How do I echo “-e”?

Question

I want to echo a string that might contain the same parameters as echo. How can I do it without modifying the string?

For

Answer 1

Try the following:

$ env POSIXLY_CORRECT=1 echo -e
-e

Due to shell aliases and built-in echo command, using an unadorned echo interactively or in a script may get you different functionality than that described here. Invoke it via env (i.e., env echo ...) to avoid interference from the shell.

The environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT was introduced to allow the user to force the standards-compliant behaviour. See: POSIX at Wikipedia.

Or use printf:

$ printf '%s\n' "$var"

^{Source: Why is bash swallowing -e in the front of an array at stackoverflow SE}