echo.1 (2010 09)

echo(1) echo(1)

NAME

echo - echo (print) arguments

SYNOPSIS

echo [ arg ] ...

DESCRIPTION

echo writes its arguments separated by blanks and terminated by a new-line on the standard output. It

also understands C-like escape conventions; beware of conﬂicts with the shell’s use of

\a write an alert character

\b backspace

\c print line without appending a new-line

\f form-feed

\n new-line

\r carriage return

\t tab

\v vertical tab

\\ backslash

\n the 8-bit character whose ASCII code is the 1-, 2-, 3- or 4-digit octal number n, whose ﬁrst

character must be a zero.

\0num write an 8-bit value that is the zero-, one-, two- or three-digit octal number num

echo is useful for producing diagnostics in command ﬁles and for sending known data into a pipe.

Notes

Berkeley

echo differs from this implementation. The former does not implement the backslash escapes.

However, the semantics of the \c escape can be obtained by using the -n option. The echo command

implemented as a built-in function of csh follows the Berkeley semantics (see csh(1)).

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Environment Variables

LC_CTYPE determines the interpretation of arg as single and/or multi-byte characters.

LC_CTYPE is not speciﬁed in the environment or is set to the empty string, the value of

LANG is used

as a default for each unspeciﬁed or empty variable. If

LANG is not speciﬁed or is set to the empty string,

a default of "C" (see lang (5)) is used instead of LANG. If any internationalization variable contains an

invalid setting, echo behaves as if all internationalization variables are set to "C". See environ (5).

International Code Set Support

Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported.

AUTHOR

echo was developed by OSF and HP.