ECHO(1)                 System General Commands Manual                 ECHO(1)

NAME
     echo - write arguments to the standard output

SYNOPSIS
     echo [-n] [string ...]

DESCRIPTION
     The echo utility writes any specified operands, separated by single blank
     (` ') characters and followed by a newline (`\n') character, to the stan-
     dard output.  When no operands are given, only the newline is written.

     The options are as follows:

     -n      Do not print the trailing newline character.

     For echo the special argument -- will be treated as a regular string as
     demanded by the standards (and history).

     If any of the following escape sequences are encountered they will be
     treated specially as described below:

     \a      Output an alert character (BEL) at this location.

     \b      Output a backspace character (BS) at this location.

     \c      Suppress the trailing newline (NL) normally printed as final out-
             put (as the -n option). All remaining characters will be ignored.

     \e      Output an escape (ESC) character. This may not be portable.

     \f      Output a formfeed (FF) character.

     \n      Output a newline (NL) character.

     \r      Output a carraige return (CR) character.

     \t      Output a hoizontal tab (HT) character; this is a "regular tab".

     \v      Output a vertical tab (VT) character.

     \\      Output a literal backslash character.

     \0num   Output the 8-bit character with the octal value num for zero,
             one, two or three digits. It is recommended that three digits
             always be used for absolute clarity of intent.

DIAGNOSTICS
     The echo utility exits 0 on success or >0 if an error occurred.

SEE ALSO
     ascii(1), printf(1), printf(3)

STANDARDS
     The echo utility is IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') and SUS.2 compatible.
     The -n option is non-conforming for SUS.2, but most users expect the
     option to be available.

NOTES
     Some shells have a builtin echo command that performs differently than
     this standard utility. If behavior is different than described here then
     likely the cause is the shell builtin of echo is being used. In shell
     scripts you should always provide the full path to the utility to ensure
     correct behavior and avoid a trojan horse utility with the same name that
     may be in the PATH of the user (i.e. /bin/echo).

Interix                         August 11, 2005                        Interix