echo and backslash characters

[Adrian Brown_1]

Hi,

I'm writing a ksh script with the following line:

echo $ATTLINE >> $TEMPFILENAME

The variable $ATTLINE contains a string of characters which can include consequtive backslash characters i.e. \
The echo command sees the \\ as an escape sequence and I lose one of the backslash characters thus corrupting my file.

Is there a way of stopping echo from doing this ? or are there any other commands I can use to append the variable to the file without losing characters ?

Thanks,

Adrian.

[Rodney Hills · Accepted solution]

The -r option on the ksh print command will leave backslashes alone.

print -r $ATTLINE >> $TEMPFILENAME

HTH

-- Rod Hills

[harry d brown jr]

How do you assign the value of ATTLINE ?? Maybe you can correct the issue there?

live free or die
harry

[A. Clay Stephenson]

One option is to use the octal equivalent \0134 for the backslash.

e.g.
ATTLINE="\0134\0134Yes\0134"
echo "${ATTLINE}"

P.S. The backslashes may be silently swallowed by the
Webserver engine so each of the 0134's should be preceded by a backslash character.

[Adrian Brown_1]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies.

The ATTLINE variable is being read from a file so I can't control what characters it contains.

However, Rod's suggestion worked !

Many thanks,

Adrian.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Well, if it's begin read from a file then it's even simpler:

cat ${ATTFILE} >> ${TEMPFILENAME}

there is no need for echo at all.