For menus and confirm prompts where you want one-key response (no need to press Enter). -n 1 reads exactly one character, -s silences the echo.
Bash
read -n 1 -p "Continue? (y/n) " key
echo
[[ "$key" == "y" ]] && echo "Continuing…"
# Silent (no echo) — good for password-style entry
read -s -p "Password: " pw
echo
echo "Got ${#pw} chars"
# Read with a timeout (in seconds)
if read -t 5 -n 1 -p "Press any key (5s)… " key; then
echo " got $key"
else
echo " (timed out)"
fiSave your own code snippets
Create a free account and build your private vault. Share publicly whenever you want.