echo question

[Anthony khan]

Hi Guys,

I am using echo "\a\nancy\file" but the echo output I get is following..

echo "\a\nancy\file"

ancy
ile

Because \ is a speacial charactor for new line, any idea how to solve this, I want the output of echo would be same as \a\nancy\file.


Thanks in advance

Anthony

[Ian Dennison_1]

\n is a special code for the printf command, not the echo command. That's why it does not work.

man printf

Share and Enjoy! Ian

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Anthony:

# echo '\\a\\nancy\\file'

Regards!

...JRF...

[John Meissner]

try

echo '\\a\\nancy\\file'

works for me. you need to excape the \a the \n and the \f
the escape character is \

[Darren Prior]

Hi,

You'll need to escape the backslashes with a backslash, ie:

echo "\\a\\nancy\\file"

You may want to use something like sed to automate this if you've got a lot of these to change ;)

regards,

Darren.

[curt larson_1]

looks like my first reply never made it, so I'll try again

you really should be using the "print" command as echo is obsolete. echo and print formats several escape conventions including:
\a bell character
\n newline
\f formfeed
and
\\ backslash

with the echo command your stuck with using \\ for a backslash. with the print command you can also use the -R and -r switches which do not use the \ conventions.

and if your shell has a printf command you can also use or not use the \ conventions depending on your conversion specification (%s or %b).

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again) Anthony:

Curt's suggestion to use the 'print -R' syntax is the most direct answer to your problem. This is documented in the man pages for 'sh-posix'.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Anthony khan]

Its working now only thing is left is using sed to change \a\nancy\file to \\a\\nancy\file, can anyone help...


Thanks

[Michael Kelly_5 · Accepted solution]

cat mjk-test
\a\nancy\file

cat mjk-test | sed -e 's/\\/\\\\/g'
\\a\\nancy\\file

HTH,
Michael.

[Michael Kelly_5]

or even this if you really want only one \ before the f.

cat mjk-test | sed -e 's/\\a/\\\\a/' -e 's/\\n/\\\\n/'

HTH,
Michael.

[curt larson_1]

a="\a\nancy\file"

echo $(print -r $a | sed 's|\\|\\\\|g')
# this will work just as well (actually better)

print -r $a

#if you're using the korn shell you can also do

printf "%s" $a