TMOUT within script file misbehaves for the select command. How to fix it?

Question

UPDATE - looks like this is something peculiar with bash 4.3.42 as it works fine with 4.3.46. Leaving this post for those who run into the same issue in future.

When I run this command in bash command line it works properly:

% (TMOUT=3; s="no selection"; select s in a b c ; do break ; done; echo $s)
1) a
2) b
3) c
#?
no selection
% _

Result: displays no selection and comes back to command line.

When, however, I place it a script, and execute it, it repetitively requests selection.

% cat a.sh
#!/bin/bash
(TMOUT=3; s="no selection"; select s in a b c ; do break ; done; echo $s)

% ./a.sh

Result:

1) a
2) b
3) c
#? 1) a
2) b
3) c
#? 1) a
2) b
3) c
#? ^C
% _

Why it so? My main question is - how to make it work in a script?!

UPDATED

% bash --version
GNU bash, version 4.3.42(1)-release (x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2013 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

% uname
Linux lx1 2.6.32-642.6.2.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Mon Oct 24 10:22:33 EDT 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Answer 1

From manual:

TMOUT If set to a value greater than zero, TMOUT is treated as the default timeout for the read builtin. The select command terminates if input does not arrive after TMOUT seconds when input is coming from a terminal. In an interactive shell, the value is interpreted as the number of seconds to wait for input after issuing the primary prompt. Bash terminates after waiting for that number of seconds if input does not arrive.

So first case is due to interactive shell.

$ ps -aef|grep bash; echo "before"; (TMOUT=3; s="no selection"; ps -aef|grep bash; select s in a b c ; do break ; done; echo $s;ps -aef|grep bash);echo "after";ps -aef|grep bash
asktyagi    4926 23767  0 09:40 pts/0    00:00:00 grep --color=auto bash
asktyagi   23767 23741  0 09:03 pts/0    00:00:00 -bash
**before**
asktyagi    4927 23767  0 09:40 pts/0    00:00:00 -bash
asktyagi    4929  4927  0 09:40 pts/0    00:00:00 grep --color=auto bash
asktyagi   23767 23741  0 09:03 pts/0    00:00:00 -bash
1) a
2) b
3) c
#?
no selection
asktyagi    4927 23767  0 09:40 pts/0    00:00:00 -bash
asktyagi    4931  4927  0 09:40 pts/0    00:00:00 grep --color=auto bash
asktyagi   23767 23741  0 09:03 pts/0    00:00:00 -bash
**after**
asktyagi    4933 23767  0 09:40 pts/0    00:00:00 grep --color=auto bash
asktyagi   23767 23741  0 09:03 pts/0    00:00:00 -bash

Now with script

$ cat a.sh
#!/bin/bash
(TMOUT=3; s="no selection"; select s in a b c ; do break ; done; echo $s)
ps -aef|grep bash

$ sh a.sh
1) a
2) b
3) c
#?
no selection
asktyagi    5201  5188  0 09:41 pts/0    00:00:00 grep bash
asktyagi   23767 23741  0 09:03 pts/0    00:00:00 -bash

Answer 2

Use the timeout command. This example could be improved but it makes the point. First use the bash-builtin trap command to run something on exit, then run your loop. It runs as follows:

#] timeout 3s sh -c 'trap "echo no selection" EXIT; select s in a b c ; do break ; done; '
1) a
2) b
3) c
#? <waits 3 seconds>no selection

Answer 3

So ultimately I have written my own selection that can be used in a script.

# $1 timeout
# rest - selection
function select_ {
  t=$1
  shift
  arr=($*)
  i=1
  for a in $*; do
    echo "$i) $a" >$(tty)
    ((i++))
  done
  echo "TIMEOUT: In ${t} seconds ${arr[0]} will be automatically selected." >$(tty)
  printf "#? " >$(tty)
  read -t $t x
  [ "$x" == "" ] && {
     x=1
     echo "$x" >$(tty)
  }
  ((x=x+0))
  [ "$x" -ge 1 -a "$x" -le ${#arr[@]} ] && {
    ((x--))
    echo ${arr[$x]}
  }
}

How to use it:

select_ 10 a b c

Example:

$ ./x.sh
1) a
2) b
3) c
TIMEOUT: In 10 seconds a will be automatically selected.
#? 2
b

$ ./x.sh
1) a
2) b
3) c
TIMEOUT: In 10 seconds a will be automatically selected.
#? 1
a