I'm writing a Bash script where I'd like to capture a user's input immediately after they press a specific key, say 'x'. Currently, I have this snippet:
```bash
cat <<EOF
Press x
EOF
read response
if [[ $response == 'x' ]]; then
printf "you did it!"
else
printf "dummy"i
```
This requires the user to press 'x' followed by 'Enter'. Is there a way to make it listen for the 'x' key without needing to press Enter?
2 Answers
Heredoc for a single line does seem a bit overkill, right? If you're just displaying a simple prompt, you could print it directly and then read the input. Just curious, is there any specific reason you're leaning towards using heredoc?
You can use the `read` command with the `-rn1` flags to only read one character at a time. Here’s how your code might look:
```bash
read -rn1 response
```
This will allow the script to immediately respond after the user presses 'x' without needing the Enter key!
Awesome, thanks for the tip!
This was just an example; in the real script, it's a bit longer. I've been accustomed to using hereditary docs for readability in web programming. Just wondering if there are downsides.