I think there's a typo/mistake here. The example: read_flags="-t 0.05" read "$read_flags" -srn 1 Won't work. This sets read's environment variable read_fl

I think there's a typo/mistake here. The example: read_flags="-t 0.05" read "$read_flags" -srn 1 Won't work. This sets read's environment variable read_flags and expands the current shell's value of $read flags, which generally won't be set. For example: a=1 echo $a Prints nothing because a is not defined in the current shell. To fix, make read a separate statement