ECHO(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 47 versions
, in arch rolling

✨ ECHO(1) ✨ — like, the manual page, section 1, user commands bestie 💖

okay so. picture this: you're in a terminal, you type something, and it just... says it back to you. that's echo. she's the moment, she's the blueprint, she's literally been here since forever. let's get into it 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

echo — display a line of text

that's it. that's the whole job. she takes what you give her and puts it on the screen. iconic behavior, no notes 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

echo [SHORT-OPTION]... [STRING]...
echo LONG-OPTION

two whole moods, bestie. either you hit her with a bunch of short options plus your strings, or you go long-option mode. that's the vibe ✨

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Echo the STRING(s) to standard output.

so real. she takes your STRING(s) and she puts them on stdout. like a little messenger fairy 🧚 but with fewer wings and more newlines.

  • -n — do not output the trailing newline. she just keeps talking and never hangs up the phone, yk?
  • -e — enable interpretation of backslash escapes. this is the one that unlocks all the secret menu codes 👑
  • -E — disable interpretation of backslash escapes. this is the default, so if you do nothing, you get nothing fancy. neutral energy.
  • --help — display this help and exit. she'll tell you how to use her and then dip 🙈
  • --version — output version information and exit. she'll tell you who she is and then also dip.

🌈 if -e is in effect, the following sequences are recognized 🌈

this is the good part. the lore. when -e is on, these little backslash codes actually do something:

  • \\ — backslash
  • \a — alert (bell) 🔔 yes it can literally beep at you
  • \b — backspace
  • \c — produce no further output 🛑 she stops mid-sentence. dramatic.
  • \e — escape
  • \f — form feed
  • \n — new line
  • \r — carriage return
  • \t — horizontal tab
  • \v — vertical tab
  • \0NNN — byte with octal value NNN (1 to 3 digits)
  • \xHH — byte with hexadecimal value HH (1 to 2 digits)

memorize these. they're the cheat codes. fr fr 💜

⚠️ important lore drop, bestie: your shell may have its own version of echo, which usually supersedes the version described here. so the one you're actually running might be a completely different girl. please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the options it supports. don't come for this manpage when bash pulls a fast one on you 😭
💡 also: consider using the printf(1) command instead, as it avoids problems when outputting option-like strings. lowkey the safer bestie when your strings start looking like options.

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Written by Brian Fox and Chet Ramey.

shoutout to the OGs. they cooked. periodt. 👑

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

found a bug? spill. not in the group chat, in the bug tracker:

Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

read that again. NO WARRANTY. none. zero. she's free and she's yours and she makes no promises 🫠

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/echo>

or available locally via: info '(coreutils) echo invocation'

and that's the whole page, bestie!! go forth and echo your little heart out 💖✨

GNU coreutils 9.12 — September 2026 — that's the version and the date, mwah, signing off 😘🎀

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