I've created a number of bash scripts which make it easier for me to run particular security applications, among them rkhunter. I run the scripts in gnome-terminal. It's crucial to say at the outset that I've had no tuition in bash script writing, so I'm sure my scripts won't win any beauty contest. In any event, I was happy with my script for running rkhunter, except for one thing. I had great difficulty reading part of the output of the script, because that output (from rkhunter itself) was in yellow on a white background. I then figured out how to write a script that opened a second window in gnome-terminal. That second window had a black background, in which my original script for running rkhunter then ran. Legibility of the yellow and all other output in the second window is fine. However, there's a problem. When my script for running rkhunter in the second window finishes, it automatically exits, leaving me back at the first window, so that I haven't got a chance to examine the rkhunter output except as it scrolls by rapidly in the second window. I therefore want to amend my script for running rkhunter so that it doesn't end until the user says so. In a number of places on the Web appears the following script, which I thought I could borrow: #!/bin/bash # Shows how to read a line from stdin echo "Would you like to exit this script now?" read answer if [ "$answer" = y ] then echo "Exiting..." exit 0 fi I tried that script. There's a tiny problem with it. It exits no matter what answer the user gives! The only difference between giving a "y" answer and any other answer is that the word "Exiting" doesn't appear if one doesn't give a "y" answer. How should I amend my script to keep the output on the screen until the user enters some appropriate input?