Make echo ignore the "\" char

[Mike_316]

Hey!

Does anyone know how to make echo ignore the special meaning of the "\" character.

I.E. I would like to be able to store the line "c:\temp" in a variable (var) and then use the command "echo $var" to get "c:\temp" to print. HOWEVER, what is happening now is I store "c:\temp" in var and the "echo $var" responds with ...

"c: emp"

... or "c COLON TAB emp" because it interprets the "\t" part of "\temp" as the escape code for "tab".

Thanks!

Mike

[Geoff Wild]

With unix it's easy - just escape it a couple of times:

# export TEST="c:\\\test"

# echo $TEST
c:\test

Rgds...Geoff

[Ken Hubnik_2]

kenvar=c:/\temp
export kenvar

[Mike_316]

Great answers...but I left one peice of info out...I do not hav control over the format of the "C:\temp" example, as it is being pulled from another file...so I can add additional "\" to it.

Basically, I need to be able to read "C:\temp" into a variable from a file, and echo it (or print it using any other method) exactly as read to another file.

Thanks forthe help!

Mike

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi,
I don't know if this vcan be something for you:

a='C:\ddd'
# echo $a
C:\ddd

[Zafar A. Mohammed_1]

var="c:\\\test"
echo $var


Thanks
Zafar

[john korterman · Accepted solution]

Hi Mike,
try this korn-shell feature:

# ksh
$
$ MYVAR="C:\flimflam"
$ print -r "$MYVAR"
C:\flimflam

consult man page for ksh regarding print.

regards,
John K.

[Geoff Wild]

Can you post the file? and /or how you get the variable?

[Leif Halvarsson_2]

Hi
I think the problem is not the echo command, it is the read.
try
# cat zzz
C:\ddd
# while read -r a
> do
> echo $a
> done C:\ddd

[Olivier ROBERT]

Hi Mike,

This one is awful, but it works:

awk 'END { print ENVIRON["var"] }'
Replace echo with the above line... Another solution would be to write a small C program which prints all of its nonzero arguments... I didn't find a better solution to this simple problem!

Hehe, by the way, this is a major ITRC issue, look at this one:

1) Click on the name of one of the contributors of this thread (author excluded), to view its profile
2) Have a look at the thread subject, in the "Responses" column
3) Where the heck is the backslash?

Mike, I wonder if you're working on the ITRC web interface!

Regards,

Olivier

[Mike_316]

Perfect!! The real answer was a combination of thesuggesstions to use "print -r " AND "read -r."

I was using the "cat filename | while read var" to get the lines from the file. Unfortunately, SOME ofthe lines had double "\" (I.E. C:\\Temp", and "print -r" by itself was still outputting "C:\temp" for these as well.

However changing the script to (paraphrased)...

#!/bin/ksh
cat filename | while read -r line
do
print -r $line >> newfile
done

...managed to allow the line top be read and written without corruption.

Thanks a million!

Mike

[Mike_316]

Perfect!! The real answer was a combination of thesuggesstions to use "print -r " AND "read -r."

I was using the "cat filename | while read var" to get the lines from the file. Unfortunately, SOME ofthe lines had double "\" (I.E. C:\\Temp", and "print -r" by itself was still outputting "C:\temp" for these as well.

However changing the script to (paraphrased)...

#!/bin/ksh
cat filename | while read -r line
do
print -r $line >> newfile
done

...managed to allow the line to be read and written without corruption.

Thanks a million!

Mike