How to debug a bash function that returns a value, and how to add newlines to a variable?

Question

I\'m in a bash crash course today.

This is a bash function that returns a value, via echo:

#!/bin/bash
get_hello_name() {
  echo \'Hello $1!\'
}
msg=         


        

Answer 1

The working code after following John1024's tips (note the newlines print in the "1" lines, but not the "4", because of the e option):

#!/bin/bash
a_function() {
    echo -e "Hello\nworld\n 1"
    echo "Hello"
    echo "world"
    echo "Hello\nworld 4"
}

echo -e "Hello\nworld\n 1"
echo "Hello"
echo "world"
echo "Hello\nworld 4"

x=$(a_function "x")
echo "x-no-quotes>"
echo $x                       #No new lines!
echo ""
echo "$x"                     #Yes new lines!
echo "

Output:

Hello
world
 1
Hello
world
Hello\nworld 4
x-no-quotes>
Hello world 1 Hello world Hello\nworld 4

Hello
world
 1
Hello
world
Hello\nworld 4