NAME

       g.ask  - Prompts the user for the names of GRASS data base files.

KEYWORDS

       general, map management

SYNOPSIS

       g.ask
       g.ask help
       g.ask  type=string   [prompt="string"]   element=string   [desc="string"]  unixfile=string
       [--verbose]  [--quiet]

   Parameters:
       type=string
           The type of query
           Options: old,new,any,mapset

       prompt=
           The prompt to be displayed to the user

       element=string
           The database element to be queried

       desc=
           A short description of the database element

       unixfile=string
           The name of a unix file to store the user's response

DESCRIPTION

       g.ask is designed for shell scripts that need to prompt the user for the name  of  a  data
       base  file  in  the  user's  current  GRASS  location.  After g.ask is invoked with needed
       parameters, it will query the user for a file name of  the  specified  type  and  element.
       After  the  user  responds  to  this  query, the program will write four lines to the UNIX
       output file specified by unixfile.

OUTPUT

       Upon receiving the user's response to its request for a file name, g.ask writes four lines
       to  the  specified  unixfile;  this  output  file  is placed in the user's current working
       directory, unless otherwise specified, and contains the following lines:
       name='some_name'
       mapset='some_mapset'
       fullname='some_fullname'
       file='some_fullpath'

       The output is /bin/sh commands to set the variable name to the file name specified by  the
       user  (of  the  element  and type requested by g.ask), mapset to the GRASS mapset in which
       this file resides (or will be created), fullname is the name with the mapset  embedded  in
       it, and file to the full UNIX path name identifying this file.  These variables may be set
       in the /bin/sh as follows: . unixfile

       The . is a shell command which means read the unixfile  and  execute  the  commands  found
       there.  It is NOT part of the unixfile name and MUST be followed by a space.

NOTES

       The  user  may  choose  to  simply  hit the return key and not enter a file name.  If this
       happens the variables will be set as follows:
       name=
       mapset=
       fullname=
       file=

       The following is a way to test for this case:
       if [ ! "$file" ]
       then
            exit
       fi

SEE ALSO

       d.ask, g.filename, g.findfile, g.gisenv, g.parser

AUTHOR

       Michael Shapiro, U.S.Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory

       Last changed: $Date: 2011-11-08 03:29:50 -0800 (Tue, 08 Nov 2011) $

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       © 2003-2013 GRASS Development Team