The reinstall.sh bash script file in the Contrib directory doesn't work in Ubuntu 17

Question

When I am following the instructions in the programmers guide, and run the ./reinstall.sh bash script file in the Contrib directory, nothing seems to happen. I see no errors, but no files/folders get deleted, and no repos are pulled down from github. I'm running Ubuntu 17.10

Looking at the script, I narrowed the problem down to these lines:

if [ "x$1" = "x-y" ]; then
    REPLY="y";
else			   
    read -p "Do you want to nuke, fetch and patch contributed packages [y/N]? "
fi

if [ "X$REPLY" = "Xy" ]; then

When I remove those lines, the script runs perfectly! Who can help me find the problem with these bash scripting lines?

Tip: For alternative ways to script a Y/N prompt in bash, here is the question on StackOverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3231804/in-bash-how-to-add-are-you-sure-y-n-to-any-command-or-alias

Answer 1

Thanks for letting us know. I am not sure what to fix in here, though.

The goal was that if you run "reinstall.sh -y" (which is run by other scripts) it will just assume yes and not ask anything, otherwise it will prompt. Are you getting the prompt message (the read -p command)? Because it is y/N you do need to answer "y", and if you just press return the default (no) is assumed (this is what we mean by showing a lowercase y and uppercase N).

thanks for the stack overflow link!