How to detect keystrokes?

command-line bash scripts keys

5,042

you can read the keystrokes by the read command for this use the following bash script

#! /bin/bash
read -s -n 1 key # -s: do not echo input character. -n 1: read only 1 character (separate with space)
if [[ "$key" == "your key" ]];then
    #your script here
fi

you can experiment with the read command and some bash scripts

5,042

Anonymous Platypus

An information security nerd lives in the dark

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Anonymous Platypus 4 months

I have a script running always at the background. Inside that script I have to write the codes to detect keystrokes, and once a particular keystroke is detected, the rest of the script must be executed. How can I do this?

I have tried the showkey command but failed to add that to my script.
- Anonymous Platypus almost 8 years
  
  Please comment if I should supply any additional information.
- stalet almost 8 years
  
  So, is this a bash script that you want to run in the background and you want to trap some keystrokes while continuing to use bash shell commands ?
- Fabby almost 8 years
  
  @AnonymousPlatypus: Any feed-back on the above comment?
- Anonymous Platypus almost 8 years
  
  Exactly its is! ;)
Anonymous Platypus almost 8 years

This might be useful. Will try this and get back to you :)
Ben Davis almost 3 years

Note this only works for keys that emit one byte (letters, numbers, space, etc). Things like arrow keys, pgup, esc, etc. won't work with this.