.. include:: ../header.txt

.. _echo:

:command:`echo`
===========================

.. index:: echo
.. program:: echo
.. describe:: echo

    display a line of text.  echo is often used to display or send an
    evironment variable to a pipe. (:ref:`pipe`, :ref:`sed`)
    ::

        new=$(echo $old | sed 's/oldstring/newstring/')

SYNOPSIS

    :command:`echo` [OPTION]... [STRING]...

OPTIONS

    .. option:: -n
    
        do not output the trailing newline

    .. option:: -e
    
        enable interpretation of the backslash-escaped characters
        listed below

    .. option:: -E
    
        disable interpretation of those sequences in STRINGs

.. _escaped:

Escaped Characters
------------------

    ======  ================================================
    \\NNN    the character whose ASCII code is NNN (octal)
    \\ \\      backslash
     \\a      alert (BEL)
     \\b      backspace
     \\c      suppress trailing newline
     \\f      form feed
     \\n      new line
     \\r      carriage return
     \\t      horizontal tab
     \\v      vertical tab
    ======  ================================================