NAME

echo − echo arguments to standard output

SYNOPSIS

/usr/ucb/echo [ −n ] [ argument ]

AVAILABILITY

SUNWscpu

DESCRIPTION

echo writes its arguments, separated by BLANKs and terminated by a NEWLINE, to the standard output. 

echo is useful for producing diagnostics in command files and for sending known data into a pipe, and for displaying the contents of environment variables. 

For example, you can use echo to determine how many subdirectories below the root directory (/) is your current directory, as follows:

• echo your current-working-directory’s full pathname

• pipe the output through tr to translate the path’s embedded slash-characters into space-characters

• pipe that output through wc -w for a count of the names in your path. 

example% /usr/bin/echo "echo $PWD | tr ’/’ ’ ’ | wc -w"

See tr(1) and wc(1) for their functionality. 

The shells, csh(1), ksh(1), and sh(1), each have an echo built-in command, which, by default, will have precedence, and will be invoked if the user calls echo without a full pathname.  /usr/ucb/echo and csh’s echo() have a −n option, but do not understand back-slashed escape characters.  sh’s echo(), ksh’s echo(), and /usr/bin/echo, on the other hand, understand the black-slashed escape characters, and ksh’s echo() also understands \a as the audible bell character; however, these commands do not have a −n option. 

OPTIONS

−n Do not add the NEWLINE to the output. 

SEE ALSO

csh(1), echo(1), ksh(1), sh(1), tr(1), wc(1)

NOTES

The −n option is a transition aid for BSD applications, and may not be supported in future releases. 

SunOS 5.5/x86  —  Last change: 3 Aug 1994