Retaining variable info if no input

[cbillson]

I'm wanting to have defaults to some questions in a test script so i can just press enter if no data changes - currently though it sets the variable to blank... any help on how i can stop it doing this?

In this example i want $testvar to remain as no, however it sets it blank

testvar=no

read -p "change a setting $testvar : " testvar

echo $testvar

[steeldriver]

Have a look at the ${parameter-default}, ${parameter:-default} constructs here

http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/parameter-substitution.html

[cbillson]

That worked great - thanks

[Bucky Ball]

Thread moved to Programming Talk.