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48 .TH ECHO 1 "Apr 14, 2016"
50 echo \- echo arguments
54 \fB/usr/bin/echo\fR [\fIstring\fR]...
59 The \fBecho\fR utility writes its arguments, separated by BLANKs and terminated
60 by a NEWLINE, to the standard output. If there are no arguments, only the
61 NEWLINE character is written.
64 \fBecho\fR is useful for producing diagnostics in command files, for sending
65 known data into a pipe, and for displaying the contents of environment
69 The C shell, the Korn shell, and the Bourne shell all have \fBecho\fR built-in
70 commands, which, by default, is invoked if the user calls \fBecho\fR without a
71 full pathname. See \fBshell_builtins\fR(1). \fBsh\fR's \fBecho\fR, \fBksh\fR's
72 \fBecho\fR, \fBksh93\fR's \fBecho\fR, and \fB/usr/bin/echo\fR understand the
73 back-slashed escape characters, except that \fBsh\fR's \fBecho\fR does not
74 understand \fB\ea\fR as the alert character. In addition, \fBksh\fR's and
75 \fBksh93\fR's \fBecho\fR does not have an \fB-n\fR option.
76 \fBcsh\fR's \fBecho\fR, on the other hand, has an
77 \fB-n\fR option, but does not understand the back-slashed escape characters.
80 The following operand is supported:
87 A string to be written to standard output. If any operand is "\fB-n\fR", it is
88 treated as a string, not an option. The following character sequences is
89 recognized within any of the arguments:
114 Print line without new-line. All characters following the \fB\ec\fR in the
115 argument are ignored.
175 \fB\fB\e0\fR\fIn\fR\fR
178 Where \fIn\fR is the 8-bit character whose \fBASCII\fR code is the 1-, 2- or
179 3-digit octal number representing that character.
186 Portable applications should not use \fB-n\fR (as the first argument) or escape
189 New applications are encouraged to use \fBprintf\fR instead of \fBecho\fR.
192 \fBExample 1 \fRFinding how far below root your current directory is located
195 You can use \fBecho\fR to determine how many subdirectories below the root
196 directory (\fB/\fR) is your current directory, as follows:
202 Echo your current-working-directory's full pathname.
208 Pipe the output through \fBtr\fR to translate the path's embedded
209 slash-characters into space-characters.
215 Pipe that output through \fBwc\fR \fB-w\fR for a count of the names in your
220 example% \fB/usr/bin/echo $PWD | tr '/' ' ' | wc -w\fR
228 See \fBtr\fR(1) and \fBwc\fR(1) for their functionality.
232 Below are the different flavors for echoing a string without a NEWLINE:
234 \fBExample 2 \fR/usr/bin/echo
238 example% \fB/usr/bin/echo "$USER's current directory is $PWD\ec"\fR
244 \fBExample 3 \fRsh/ksh shells
248 example$ \fBecho "$USER's current directory is $PWD\ec"\fR
254 \fBExample 4 \fRcsh shell
258 example% \fBecho -n "$USER's current directory is $PWD"\fR
263 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
265 See \fBenviron\fR(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
266 that affect the execution of \fBecho\fR: \fBLANG\fR, \fBLC_ALL\fR,
267 \fBLC_CTYPE\fR, \fBLC_MESSAGES\fR, and \fBNLSPATH\fR.
271 The following error values are returned:
278 Successful completion.
292 See \fBattributes\fR(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
300 ATTRIBUTE TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE
304 Interface Stability Committed
306 Standard See \fBstandards\fR(5).
311 \fBksh93\fR(1), \fBprintf\fR(1), \fBshell_builtins\fR(1), \fBtr\fR(1),
312 \fBwc\fR(1), \fBecho\fR(1B), \fBascii\fR(5), \fBattributes\fR(5),
313 \fBenviron\fR(5), \fBstandards\fR(5)
316 When representing an 8-bit character by using the escape convention
317 \fB\e0\fR\fIn\fR, the \fIn\fR must \fBalways\fR be preceded by the digit zero
321 For example, typing: \fBecho 'WARNING:\e\|07'\fR prints the phrase
322 \fBWARNING:\fR and sounds the "bell" on your terminal. The use of single (or
323 double) quotes (or two backslashes) is required to protect the "\|\e" that
327 Following the \fB\e0\fR, up to three digits are used in constructing the octal
328 output character. If, following the \fB\e0\fR\fIn\fR, you want to echo
329 additional digits that are not part of the octal representation, you must use
330 the full 3-digit \fIn\fR. For example, if you want to echo "ESC 7" you must use
331 the three digits "033" rather than just the two digits "33" after the
336 2 digits Incorrect: echo "\e0337" | od -xc
339 3 digits Correct: echo "\e00337" | od -xc
340 produces: lb37 0a00 (hex)
348 For the octal equivalents of each character, see \fBascii\fR(5).