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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-18T10:17:09+00:00

read -p Please Enter a Message: message How can I add a line break

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 read -p "Please Enter a Message:" message

How can I add a line break after Message:?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I like Huang F. Lei’s answer, but if you don’t like the literal line break, this works:

    read -p "Please Enter a Message: `echo $'\n> '`" message

    Shows:

    Please Enter a Message:
> _

    …where _ is where the cursor ends up. Note that since trailing newlines are usually dropped during command substitution, I’ve included the > afterward. But actually, your original question doesn’t seem to want that prompt bit, so:

    # Get a carriage return into `cr` -- there *has* to be a better way to do this
cr=`echo $'\n.'`
cr=${cr%.}

# Use it
read -p "Please Enter a Message: $cr" message

    Shows

    Please Enter a Message:
_

    There has to be a better way, though.

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