Re: Bug in echo when trying to print "******************************************************************************************"

[Bauke Jan Douma]

Eric Blake wrote on 27-06-07 14:22:
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> Please keep replies on the list, so that others may benefit from the answers.
>
> According to Robert Thompson on 6/26/2007 10:27 AM:
> > That said, it seems like you aren't pasting the exact command you
> > actually
> > tried.  echo "*" echoes a single asterisk, "echo *" is a glob character,
> > interpreted by your shell as all files in the current directory,
> > passed as
> > multiple arguments to echo, each of which are then echoed, giving the
> > output you demonstrated.  This is not a bug in echo, but probably a
> > misunderstanding on your part about shell quoting rules.
>
> > Thanks. Can you suggest a reference to shell quoting rules?  --  Bob T.
>
> You can start out with the shell itself - 'man bash' tries to do a good
> job.  Or you could refer directly to POSIX,
> http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/utilities/xcu_chap02.html#tag_02_02.
>  But both of these options are a bit harsh if you are learning shell for
> the first time.
>
> A friendlier option is a good reference manual, such as O'Reilly's:
> http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/bash3.  There is also plenty to be learned
> from google.

There's also the Advanced Bash Scripting guide, to be found at
http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/abs-guide.pdf
which has many example scripts and scriptlets, and which would
in my view not be too advanced for even a beginner (lest bad
habits creep in).

bjd