Utility: echo

Utility: echo - print text Status: Built. As-built reference. Shape: shell built-in (see 0_conventions.md §2).

1. Purpose

echo prints the rest of its line back to the console, verbatim. The simplest utility - useful as a console-output sanity check and a building block in scripts and pipes (echo hello | write /h.txt).

2. Invocation

CommandMeaning
echo <text>Print <text> (the remainder of the line) and a newline.

The argument is the whole remainder of the line after echo , trimmed - not split into words - so spacing inside the text is preserved as typed. One surrounding pair of quotes is stripped (echo "hi" prints hi).

3. Output

gsh> echo hello from the shell
hello from the shell

4. Capabilities

  • Console output only. echo reads no kernel state and holds no authority beyond printing.

5. Non-goals

  • No escape sequences / flags (no -n, no -e). It prints the text as given. $name expansion is done by the shell before echo runs, not by echo itself; the shell refuses to echo a variable holding a secret value (gsh: refusing to echo a secret value - it stays off the console).

6. Conformance

Conforms: own echo help / echo version (with a real example, per 0_conventions.md); listed by the shell's top-level help under Console as echo <text>. See 0_conventions.md §3.