How do I add a line break for read command?

Question

 read -p "Please Enter a Message:" message

How can I add a line break after Message:?

Answer 1

I like Huang F. Lei's answer, but if you don't like the literal line break, this works:

read -p "Please Enter a Message: `echo $'\n> '`" message

Shows:

Please Enter a Message:
> _

...where _ is where the cursor ends up. Note that since trailing newlines are usually dropped during command substitution, I've included the > afterward. But actually, your original question doesn't seem to want that prompt bit, so:

# Get a carriage return into `cr` -- there *has* to be a better way to do this
cr=`echo $'\n.'`
cr=${cr%.}

# Use it
read -p "Please Enter a Message: $cr" message

Shows

Please Enter a Message:
_

There has to be a better way, though.