snippetbashTip

read — Shell builtin for retrieving data from `stdin`. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/bash

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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Problem

How to use the read command: Shell builtin for retrieving data from stdin. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html#index-read>.

Solution

read — Shell builtin for retrieving data from stdin. More information: <https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html#index-read>.

Store data that you type from the keyboard:

read {{variable}}

Store each of the next lines you enter as values of an array:

read -a {{array}}

Specify the number of maximum characters to be read:

read -n {{character_count}} {{variable}}

Assign multiple values to multiple variables:

read <<< "{{The surname is Bond}}" {{_ variable1 _ variable2}}

Do not let backslash (\) act as an escape character:

read -r {{variable}}

Display a prompt before the input:

read -p "{{Enter your input here: }}" {{variable}}

Do not echo typed characters (silent mode):

read -s {{variable}}

Read stdin and perform an action on every line:

cat {{/dev/stdin|path/to/file|...}} | while read line; do {{echo|ls|rm|...}} "$line"; done

Code Snippets

Store data that you type from the keyboard

read {{variable}}

Store each of the next lines you enter as values of an array

read -a {{array}}

Specify the number of maximum characters to be read

read -n {{character_count}} {{variable}}

Assign multiple values to multiple variables

read <<< "{{The surname is Bond}}" {{_ variable1 _ variable2}}

Do not let backslash (`\`) act as an escape character

read -r {{variable}}

Context

tldr-pages: common/read

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