> On Sun, Jan 27, 2008 at 02:11:26AM +0000, Matthew Szudzik wrote:
> > I recently noticed that the examples in the softraid man page
> >
> >
http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=softraid
> >
> > contain many lines such as
> >
> > echo "d a\na\n\n\n\nRAID\nw\nq\n" | disklabel -E wd1
> >
> > Of course, not every version of echo interprets "\n" as a newline. In
> > fact, /bin/echo treats "\n" as a literal backslash followed by a literal
> > n. The version of echo that is built into csh also interprets it as a
> > literal backslash followed by a literal n. But the softraid man page
> > certainly intends it to be interpreted as a newline.
> >
> > So, is the man page in error? Or are the examples in man pages only
> > intended for use in the default shell? (Note that ksh is the default
> > shell, and ksh has a built-in echo command that interprets "\n" as a
> > newline.)
>
> well, the man page is not exactly in error - it just presupposes the use
> of the default shell. unfortunately /bin/echo does not support character
> sequences such as "\n", even though they are noted as mandated by XSI.
> bummer.
>
> marco: can we use printf(1) instead? i think we'd need an extra "\n" (no
> idea why):
>
> echo "d a\na\n\n\n\nRAID\nw\nq\n"
> would become:
> printf "d a\na\n\n\n\nRAID\nw\nq\n\n"
>
> we'd maybe need to replace all echo commands with printf. it would at
> least be more portable.
>
> jmc
