echo

Print text or the value of a variable

What it does

echo prints its arguments: echo "Hello". Mostly it is used to look at variables: echo $HOME prints your home folder, because the shell puts the value in place of $HOME before the command runs.

Inside double quotes variables are replaced, inside single quotes they are not: echo '$HOME' prints the text $HOME itself. Together with > or >>, echo writes a line to a file.

Syntax

echo <text>
echo $<VARIABLE>

Examples

• Print the path to your home directory from the HOME variable

  echo $HOME

  same as: echo "$HOME", echo ${HOME}

  • echo — print
  • $HOME — value of the HOME variable

Related commands

• export — Set an environment variable for the programs you run
• env — List environment variables
• > >> 2> — Output redirection. Write a command's output to a file instead of the screen

Practise · All commands