An example of when we need yes command

What is the usage of yes command. I follow the man yes also I try that but I want to know when we need to use this command. You can follow man page to know the usage of yes. But I am looking for a time when we need that? In which situation I need example.

2 Answers

"yes" was created to allow automation of tasks that request confirmation. If you have a program that wants you to tell it "y" before it does something, you can now automate that program by piping yes into it.

Example :

yes | rm -i *.txt

Here yes is piped for confirmation to delete all txt files in the directory .

Another option print a string repeatedly :

yes "test"

Stop by Ctrl + C

It also can be used to say no , this repeat n after the rm :

yes n | rm -i *.txt

The above example says not to remove a file when rm -i prompts to remove the file.

The Wikipedia article has a good explanation.

Basically it spams a "yes" to wherever it is run. This can be used to automate responses to programs that ask for user verification. As an example, the following:

rm -f *.txt

is functionally equivalent to

yes | rm *.txt

It pipes the "yes" to rm, so to any question that rm asks (write protection or similar), it will immediately get a "yes" and continue.

Common programs like apt or rm have a "force" function built in, but other programs may not. This is where yes can be useful.

It can also be used as input to create a certain size of file, or to stress test a system.