I am trying to modify an option in the shell script I am working on and can't figure out why the menu option is not functioning properly.

when I choose 1 in the menu command, my goal is for the outcome to display "File Directory Listing" from its original
"you chose option one".

However when I alter the message the output given is
invalid option!

I have included my script below.

Sorry for not using code block I am very new and learning so much it is extremely overwhelming.


Any help is appreciated.

Thank you
Tiffney
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#!/bin/bash
PS3='Please enter your choice:'

options=("option 1 -File Directory?" "option 2-?" "option-3?" "Quit")

select opt in "${options[@]}"

do

case $opt in

"option 1-?")
echo "File Directory Listing"

;;

"option 2-?")
echo "you chose option 2"

;;


"option 3-?")
echo "you chose option 3"

;;

"Quit")
break
;;

*) echo invalid option;;

esac

done

Well... You left out a quote in option 2 and option 3... I think that confused the parser into making everything invalid.

Second, You didn't fully specify the option. In you select, you used "option 1 -File Directory?", but you did not use that specific string as the option - so it didn't match.

Third, your "option-3?" is not "option 3-?" so it doesn't match either.

And you still aren't using code blocks.

If you want better error checking, use the -vx options on bash.

You could also echo what your selection was to see what should be matched.

I also suggest you look a little closer at the documentation for the case structure. I think you are going to want to use some wildcards...

I corrected the quotes I left out. It was because I couldn't get the script to paste and had to re-type it.

I don't think I am using code block properly!

You may want to re-read the section on select too. Check the reference to the "REPLY" environment variable. It can shorten you strings for the case structure.

Code blocks are the sequence [ code ] and [ /code ] (without the spaces).

The results look like:
If you go to the "Go Advanced" editing, there are two rows of options above the text window. If you put your mouse over the option it will tell you how to use it (the "#" option is the one that you want).