NAME

     echo - produce message in a shell script


SYNOPSIS

     echo [ -n | -e ] args...


DESCRIPTION

     Echo prints its arguments on the standard output,  separated
     by  spaces.   Unless  the -n option is present, a newline is
     output following the arguments.  The -e option  causes  echo
     to treat the escape sequences specially, as described in the
     following paragraph.  Only one of the options -n and -e  may
     be given.

     If any of the following sequences of characters  is  encoun-
     tered  during  output, the sequence is not output.  Instead,
     the specified action is performed:

     \b   A backspace character is output.

     \c   Subsequent output is suppressed.  This is normally used
          at  the end of the last argument to suppress the trail-
          ing newline that echo would otherwise output.

     \f   Output a form feed.

     \n   Output a newline character.

     \r   Output a carriage return.

     \t   Output a (horizontal) tab character.

     \v   Output a vertical tab.

     \0digits
          Output the character whose value is given  by  zero  to
          three  digits.  If there are zero digits, a nul charac-
          ter is output.

     \\   Output a backslash.


HINTS

     Remember that backslash is special to the shell and needs to
     be escaped.  To output a message to standard error, say

               echo message >&2


BUGS

     The octal character escape mechanism (\0digits) differs from
     the C language mechanism.



AUTHOR

     Kenneth Almquist.