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echo(1)				 User Commands			       echo(1)

NAME
       echo - echo arguments

SYNOPSIS
       /usr/bin/echo [string]...

DESCRIPTION
       The  echo  utility writes its arguments, separated by BLANKs and termi‐
       nated by a NEWLINE, to the standard output. If there are no  arguments,
       only the NEWLINE character is written.

       echo  is useful for producing diagnostics in command files, for sending
       known data into a pipe, and for displaying the contents of  environment
       variables.

       The  C shell, the Korn shell, and the Bourne shell all have echo built-
       in commands, which, by default, is invoked if the user calls echo with‐
       out  a full pathname. See shell_builtins(1). sh's echo, ksh's echo, and
       /usr/bin/echo understand the  back-slashed  escape  characters,	except
       that  sh's echo does not understand \a as the alert character. In addi‐
       tion,  ksh's  echo  does	 not  have  an	-n  option.  sh's   echo   and
       /usr/bin/echo  have  an	-n option if the SYSV3 environment variable is
       set (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES below). csh's echo and /usr/ucb/echo, on
       the  other  hand,  have	an  -n option, but do not understand the back-
       slashed escape characters. sh and ksh determine	whether	 /usr/ucb/echo
       is  found  first in the PATH and, if so, they adapt the behavior of the
       echo builtin to match /usr/ucb/echo.

OPERANDS
       The following operand is supported:

       string	 A string to be written to standard output. If any operand  is
		 "-n", it is treated as a string, not an option. The following
		 character sequences is recognized within  any	of  the	 argu‐
		 ments:

		 \a	 Alert character.

		 \b	 Backspace.

		 \c	 Print line without new-line. All characters following
			 the \c in the argument are ignored.

		 \f	 Form-feed.

		 \n	 New-line.

		 \r	 Carriage return.

		 \t	 Tab.

		 \v	 Vertical tab.

		 \\	 Backslash.

		 \0n	 Where n is the 8-bit character whose  ASCII  code  is
			 the  1-, 2- or 3-digit octal number representing that
			 character.

USAGE
       Portable applications should not use -n	(as  the  first	 argument)  or
       escape sequences.

       The printf(1) utility can be used portably to emulate any of the tradi‐
       tional behaviors of the echo utility as follows:

	   o	  The Solaris 2.6 operating  environment  or  compatible  ver‐
		  sion's /usr/bin/echo is equivalent to:

		    printf "%b\n" "$*"

	   o	  The /usr/ucb/echo is equivalent to:

		    if [ "X$1" = "X-n" ]

		    then

			    shift

			    printf "%s" "$*"

		    else

			    printf "%s\n" "$*"

		    fi

       New applications are encouraged to use printf instead of echo.

EXAMPLES
       Example 1 Finding how far below root your current directory is located

       You  can	 use  echo to determine how many subdirectories below the root
       directory (/) is your current directory, as follows:

	   o	  Echo your current-working-directory's full pathname.

	   o	  Pipe the output through tr to translate the path's  embedded
		  slash-characters into space-characters.

	   o	  Pipe	that  output through wc -w for a count of the names in
		  your path.

		    example% /usr/bin/echo $PWD | tr '/' ' ' | wc -w

       See tr(1) and wc(1) for their functionality.

       Below are the different flavors for echoing a string without a NEWLINE:

       Example 2 /usr/bin/echo

	 example% /usr/bin/echo "$USER's current directory is $PWD\c"

       Example 3 sh/ksh shells

	 example$ echo "$USER's current directory is $PWD\c"

       Example 4 csh shell

	 example% echo -n "$USER's current directory is $PWD"

       Example 5 /usr/ucb/echo

	 example% /usr/ucb/echo -n "$USER's current directory is $PWD"

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment  variables
       that affect the execution of echo: LANG, LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES,
       and NLSPATH.

       SYSV3	This environment variable is  used  to	provide	 compatibility
		with   INTERACTIVE  UNIX  System  and  SCO  UNIX  installation
		scripts. It is intended for compatibility only and should  not
		be  used  in new scripts. This variable is applicable only for
		Solaris x86 platforms, not Solaris SPARC systems.

EXIT STATUS
       The following error values are returned:

       0     Successful completion.

       >0    An error occurred.

ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
       │      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     │	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   │
       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
       │Availability		     │SUNWcsu			   │
       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
       │CSI			     │Enabled			   │
       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
       │Interface Stability	     │Standard			   │
       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘

SEE ALSO
       echo(1B),  printf(1),  shell_builtins(1),   tr(1),   wc(1),   ascii(5),
       attributes(5), environ(5), standards(5)

NOTES
       When  representing  an  8-bit  character by using the escape convention
       \0n, the n must always be preceded by the digit zero (0).

       For example, typing: echo 'WARNING:\07' prints the phrase WARNING:  and
       sounds  the  "bell"  on	your  terminal.	 The use of single (or double)
       quotes (or two backslashes) is required to protect the  "\"  that  pre‐
       cedes the "07".

       Following the \0, up to three digits are used in constructing the octal
       output character. If, following the \0n, you want  to  echo  additional
       digits  that are not part of the octal representation, you must use the
       full 3-digit n. For example, if you want to echo "ESC 7" you  must  use
       the  three  digits "033" rather than just the two digits "33" after the
       \0.

	 2 digits	  Incorrect:	  echo "\0337" | od -xc
			  produces:	  df0a			   (hex)
					  337			   (ascii)
	 3 digits	  Correct:	  echo "\00337" | od -xc
			  produces:	  lb37 0a00		   (hex)
					  033 7			   (ascii)

       For the octal equivalents of each character, see ascii(5).

SunOS 5.10			  17 Jul 2006			       echo(1)
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