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ECHO(1) FreeBSD General Commands Manual ECHO(1) NAME echo - write arguments to the standard output SYNOPSIS echo [-n] [string ...] DESCRIPTION The echo utility writes any specified operands, separated by single blank (` ') characters and followed by a newline (`\n') character, to the standard output. The following option is available: -n Do not print the trailing newline character. The end-of-options marker -- is not recognized and written literally. The newline may also be suppressed by appending `\c' to the end of the string, as is done by iBCS2 compatible systems. Note that the -n option as well as the effect of `\c' are implementation-defined in IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 ("POSIX.1") as amended by Cor. 1-2002. For portability, echo should only be used if the first argument does not start with a hyphen (`-') and does not contain any backslashes (`\'). If this is not sufficient, printf(1) should be used. Most shells provide a builtin echo command which tends to differ from this utility in the treatment of options and backslashes. Consult the builtin(1) manual page. EXIT STATUS The echo utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. SEE ALSO builtin(1), csh(1), printf(1), sh(1) STANDARDS The echo utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 ("POSIX.1") as amended by Cor. 1-2002. HISTORY The echo command appeared in Version 2 AT&T UNIX. FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p6 October 5, 2016 FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p6