I need to accept user input within a shell script that can run both in BASH and ZSH. I'm accustomed to using readline in other languages, but this doesn't seem to be a viable option in shell scripting.
An example prompt might be:
Please enter the value> 1234_
How can I present a user with editable input that has a default value that can be edited (backspaced) that's compatible with both shells?
User @cyrus mentioned in the comments, but is better directly as an answer instead:
read -e -p 'Please enter the value> ' -i '1234' myvar
echo $myvar
results in an editable default of 1234
Please enter the value> 1234
1234
If I did not misunderstand ... In terms of "Backspace" functionality, to erase the last characters and add some new .. This works in both shells with a simple "read" in the script.
echo -n "Enter value > "
read v
echo $v
If you have other issues, could you kindly rephrase to make your question clearer ? What do you use (Example Code). What do you perform exactly in terms of editing (only BS or do you mean line editing commands CTRL-A, etc) What is the result / error, what you want to get fixed. Thanks.