CODEWITHSUNDEEP
bash
matrixone
matrixone

Reputation: 1

Piping input to script not working properly

This is my shell script (automate_test.sh): 

#!/bin/bash
cp -i ball1.rtf container
cp -i ball2.rtf container
cp -i ball3.rtf container

This is the input file for this script (in_test.txt):

n
y
n

And, I am executing this command : 

cat "in_test.txt" | ./automate_test.sh

Folder named "container" already contains files named "ball1.rtf","ball2.rtf" and "ball3.rtf" Expected behaviour is that only ball2 should be overwritten. But output is as follows :

overwrite container/ball1.rtf? (y/n [n]) not overwritten
overwrite container/ball2.rtf? (y/n [n]) not overwritten
overwrite container/ball3.rtf? (y/n [n]) not overwritten

Upvotes: 0

Views: 175

Answers (1)

dash-o
dash-o

Reputation: 14491

Instead of trying to "talk" with interactive program using static file, consider letting 'cp' know which file to override with command line options:

  • cp -f/--force, to force overwrite of existing file.
  • cp -n/--no-clobber to leave existing file unmodified.

Remember that cp will not prompt for overwrite if the file does not exists, which will cause mismatch between questions and answers.

Upvotes: 1

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