL+v and then CTRL+h)

answered May 25, 2013 at 14:31

Uroc327

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Comments

Anton N. Petrov · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-27 23:08:10Z

2

I've got the same problem. I didn't understand how exactly select uses LINES and COLUMNS (see "Shell Variables" in the bash man page), but setting COLUMNS to 1 (some small value indeed) helped me.

edited May 27, 2014 at 23:08

answered May 27, 2014 at 23:00

Anton N. Petrov

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1 Comment

syntaxerror Over a year ago

The best explanation I have ever come across is by Mark G. Sobell in his book, here: books.google.com/…

Adrian Frühwirth · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-25 14:55:13Z

1

You can use the select builtin, if available:

#!/bin/bash

select o in opt{1..6}; do
    case "${o}" in
        opt[1-6])
            break
            ;;
        *)
            echo "Invalid choice '${REPLY}', please pick one of the above"
            ;;
    esac
done
echo "You picked: ${o}"

Example run:

$ ./t.sh
1) opt1
2) opt2
3) opt3
4) opt4
5) opt5
6) opt6
#? 9
Invalid choice '9', please pick one of the above
#? asdf
Invalid choice 'asdf', please pick one of the above
#? 1
You picked: opt1

answered May 25, 2013 at 14:55

Adrian Frühwirth

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