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====== BASH - Files - Read a file - Read from an interactive shell ======

<code bash>
read foo
</code>

<WRAP info>
**NOTE:**  This will store the input into a variable named **$foo**.
</WRAP>

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====== Handling backslash interpretation ======

<WRAP info>
**NOTE:**  The **-r** option is often used with read:

  * **-r**:  Prevents backslash interpretation (usually used as a backslash newline pair, to continue over multiple lines or to escape the delimiters).
    * Without this option, any unescaped backslashes in the input will be discarded.
    * You should almost always use the **-r** option with read.

The most common exception to this rule is when **-e** is used, which uses Readline to obtain the line from an interactive shell.

  * In that case, tab completion will add backslashes to escape spaces and such, and you do not want them to be literally included in the variable.
  * This would never be used when reading anything line-by-line, though, and **-r** should always be used when doing so.

</WRAP>

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