Options Select

An interactive cross-platform select menu for BASH & ZSH with no dependencies.

Install

Either source the script or install it directly into preferred /bin directory.

For Debian based systems install into the ~/.local/bin/ (replace the link with current repo one):

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hinell/options-select-bash/master/options.select.bash -o ~/.local/bin/options.select.bash && chmod +x ~/.local/bin/options.select.bash

Auto install

Use the following script to automatically install the options.select on request. Once installed, you can follow steps described above.

declare scriptURL="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hinell/options-select-bash/master/options.select.bash";
declare scriptInstallPath="$HOME/.local/bin/options.select.bash";
[[ -s "$scriptInstallPath" ]] && return 0; # already installed;

echo -e "\e[;38;2;255;200;0mThis script requires external options.select.\n"\
"You want to automatically install it? (y=continue, Enter=abort\e[0m)"\

read YESNO
[[ "$YESNO" == 'y'  ]] || {
    echo "Aborting... See for more info https://github.com/hinell/options-select-bash.git";
    return -1;
};
curl $scriptURL -o "$scriptInstallPath";

chmod +x "$scriptInstallPath";

Uninstall

$ rm ~/.local/bin/options.select.bash

Usage

Importing

The following script imports options-select and lists options so you can choose them. It also sets up a custom prompt. The output can be read from the respective variables. These variables aren't available if script is invoked from prompt.

# src/myscript.bash
. options-select.bash

# Input
options=(one two three);
prompt="Please, select choice! [%index]/[%total]";

# Selection
# Options var is passed without dollar sign
options.select options $prompt;

# The output
echo "INDEX        => $?"
echo "INDEX        => $SELECTED_IDX"
echo "SELECTED     => $SELECTED" # <- Selected value

CLI

./options.select.bash --version        # print version
./options.select.bash from foo bar baz # select 3 opts; the 'from" is a command

Keyboard controls

Key	Description
🠉	Mover cursor up
🠋	Mover cursor down
Enter	Select entry (SELECTED is set, see above), index is returned
CTRL+C	Abort and return -1

Examples

Run ./examples.bash file from the termian to see the script in action.

Support status

No guarantee, support or maintanance until paid.

Platforms

Terminals:

• Bash - 5.1.4
• Zsh - 5.8

Operating systems:

• Ubuntu 21.04
• Kubuntu 21.04

How it works?

It relies heavily on ANSI and Terminal Emulation Software escape codes. It was written over a course of 7 days and under huge load of coffee cups 🍵. You are welcome to tip me off you like.

Credits

• Huge respect goes to Alexander K. on StackOverflow who inspired this script.

See also

• inquirer.js - Terminal user interface written in JS for NodeJS
• survey - Similar, but written in Go
• man console_codes
• man terminfo

A collection of common interactive command line user interfaces.

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Copyright (C) 2021- [email protected]