Korn Shell Programming by Example

echo

Official Description

Writes its arguments to standard output.

Syntax

echo [-n] [string...]

Options

-n requests that no newline is added to the output.

Oddities

Many special characters are recognized (such as \n, which means newline; \t, which means tab; and so on).

echo is not as portable as the print built-in command.

Example

$ type echo                  # Echo is built into some implementations of ksh
echo is a shell built-in
$
$ echo -n "What now? "       # The built-in does not recognize the –n option
-n What now?
$
$ whereis echo               # The echo program is in /bin
echo: /bin/echo /usr/man/man1/echo.1
$
$ /bin/echo -n "What now? "  # It recognizes the –n option
What now? $                   # Note that the prompt appears on the same line
$