I am currently writing some code for a shell script that needs a blank line between two parts of the script, as thus they can be separated when output is displayed to the user.
My question is, I am not sure what the preferred practice is in a shell script for a blank line.
Is it preferred practice to just write echo and nothing else or to write echo " " as in echo with quotes and blank between the quotes?
echo is preferred. echo " " outputs an unnecessary space character. echo "" would be better, but it's unnecessary.
but you can use
echo -e "Hi \n"
and print a blank line after Hi, with -e interprets the \n character.
In its first implementation, echo had no option and outputs optional arguments ending with a new line, so it perfectly suit your needs.
For formatted outputs ending with a new line, printf is a better choice, for example : printf "%s\n\n" "output".
All of these commands can be used to echo a blank line:
echo, echo '', echo ""
We cant use echo "\n" or echo '\n' as they will give output as \n in both cases.
More portable and succinct. This prints a hundred lines.
shell
printf '\n%.0s' `seq 1 100`
bash
printf '\n%.0s' {1,100}
As John suggested use echo. However if you want to print a blank line followed by text and anther blank line - as in running a test then use echo -e suggested by wyanzes.
echo -e "\n Now we are going to load data \n"
puts a blank line before and after.
