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PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface
may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
echo — write arguments to standard output
SYNOPSIS
echo [string...]
DESCRIPTION
The echo utility writes its arguments to standard output, followed by a <newline>. If there are no
arguments, only the <newline> is written.
OPTIONS
The echo utility shall not recognize the "--" argument in the manner specified by Guideline 10 of the
Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines; "--" shall be
recognized as a string operand.
Implementations shall not support any options.
OPERANDS
The following operands shall be supported:
string A string to be written to standard output. If the first operand is -n, or if any of the
operands contain a <backslash> character, the results are implementation-defined.
On XSI-conformant systems, if the first operand is -n, it shall be treated as a string, not an
option. The following character sequences shall be recognized on XSI-conformant systems within
any of the arguments:
\a Write an <alert>.
\b Write a <backspace>.
\c Suppress the <newline> that otherwise follows the final argument in the output. All
characters following the '\c' in the arguments shall be ignored.
\f Write a <form-feed>.
\n Write a <newline>.
\r Write a <carriage-return>.
\t Write a <tab>.
\v Write a <vertical-tab>.
\\ Write a <backslash> character.
\0num Write an 8-bit value that is the zero, one, two, or three-digit octal number num.
STDIN
Not used.
INPUT FILES
None.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of echo:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the
Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the
precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale
categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization
variables.
LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters
(for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments).
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic
messages written to standard error.
NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
The echo utility arguments shall be separated by single <space> characters and a <newline> character
shall follow the last argument. Output transformations shall occur based on the escape sequences in the
input. See the OPERANDS section.
STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
It is not possible to use echo portably across all POSIX systems unless both -n (as the first argument)
and escape sequences are omitted.
The printf utility can be used portably to emulate any of the traditional behaviors of the echo utility
as follows (assuming that IFS has its standard value or is unset):
* The historic System V echo and the requirements on XSI implementations in this volume of POSIX.1‐2017
are equivalent to:
printf "%b\n$*"
* The BSD echo is equivalent to:
if [ "X$1" = "X-n" ]
then
shift
printf "%s$*"
else
printf "%s\n$*"
fi
New applications are encouraged to use printf instead of echo.
EXAMPLES
None.
RATIONALE
The echo utility has not been made obsolescent because of its extremely widespread use in historical
applications. Conforming applications that wish to do prompting without <newline> characters or that
could possibly be expecting to echo a -n, should use the printf utility derived from the Ninth Edition
system.
As specified, echo writes its arguments in the simplest of ways. The two different historical versions of
echo vary in fatally incompatible ways.
The BSD echo checks the first argument for the string -n which causes it to suppress the <newline> that
would otherwise follow the final argument in the output.
The System V echo does not support any options, but allows escape sequences within its operands, as
described for XSI implementations in the OPERANDS section.
The echo utility does not support Utility Syntax Guideline 10 because historical applications depend on
echo to echo all of its arguments, except for the -n option in the BSD version.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
printf
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility
Syntax Guidelines
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard
for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document.
The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced
during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2017 ECHO(1POSIX)