What is the Linux equivalent to DOS pause?

bash, linux, shell

Solution

`read` does this:

user@host:~$ read -n1 -r -p "Press any key to continue..." key
[...]
user@host:~$

The `-n1` specifies that it only waits for a single character. The `-r` puts it into raw mode, which is necessary because otherwise, if you press something like backslash, it doesn't register until you hit the next key. The `-p` specifies the prompt, which must be quoted if it contains spaces. The `key` argument is only necessary if you want to know which key they pressed, in which case you can access it through `$key`.

If you are using Bash, you can also specify a timeout with `-t`, which causes read to return a failure when a key isn't pressed. So for example:

read -t5 -n1 -r -p 'Press any key in the next five seconds...' key
if [ "$?" -eq "0" ]; then
    echo 'A key was pressed.'
else
    echo 'No key was pressed.'
fi

Problem

I have a Bash shell script in which I would like to pause execution until the user presses a key. In DOS, this is easily accomplished with the `pause` command. Is there a Linux equivalent I can use in my script?

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