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Re: [PATCH] latest ash has broken 'echo' command



On Thu, Oct 21, 1999 at 03:20:40PM +0200, Marek Habersack wrote:
>
> During the Debian packages upgrade I saw many, many '-n something' messages,
> meaning that many packages use -n. Perhaps SUS should be changed? The
> echo manpage from ash says it supports -n and -e paramerters. The shellutils
> echo also supports these options. I don't see what's the rationale behind
> the SUS restriction? Why wouldn't echo support options that are so commonly
> used?

SuS disallows options because echo traditionally did not allow -- to indicate
that no further options are to be used.  This means that if options were
allowed you cannot echo a line that begins with -.  Anyway, echo cannot be
used portably with escape codes and lines that begin with -, that is why
the SuS recommends you to use printf instead.
-- 
Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 is out! ( http://www.debian.org/ )
Email:  Herbert Xu ~{PmV>HI~} <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>
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