echo “-e” doesn't print anything

Question

I\'m using GNU bash, version 3.00.15(1)-release (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu). And this command:

echo \"-e\" 

doesn\'t print anything. I guess

Answer 1

Another alternative:

echo x-e | sed 's/^x//'

This is the way recommended by the autoconf manual:

[...] It is often possible to avoid this problem using 'echo "x$word"', taking the 'x' into account later in the pipe.

Answer 2

The one true way to print any arbitrary string:

printf "%s" "$vars"

Answer 3

After paying careful attention to the man page :)

SYSV3=1 /usr/bin/echo -e

works, on Solaris at least

Answer 4

I like that one using a herestring:

cat <<<"-e"

Answer 5

/bin/echo -e

works, but why?

[resin@nevada ~]$ which echo 
/bin/echo

Answer 6

Another way:

echo -e' '
echo -e " \b-e"