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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 and \fB/usr/ucb/echo\fR, on the other hand, have an
77 \fB-n\fR option, but do not understand the back-slashed escape characters.
78 \fBsh\fR and \fBksh\fR determine whether \fB/usr/ucb/echo\fR is found first in
79 the \fBPATH\fR and, if so, they adapt the behavior of the \fBecho\fR builtin to
80 match \fB/usr/ucb/echo\fR.
83 The following operand is supported:
90 A string to be written to standard output. If any operand is "\fB-n\fR", it is
91 treated as a string, not an option. The following character sequences is
92 recognized within any of the arguments:
117 Print line without new-line. All characters following the \fB\ec\fR in the
118 argument are ignored.
178 \fB\fB\e0\fR\fIn\fR\fR
181 Where \fIn\fR is the 8-bit character whose \fBASCII\fR code is the 1-, 2- or
182 3-digit octal number representing that character.
189 Portable applications should not use \fB-n\fR (as the first argument) or escape
193 The \fBprintf\fR(1) utility can be used portably to emulate any of the
194 traditional behaviors of the \fBecho\fR utility as follows:
199 The Solaris 2.6 operating environment or compatible version's
200 \fB/usr/bin/echo\fR is equivalent to:
204 \fBprintf "%b\en" "$*"\fR
214 The \fB/usr/ucb/echo\fR is equivalent to:
237 New applications are encouraged to use \fBprintf\fR instead of \fBecho\fR.
240 \fBExample 1 \fRFinding how far below root your current directory is located
243 You can use \fBecho\fR to determine how many subdirectories below the root
244 directory (\fB/\fR) is your current directory, as follows:
250 Echo your current-working-directory's full pathname.
256 Pipe the output through \fBtr\fR to translate the path's embedded
257 slash-characters into space-characters.
263 Pipe that output through \fBwc\fR \fB-w\fR for a count of the names in your
268 example% \fB/usr/bin/echo $PWD | tr '/' ' ' | wc -w\fR
276 See \fBtr\fR(1) and \fBwc\fR(1) for their functionality.
280 Below are the different flavors for echoing a string without a NEWLINE:
282 \fBExample 2 \fR/usr/bin/echo
286 example% \fB/usr/bin/echo "$USER's current directory is $PWD\ec"\fR
292 \fBExample 3 \fRsh/ksh shells
296 example$ \fBecho "$USER's current directory is $PWD\ec"\fR
302 \fBExample 4 \fRcsh shell
306 example% \fBecho -n "$USER's current directory is $PWD"\fR
312 \fBExample 5 \fR/usr/ucb/echo
316 example% \fB/usr/ucb/echo -n "$USER's current directory is $PWD"\fR
321 .SH ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
323 See \fBenviron\fR(5) for descriptions of the following environment variables
324 that affect the execution of \fBecho\fR: \fBLANG\fR, \fBLC_ALL\fR,
325 \fBLC_CTYPE\fR, \fBLC_MESSAGES\fR, and \fBNLSPATH\fR.
329 The following error values are returned:
336 Successful completion.
350 See \fBattributes\fR(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
358 ATTRIBUTE TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE
362 Interface Stability Committed
364 Standard See \fBstandards\fR(5).
369 \fBksh93\fR(1), \fBprintf\fR(1), \fBshell_builtins\fR(1), \fBtr\fR(1),
370 \fBwc\fR(1), \fBecho\fR(1B), \fBascii\fR(5), \fBattributes\fR(5),
371 \fBenviron\fR(5), \fBstandards\fR(5)
374 When representing an 8-bit character by using the escape convention
375 \fB\e0\fR\fIn\fR, the \fIn\fR must \fBalways\fR be preceded by the digit zero
379 For example, typing: \fBecho 'WARNING:\e\|07'\fR prints the phrase
380 \fBWARNING:\fR and sounds the "bell" on your terminal. The use of single (or
381 double) quotes (or two backslashes) is required to protect the "\|\e" that
385 Following the \fB\e0\fR, up to three digits are used in constructing the octal
386 output character. If, following the \fB\e0\fR\fIn\fR, you want to echo
387 additional digits that are not part of the octal representation, you must use
388 the full 3-digit \fIn\fR. For example, if you want to echo "ESC 7" you must use
389 the three digits "033" rather than just the two digits "33" after the
394 2 digits Incorrect: echo "\e0337" | od -xc
397 3 digits Correct: echo "\e00337" | od -xc
398 produces: lb37 0a00 (hex)
406 For the octal equivalents of each character, see \fBascii\fR(5).