Multi-select menu in bash script

Solution 1:

I think you should take a look at dialog or whiptail.

dialog box

Edit:

Here's an example script using the options from your question:

#!/bin/bash
cmd=(dialog --separate-output --checklist "Select options:" 22 76 16)
options=(1 "Option 1" off    # any option can be set to default to "on"
         2 "Option 2" off
         3 "Option 3" off
         4 "Option 4" off)
choices=$("${cmd[@]}" "${options[@]}" 2>&1 >/dev/tty)
clear
for choice in $choices
do
    case $choice in
        1)
            echo "First Option"
            ;;
        2)
            echo "Second Option"
            ;;
        3)
            echo "Third Option"
            ;;
        4)
            echo "Fourth Option"
            ;;
    esac
done

Solution 2:

If you think whiptail is complex, here it goes a bash-only code that does exactly what you want. It's short (~20 lines), but a bit cryptic for a begginner. Besides showing "+" for checked options, it also provides feedback for each user action ("invalid option", "option X was checked"/unchecked, etc).

That said, there you go!

Hope you enjoy... its was quite a fun challenge to make it :)

#!/bin/bash

# customize with your own.
options=("AAA" "BBB" "CCC" "DDD")

menu() {
    echo "Avaliable options:"
    for i in ${!options[@]}; do 
        printf "%3d%s) %s\n" $((i+1)) "${choices[i]:- }" "${options[i]}"
    done
    if [[ "$msg" ]]; then echo "$msg"; fi
}

prompt="Check an option (again to uncheck, ENTER when done): "
while menu && read -rp "$prompt" num && [[ "$num" ]]; do
    [[ "$num" != *[![:digit:]]* ]] &&
    (( num > 0 && num <= ${#options[@]} )) ||
    { msg="Invalid option: $num"; continue; }
    ((num--)); msg="${options[num]} was ${choices[num]:+un}checked"
    [[ "${choices[num]}" ]] && choices[num]="" || choices[num]="+"
done

printf "You selected"; msg=" nothing"
for i in ${!options[@]}; do 
    [[ "${choices[i]}" ]] && { printf " %s" "${options[i]}"; msg=""; }
done
echo "$msg"

Solution 3:

Here's a way to do exactly what you want using only Bash features with no external dependencies. It marks the current selections and allows you to toggle them.

#!/bin/bash
# Purpose: Demonstrate usage of select and case with toggleable flags to indicate choices
# 2013-05-10 - Dennis Williamson

choice () {
    local choice=$1
    if [[ ${opts[choice]} ]] # toggle
    then
        opts[choice]=
    else
        opts[choice]=+
    fi
}

PS3='Please enter your choice: '
while :
do
    clear
    options=("Option 1 ${opts[1]}" "Option 2 ${opts[2]}" "Option 3 ${opts[3]}" "Done")
    select opt in "${options[@]}"
    do
        case $opt in
            "Option 1 ${opts[1]}")
                choice 1
                break
                ;;
            "Option 2 ${opts[2]}")
                choice 2
                break
                ;;
            "Option 3 ${opts[3]}")
                choice 3
                break
                ;;
            "Option 4 ${opts[4]}")
                choice 4
                break
                ;;
            "Done")
                break 2
                ;;
            *) printf '%s\n' 'invalid option';;
        esac
    done
done

printf '%s\n' 'Options chosen:'
for opt in "${!opts[@]}"
do
    if [[ ${opts[opt]} ]]
    then
        printf '%s\n' "Option $opt"
    fi
done

For ksh, change the first two lines of the function:

function choice {
    typeset choice=$1

and the shebang to #!/bin/ksh.

Solution 4:

I wrote a library called questionnaire, which is a mini-DSL for creating command line questionnaires. It prompts the user to answer a series of questions and prints the answers to stdout.

It makes your task really easy. Install it with pip install questionnaire and create a script, e.g. questions.py, like this:

from questionnaire import Questionnaire
q = Questionnaire(out_type='plain')

q.add_question('options', prompt='Choose some options', prompter='multiple',
               options=['Option 1', 'Option 2', 'Option 3', 'Option 4'], all=None)

q.run()

Then run python questions.py. When you're done answering the questions they're printed to stdout. It works with Python 2 and 3, one of which is almost certainly installed on your system.

It can handle much more complicated questionnaires as well, in case anyone wants to do this. Here are some features:

Prints answers as JSON (or as plain text) to stdout
Allows users to go back and reanswer questions
Supports conditional questions (questions can depend on previous answers)
Supports the following types of questions: raw input, choose one, choose many
No mandatory coupling between question presentation and answer values

Solution 5:

Here's a bash function that allows user to select multiple options with arrow keys and Space, and confirm with Enter. It has a nice menu-like feel. I wrote it with the help of https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/415155. It can be called like this:

multiselect result "Option 1;Option 2;Option 3" "true;;true"

The result is stored as an array in a variable with the name supplied as the first argument. Last argument is optional and is used for making some options selected by default. It looks like this.

function prompt_for_multiselect {

    # little helpers for terminal print control and key input
    ESC=$( printf "\033")
    cursor_blink_on()   { printf "$ESC[?25h"; }
    cursor_blink_off()  { printf "$ESC[?25l"; }
    cursor_to()         { printf "$ESC[$1;${2:-1}H"; }
    print_inactive()    { printf "$2   $1 "; }
    print_active()      { printf "$2  $ESC[7m $1 $ESC[27m"; }
    get_cursor_row()    { IFS=';' read -sdR -p $'\E[6n' ROW COL; echo ${ROW#*[}; }
    key_input()         {
      local key
      IFS= read -rsn1 key 2>/dev/null >&2
      if [[ $key = ""      ]]; then echo enter; fi;
      if [[ $key = $'\x20' ]]; then echo space; fi;
      if [[ $key = $'\x1b' ]]; then
        read -rsn2 key
        if [[ $key = [A ]]; then echo up;    fi;
        if [[ $key = [B ]]; then echo down;  fi;
      fi 
    }
    toggle_option()    {
      local arr_name=$1
      eval "local arr=(\"\${${arr_name}[@]}\")"
      local option=$2
      if [[ ${arr[option]} == true ]]; then
        arr[option]=
      else
        arr[option]=true
      fi
      eval $arr_name='("${arr[@]}")'
    }

    local retval=$1
    local options
    local defaults

    IFS=';' read -r -a options <<< "$2"
    if [[ -z $3 ]]; then
      defaults=()
    else
      IFS=';' read -r -a defaults <<< "$3"
    fi
    local selected=()

    for ((i=0; i<${#options[@]}; i++)); do
      selected+=("${defaults[i]}")
      printf "\n"
    done

    # determine current screen position for overwriting the options
    local lastrow=`get_cursor_row`
    local startrow=$(($lastrow - ${#options[@]}))

    # ensure cursor and input echoing back on upon a ctrl+c during read -s
    trap "cursor_blink_on; stty echo; printf '\n'; exit" 2
    cursor_blink_off

    local active=0
    while true; do
        # print options by overwriting the last lines
        local idx=0
        for option in "${options[@]}"; do
            local prefix="[ ]"
            if [[ ${selected[idx]} == true ]]; then
              prefix="[x]"
            fi

            cursor_to $(($startrow + $idx))
            if [ $idx -eq $active ]; then
                print_active "$option" "$prefix"
            else
                print_inactive "$option" "$prefix"
            fi
            ((idx++))
        done

        # user key control
        case `key_input` in
            space)  toggle_option selected $active;;
            enter)  break;;
            up)     ((active--));
                    if [ $active -lt 0 ]; then active=$((${#options[@]} - 1)); fi;;
            down)   ((active++));
                    if [ $active -ge ${#options[@]} ]; then active=0; fi;;
        esac
    done

    # cursor position back to normal
    cursor_to $lastrow
    printf "\n"
    cursor_blink_on

    eval $retval='("${selected[@]}")'
}

Multi-select menu in bash script

Solution 1:

Solution 2:

Solution 3:

Solution 4:

Solution 5:

Tags:

Scripting

Bash

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