Macintosh Terminal Pocket Guide

Name

yes — stdin  stdout  - file  -- opt  --help  --version

Synopsis

yes [string]

The yes command prints the given string (or “y” by default) forever, one string per line:

➜ yes
y
y
y
...
➜ yes again
again
again
again
...

Though it might seem useless at first glance, yes can be perfect for turning interactive commands into batch commands. Want to get rid of an annoying “Are you SURE you want to do that” message? Pipe the output of yes into the input of the command to answer all those prompts:

➜ yes |  some interactive command

When the interactive command terminates, so will yes. Be careful with this technique: you must be certain that every prompt should be answered with the same string.