ECHO

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
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NAME

echo - display a line of text  

SYNOPSIS

echo [,SHOR-OPTION/]... [,STRING/]...
echo ,LON-OPTION/  

DESCRIPTION

Echo the STRING(s) to standard output.

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ech-n'-nX'tty: link'

do not output the trailing newline

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ech-e'-eX'tty: link'

enable interpretation of backslash escapes

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#ech-E'-EX'tty: link'

disable interpretation of backslash escapes (default)

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/echo#ech-help'--helpX'tty: link'

display this help and exit

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/echo#ech-version'--versionX'tty: link'

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)

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.

Consider using the printf(1) command instead, as it avoids problems when outputting option-like strings.  

AUTHOR

Written by Brian Fox and Chet Ramey.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>  

SEE ALSO

printf(1)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/echo>
or available locally via: info aq(coreutils) echo invocationaq

Packaged by Gentoo (9.10 (p0))
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO