Bash script with non-blocking read

Question

I want to send some data to a root process with a named pipe. Here is the script and it works great:

#!/bin/sh
pipe=/tmp/ntp

if [[ ! -p $pipe ]]; then
    mknod -m 666 $pipe p
fi

while true
do
    if read line <$pipe; then
         /root/netman/extra/bin/ntpclient -s -h $line > $pipe 2>&1
    fi
done

I actually have several script like this one. I would like to enclose all of them in a single script. The problem is that execution blocks on the first "read" and I cannot execute multiple "reads" in a single process. Isn't there anything I can do? Is it possible to have a "non-blocking" bash read?

Answer 1

Just put the reading cycle into background (add & after done)?