coreutils: echo invocation
1
1 15.1 ‘echo’: Print a line of text
1 =================================
1
1 ‘echo’ writes each given STRING to standard output, with a space between
1 each and a newline after the last one. Synopsis:
1
1 echo [OPTION]... [STRING]...
1
1 Due to shell aliases and built-in ‘echo’ functions, using an
1 unadorned ‘echo’ interactively or in a script may get you different
1 functionality than that described here. Invoke it via ‘env’ (i.e., ‘env
1 echo ...’) to avoid interference from the shell.
1
11 The program accepts the following options. Also see ⇒Common
options. Options must precede operands, and the normally-special
1 argument ‘--’ has no special meaning and is treated like any other
1 STRING.
1
1 ‘-n’
1 Do not output the trailing newline.
1
1 ‘-e’
1 Enable interpretation of the following backslash-escaped characters
1 in each STRING:
1
1 ‘\a’
1 alert (bell)
1 ‘\b’
1 backspace
1 ‘\c’
1 produce no further output
1 ‘\e’
1 escape
1 ‘\f’
1 form feed
1 ‘\n’
1 newline
1 ‘\r’
1 carriage return
1 ‘\t’
1 horizontal tab
1 ‘\v’
1 vertical tab
1 ‘\\’
1 backslash
1 ‘\0NNN’
1 the eight-bit value that is the octal number NNN (zero to
1 three octal digits), if NNN is a nine-bit value, the ninth bit
1 is ignored
1 ‘\NNN’
1 the eight-bit value that is the octal number NNN (one to three
1 octal digits), if NNN is a nine-bit value, the ninth bit is
1 ignored
1 ‘\xHH’
1 the eight-bit value that is the hexadecimal number HH (one or
1 two hexadecimal digits)
1
1 ‘-E’
1 Disable interpretation of backslash escapes in each STRING. This
1 is the default. If ‘-e’ and ‘-E’ are both specified, the last one
1 given takes effect.
1
1 If the ‘POSIXLY_CORRECT’ environment variable is set, then when
1 ‘echo’’s first argument is not ‘-n’ it outputs option-like arguments
1 instead of treating them as options. For example, ‘echo -ne hello’
1 outputs ‘-ne hello’ instead of plain ‘hello’.
1
1 POSIX does not require support for any options, and says that the
1 behavior of ‘echo’ is implementation-defined if any STRING contains a
1 backslash or if the first argument is ‘-n’. Portable programs can use
1 the ‘printf’ command if they need to omit trailing newlines or output
1 control characters or backslashes. ⇒printf invocation.
1
1 An exit status of zero indicates success, and a nonzero value
1 indicates failure.
1