read(1)                                                         read(1)

  read

  NAME

    read - read line of input from standard input

  SYNOPSIS

    read [-prs] [-u[n]] parameter ...

  DESCRIPTION

    The read(1) utility reads a line of input from standard input, separates
    the line into fields using the shell's IFS parameter, and assigns each
    field to the specified parameters. If there are more parameters than
    fields, the extra parameters are set to null, or alternatively, if there
    are more fields than parameters, the last parameter is assigned the
    remaining fields (inclusive of any separating spaces). If no parameters
    are specified, the REPLY parameter is used.

    In an interactive shell, if the input line ends in a backslash, and the -
    r option was not used, the backslash and newline are stripped, and more
    input is read. If no input is read, read(1) exits with a non-zero status.

    To specify a prompt that is printed to standard error before any input is
    read, append a question mark and the prompt to the first parameter (for
    example, read napple?'number of apples: ').

    The read(1) command takes the following options:

    -p
        Read from the current co-process.

    -r
        Do not treat the backslash (\) as a special character.

    -s
        Save input to the history file.
    -u n
        Read from file descriptor n. If no descriptor is given, file
        descriptor 0 is used.

  SEE ALSO

    sh(1)