HP UX Operating Systems 222

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 con¯icts 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 ®rst 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 ®les 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 -noption. 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.

If LC_CTYPE is not speci®ed in the environment or is set to the empty string, the value of LANG is used as a default for each unspeci®ed or empty variable. If LANG is not speci®ed 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.