I have a bunch of shell scripts that use backslash-escaped characters in arguments to `echo'. Bash doesn't interpret these characters. Why not, and how can I make it understand them?

I have a bunch of shell scripts that use backslash-escaped characters in arguments to `echo'. Bash doesn't interpret these characters. Why not, and how can I make it understand them? 


This is the behavior of echo on most Unix System V machines.



The bash builtin `echo' is modeled after the 9th Edition

Research Unix version of `echo'.  It does not interpret

backslash-escaped characters in its argument strings by default;

it requires the use of the -e option to enable the

interpretation.  The System V echo provides no way to disable the

special characters; the bash echo has a -E option to disable

them. 



There is a configuration option that will make bash behave like

the System V echo and interpret things like `\t' by default.  Run

configure with the --enable-xpg-echo-default option to turn this

on.  Be aware that this will cause some of the tests run when you

type `make tests' to fail.



There is a shell option, `xpg_echo', settable with `shopt' that will

change the behavior of echo at runtime.  Enabling this option turns

on expansion of backslash-escape sequences.

Home FAQ