Shell script with a line starting with "-e"

Question

Shell script with a line starting with "-e"

#!/bin/sh
STR="-e"
echo ${STR}
STR="${STR} HI"
echo ${STR}

The above script prints:

HI

after an empty line. Why is this and how to create a line starting with "-e"?

+3

unix shell sh echo

user1145925 Feb 08 '14 at 3:36

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1 answer

John kugelman · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-08T03:39:14+0000

echonot a very good UNIX citizen. If that were good, you could write echo -- "$STR", with --, indicating the end of the list of options. But this is not so, therefore you cannot.

Best used printf.

printf '%s\n' "$STR"

Shell script with a line starting with "-e"

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