ECHO(1) BSD 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 ('
') character, to the
standard output.
The following option is available:
-n Do not print the trailing newline character.
The end-of-options marker -- is not recognized and written literally.
The newline may also be suppressed by appending 'c' to the end of the string, as is done by iBCS2 compatible systems. Note that the -n
option as well as the effect of 'c' are implementation-defined in IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (``POSIX.1'') as amended by Cor. 1-2002. For porta-
bility, echo should only be used if the first argument does not start with a hyphen ('-') and does not contain any backslashes (''). If
this is not sufficient, printf(1) should be used.
Most shells provide a builtin echo command which tends to differ from this utility in the treatment of options and backslashes. Consult the
builtin(1) manual page.
EXIT STATUS
The echo utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.
SEE ALSO
builtin(1), csh(1), printf(1), sh(1)
STANDARDS
The echo utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (``POSIX.1'') as amended by Cor. 1-2002.
BSD
November 12, 2010 BSD