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 (‘ \n’) 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 portability, 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.