Introduction to Unix

5.11. read¶

Linux for Programmers and Users, Sections 6.3.7

read: The read command is useful for reading data into a variable and as the boolean test of a Control Constructs. Like test, read sets the Exit Code to indicate if a value was read. When the end-of-file (EOF) character is read, it sets the Exit Code to false, so it works well with a while loop when standard input is redirected to read from a file.

Examples:

echo -n "Please enter your name: "
read name
echo "Your name is $name"

while read line
do
    echo $line
done