ECHO(1) User Commands ECHO(1) NAME echo - display a line of text SYNOPSIS echo [SHORT-OPTION]... [STRING]... echo LONG-OPTION DESCRIPTION Echo the STRING(s) to standard output. -n do not output the trailing newline -e enable interpretation of backslash escapes -E disable interpretation of backslash escapes (default) --help display this help and exit --version output version information and exit If -e is in effect, the following sequences are recognized: \\ backslash \a alert (BEL) \b backspace \c produce no further output \e escape \f form feed \n new line \r carriage return \t horizontal tab \v vertical tab \0NNN byte with octal value NNN (1 to 3 digits) \xHH byte with hexadecimal value HH (1 to 2 digits) NOTE: your shell may have its own version of echo, which usually supersedes the version described here. Please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the options it supports. AUTHOR Written by Brian Fox and Chet Ramey. REPORTING BUGS Report echo bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org GNU coreutils home page: General help using GNU software: Report echo translation bugs to COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later . This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. SEE ALSO The full documentation for echo is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and echo programs are properly installed at your site, the command info coreutils 'echo invocation' should give you access to the complete manual. GNU coreutils 8.12.197-032bb September 2011 ECHO(1)