How to insert a new line in Linux shell script?
I want to insert a new line between multiple echo statements. I have tried echo "hello\n", but it is not working. It is printing \n. I want the desired output like this:
Create the snapshots
Snapshot created
Answer
The simplest way to insert a new line between echo statements is to insert an echo without arguments, for example:
echo Create the snapshots
echo
echo Snapshot created
That is, echo without any arguments will print a blank line.
Another alternative to use a single echo statement with the -e flag and embedded newline characters \n:
echo -e "Create the snapshots\n\nSnapshot created"
However, this is not portable, as the -e flag doesn't work consistently in all systems. A better way if you really want to do this is using printf:
printf "Create the snapshots\n\nSnapshot created\n"
This works more reliably in many systems, though it's not POSIX compliant. Notice that you must manually add a \n at the end, as printf doesn't append a newline automatically as echo does.