print(1) User Commands print(1)NAME
print - shell built-in function to output characters to the screen or window
SYNOPSIS
ksh
print [-Rnprsu [n]] [arg]...
ksh93
print [-Renprs] [-f format] [-u fd] [string...]
DESCRIPTION
ksh
The shell output mechanism. When no options are specified, or when an option followed by ' a - is specified, or when just - is specified,
the arguments are printed on standard output as described by echo(1).
ksh93
By default, print writes each string operand to standard output and appends a NEWLINE character.
Unless, the -r, -R, or -f option is speciifed, each character in each string operand is processed specially as follows:
a Alert character.
Backspace character.
c Terminate output without appending NEWLINE. The remaining string operands are ignored.
E Escape character (ASCII octal 033).
f FORM FEED character.
NEWLINE character.
Tab character.
v Vertical tab character.
\ Backslash character.
x The 8-bit character whose ASCII code is the 1-, 2-, or 3-digit octal number x.
OPTIONS
ksh
The following options are supported by ksh:
-n Suppresses new-line from being added to the output.
-r-R Raw mode. Ignore the escape conventions of echo. The -R option prints all subsequent arguments and options other than -n.
-p Cause the arguments to be written onto the pipe of the process spawned with |& instead of standard output.
-s Cause the arguments to be written onto the history file instead of standard output.
-u [ n ] Specify a one digit file descriptor unit number n on which the output is placed. The default is 1.
ksh93
The following options are supported by ksh93:
-e Unless -f is specified, process sequences in each string operand as described above. This is the default behavior.
If both -e and -r are specified, the last one specified is the one that is used.
-f format Write the string arguments using the format string format and do not append a NEWLINE. See printf(1) for details on how to
specify format.
When the -f option is specified and there are more string operands than format specifiers, the format string is reprocessed
from the beginning. If there are fewer string operands than format specifiers, then outputting ends at the first unneeded for-
mat specifier.
-n Do not append a NEWLINE character to the output.
-p Write to the current co-process instead of standard output.
-r Do not process sequences in each string operand as described above.
-R
If both -e and -r are specified, the last one specified is the one that is used.
-s Write the output as an entry in the shell history file instead of standard output.
-u fd Write to file descriptor number fd instead of standard output. The default value is 1.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values are returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 Output file is not open for writing.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Availability |SUNWcsu |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
SEE ALSO echo(1), ksh(1), ksh93(1), printf(1), attributes(5)SunOS 5.11 27 Mar 2008 print(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
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 terminated by a NEWLINE, to the standard output. If there are no arguments,
only the NEWLINE character will be written.
echo is useful for producing diagnostics in command files, for sending known data into a pipe, and for displaying the contents of environ-
ment variables.
The C shell, the Korn shell, and the Bourne shell all have echo built-in commands, which, by default, will be invoked if the user calls
echo without a full pathname. See shell_builtins(1). sh's echo, ksh's echo, and /usr/bin/echo understand the back-slashed escape charac-
ters, except that sh's echo does not understand a as the alert character. In addition, ksh's echo, does not have an -n option. sh's echo
and /usr/bin/echo only have an -n option if the SYSV3 environment variable is set (see ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES below). If it is, none of the
backslashed characters mentioned above are available. csh's echo and /usr/ucb/echo, on the other hand, have an -n option, but do not under-
stand the back-slashed escape characters.
OPERANDS
The following operand is supported:
string A string to be written to standard output. If any operand is "-n", it will be treated as a string, not an option. The following
character sequences will be recognized within any of the arguments:
a Alert character.
Backspace.
c Print line without new-line. All characters following the c in the argument are ignored.
f Form-feed.
New-line.
Carriage return.
Tab.
v Vertical tab.
\ Backslash.
n 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 traditional behaviors of the echo utility as follows:
o The Solaris 2.6 operating environment or compatible version's /usr/bin/echo is equivalent to:
printf "%b
" "$*"
o The /usr/ucb/echo is equivalent to:
if [ "X$1" = "X-n" ]
then
shift
printf "%s" "$*"
else
printf "%s
" "$*"
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 $PWDc"
Example 3: sh/ksh shells
example$ echo "$USER's current directory is $PWDc"
Example 4: csh shell
example% echo -n "$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_MES-
SAGES, 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.
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 n, the n must always be preceded by the digit zero(0).
For example, typing: echo 'WARNING: 7' will print the phrase WARNING: and sound the "bell" on your terminal. The use of single (or double)
quotes (or two backslashes) is required to protect the "" that precedes the "07".
Following the , up to three digits are used in constructing the octal output character. If, following the n, you want to echo addi-
tional 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 .
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 20 Jan 2000 echo(1)