shtool-echo - GNU shtool echo(1) extensional command
shtool echo [-n|--newline] [-e|--expand] string
shtool echo is an echo(1) style command which prints string to stdout and optionally provides special expansion constructs (terminal bold mode, environment details, date, etc) and newline control. The trick of this command is that it provides a portable -n option and hides the gory details needed to find out the environment details under option -e.
The following command line options are available.
By default, output is written to stdout followed by a newline (ASCII character 0x0a). If option -n is used, this newline character is omitted.
If option -e is used, string can contain special "%x" constructs which are expanded before the output is written. Currently the following constructs are recognized:
switch terminal mode to bold display mode.
switch terminal mode back to normal display mode.
the current user name.
the current user id (numerical).
the current group name.
the current group id (numerical).
the current hostname (without any domain extension).
the current domain name.
the current day of the month.
the current month (numerical).
the current month name.
the current year.
# shell script shtool echo -n -e "Enter your name [%B%u%b]: "; read name shtool echo -e "Your Email address might be %u@%h%d" shtool echo -e "The current date is %D-%m-%Y"
The GNU shtool echo command was originally written by Ralf S. Engelschall <rse@engelschall.com> in 1998 for Website META Language (WML) under the name buildinfo. It was later taken over into GNU shtool.