NAME

       shtool-echo - GNU shtool echo(1) extensional command

SYNOPSIS

       shtool echo [-n|--newline] [-e|--expand] string

DESCRIPTION

       shtool echo is an echo(1) style command which prints string to stdout and optionally
       provides special expansion constructs (terminal bold mode, environment details, date, etc)
       and newline control. The trick of this command is that it provides a portable -n option
       and hides the gory details needed to find out the environment details under option -e.

OPTIONS

       The following command line options are available.

       -n, --newline
           By default, output is written to stdout followed by a "newline" (ASCII character
           0x0a). If option -n is used, this newline character is omitted.

       -e, --expand
           If option -e is used, string can contain special "%x" constructs which are expanded
           before the output is written. Currently the following constructs are recognized:

           %B  switch terminal mode to bold display mode.

           %b  switch terminal mode back to normal display mode.

           %u  the current user name.

           %U  the current user id (numerical).

           %g  the current group name.

           %G  the current group id (numerical).

           %h  the current hostname (without any domain extension).

           %d  the current domain name.

           %D  the current day of the month.

           %M  the current month (numerical).

           %m  the current month name.

           %Y  the current year.

EXAMPLE

        #   shell script
        shtool echo -n -e "Enter your name [%B%u%b]: "; read name
        shtool echo -e "Your Email address might be %u@%h%d"
        shtool echo -e "The current date is %D-%m-%Y"

HISTORY

       The GNU shtool echo command was originally written by Ralf S.  Engelschall
       <rse@engelschall.com> in 1998 for Website META Language (WML) under the name buildinfo. It
       was later taken over into GNU shtool.

SEE ALSO

       shtool(1), echo(1).