yes

Additional Notes

yes repeatedly prints a string (default y) to standard output, as fast as the pipe will accept. It is classically used to auto-answer prompts that expect a repeated confirmation.

It keeps printing until the reading side closes the pipe, so it pairs well with commands that ask the same question many times.

Syntax

yes [string ...]

Parameters

• string: Text to repeat. If omitted, prints y (a single y per line).

Examples

yes | head

Print a few y lines (use head to stop it in a demo).

yes | rm -r dir

Auto-confirm a recursive removal that asks rm: remove ...?.

yes "no" | command-that-prompts

Feed no repeatedly instead of y.

yes n | cp -i a b

Answer n to each interactive cp prompt.

for i in $(seq 1 3); do yes "line $i"; done | head -3

Build a repeating label inside a loop, then cap it with head.

Practical Notes

• Without head or a reader that stops, yes runs forever; pipe it to something bounded.
• Use it for non-interactive installs that repeatedly prompt for confirmation.
• A safer habit is to prefer flags that skip prompts (such as rm -rf or cp -n) when available.
• yes is also handy for generating test data, such as yes "test" | head -1000 > sample.txt.