shell - the meta character in linux soft quoting -

[root@z ~]# echo \n n [root@z ~]# echo "\n" \n [root@z ~]# echo '\n' \n 

and

[root@z ~]# echo '\\' \\ [root@z ~]# echo "\\" \ [root@z ~]# echo \\ \ 

what's problem?

soft quoting can disable \ or not???

in order interpret escape sequences many echo versions must invoked argument -e described posix specifications under "on xsi-conformant systems.. " in page echo. circumvent potential inconsistency instead use more portable printf utility. here examples:

output actual newline character:

printf "\n" 

output uninterpreted "\n" character string:

printf "\\\n" 

if absolutely want use echo still, can pass -e option follows:

output actual newline character:

echo -ne "\n" 

output uninterpreted "\n" character string:

echo -n "\n" 

single ticks verse quotes have no bearing on operation of escape sequences. differentiation of single ticks verse quotes useful in regards glob , variable expansion. , find on shells, namely ash variants (dash) -e option not supported, , instead shell behaves if -e default. again, circumvent potentially confusing , non-portable scenario use printf.