Q. I need to write a shell script to prompt databasename, username and password from the user. How do I take a single line of input from the user in a shell script?

A. You need to use read command in a shell script to read single line of input frm the user in a shell.

One line is read from the standard input (keyboard), or from file descriptor FD if the -u option is supplied, and the first word is assigned to the first NAME, the second word to the second NAME, and so on, with leftover words assigned to the last NAME.

Syntax:

read {variable-name}
read -p {‘Prompt text’} {variable-name}

Read single line of input from the user and store to variable called dbname:
read dbname
OR
read -p 'Enter Database name : ' dbname

To display variable value, enter:
echo $dbname

Sample shell script

#!/bin/bash
read -p 'Enter mysql database name : ' dbname
read -p 'Enter username : ' dbuname
read -s -p 'Enter password : ' dbpass
mysql -uroot -p'Password'<<EOFMYSQL
CREATE DATABASE $dbname;
GRANT ALL ON $dbname.* TO [email protected] IDENTIFIED BY "$dbpass";
EOFMYSQL