[SOLVED] Default answer

battles · 07-10-2014, 02:06 PM

I have this alias:

alias rm='rm -i'

and I would like for it to accept y upon just hitting enter.

Thanks.

szboardstretcher · 07-10-2014, 02:10 PM

You want it to default to 'y'? You'll have to change the code and recompile it then.

battles · 07-10-2014, 02:13 PM

Thanks. I have seen programs ask question during installs and I was under the false impression that there was some way of doing this.

szboardstretcher · 07-10-2014, 02:39 PM

Well,.. if you dont want to press enter everytime, but want to auto-yes it you can always pipe an echo to it:

Code:

echo y|rm -i whatever

or use yes

Code:

yes | rm -i whatever

But having it default to yes so you can press enter isn't possible AFAIK.

joe_2000 · 07-11-2014, 06:42 PM

You could put a small script into your bin directory that does what you want. Then point your alias to the script.
The script could look similar to this:

Code:

#!/bin/bash
for i in $*; do  
        read -r -p "Delete $i? [Y/n] " userinput
        case $userinput in
            [nN][oO]|[nN]) 
                echo "Not deleted"
                ;;  
            *)  
                rm -f $i               # Add the -r flag here if you also want to be able to delete directories
                echo "Deleted"
                ;;  
        esac
done