Read user input inside a loop

I have found this parameter -u with read.

"-u 1" means "read from stdout"

while read -r newline; do
    ((i++))
    read -u 1 -p "Doing $i""th file, called $newline. Write your answer and press Enter!"
    echo "Processing $newline with $REPLY" # united input from two different read commands.
done <<< $(ls)

Read from the controlling terminal device:

read input </dev/tty

more info: http://compgroups.net/comp.unix.shell/Fixing-stdin-inside-a-redirected-loop

You can redirect the regular stdin through unit 3 to keep the get it inside the pipeline:

{ cat notify-finished | while read line; do
    read -u 3 input
    echo "$input"
done; } 3<&0

BTW, if you really are using cat this way, replace it with a redirect and things become even easier:

while read line; do
    read -u 3 input
    echo "$input"
done 3<&0 <notify-finished

Or, you can swap stdin and unit 3 in that version -- read the file with unit 3, and just leave stdin alone:

while read line <&3; do
    # read & use stdin normally inside the loop
    read input
    echo "$input"
done 3<notify-finished