Print a multi-line string in Bash
The Problem
How can I print a string with multiple lines in Bash?
echo "Hello\nworld"
produces:
Hello\nworld
The Solution
On some systems, echo includes a -e parameter, which will enable escape sequences like \n. So this:
echo -e "Hello\nworld"
should produce:
Hello
world
However, not all versions of echo support this flag. A more reliable and portable alternative is to use printf instead of echo:
printf "Hello\nworld"
will produce:
Hello
world
You can read more about printf by typing man printf into your terminal.
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