A bash script that reads a file name from the user and display its contents

Here are the simple bash script that reads a file name from the user and displays its contents on the terminal:

1. Create a new file as mentioned below.

vi display_file.sh

2. Copy and paste below simple bash script that prompts the user for a file name, reads the contents of the specified file, and displays them on the terminal.

#!/bin/bash

# Prompt the user for a file name

echo "Enter the name of the file:"

read filename

# Check if the file exists

if [ -e "$filename" ]; then

# Display the contents of the file

echo "*******Contents of $filename:*************"

cat "$filename"

else

# If the file does not exist, display an error message

echo "Error: File '$filename' not found."

fi

Now, let’s break down the script:

A] Shebang (#!/bin/bash):

– This line indicates that the script should be executed using the Bash shell.

B] Prompt for User Input:

– echo “Enter the name of the file:” prompts the user to enter a filename.

– read filename reads the user’s input and stores it in the variable filename.

C] Check if File Exists:

– if [ -e “$filename” ]; then checks if the file specified by the user exists.

– -e is a test condition that checks if a file exists.

D] Display File Contents:

– echo “Contents of $filename:” prints a message indicating that the following lines will display the file contents.

– cat “$filename” displays the contents of the file.

E] Handle Non-Existent File:

– else is part of the conditional statement and is executed if the file does not exist.

– echo “Error: File ‘$filename’ not found.” displays an error message.

3. Save and close the “vi” editor by pressing “Esc” key and type :wq! and press “enter” key.

4. Make sure to give execute permissions to the script before running it. You can do this by running the following command in the terminal:

chmod +x display_file.sh

Note :

1. Replace “display_file.sh” with the actual name you save the script as.
2. You have to enter the exact file name as linux uses case sensitive.

The script will prompt you to enter a filename, and it will then display the contents of the specified file if it exists.

Click Here!!! to write a bash script that checks if a file exists in specific folder or directory.