echo two command output in the same line

[chuikingman]

Hi,

I try to write script and echo two command at the same line.

echo "A" 
echo "B"

How can I pipe above two command at the same line in text file? So, in the output text file, you can see below?

A     B

not

A
B

Any sugggestion?

 

[phoenix]

Read the man page for echo(1) (or your shell, for the built-in echo command), especially the part about -n.

 

[chuikingman]

Read the man page for echo(1) (or your shell, for the built-in echo command), especially the part about -n.

But actually, I want to put two ps commands together at the same line of the text output file. How can I do that?

Like below

 XXXXX            XXXXX

where XXXX is output of command ps ....

Any suggestion?

 

[UNIXgod]

Read the man page for echo(1) (or your shell, for the built-in echo command), especially the part about -n.

I love how the man page tells you to prefer printf =)

% printf "A\t"; printf "B\n"

instead of

% echo -n "A\t"; echo "B"

printf() is easily more succinct and readable.

 

[wblock@]

I love how the man page tells you to prefer printf =)

% printf "A\t"; printf "B\n"

instead of

% echo -n "A\t"; echo "B"

printf() is easily more succinct and readable.

Besides which, the second won't work with BSD echo, which doesn't understand all the useful escapes.

 

[DutchDaemon]

Actually, doesn't [cmd=]printf "$a $b"[/cmd] do what you want?

> a=hello
> b=there
> printf "$a $b"
hello there

 

[wblock@]

Actually, doesn't [cmd=]printf "$a $b"[/cmd] do what you want?

> a=hello
> b=there
> printf "$a $b"
hello there

The original post looks like the echo commands are examples that would be replaced by real commands with output. So we may be into backtick territory here.

A=`echo "output from the first command"`
B=`echo "second command output"`
printf "First command: %s\nSecond command:%s\n" "$A" "$B"

 

[phoenix]

Backticks are so 1990s.

A=$( somecommand )
B=$( someothercommand )
printf "First command: %s\nSecond command:%s\n" "$A" "$B"

$() construct is supported by almost every shell out there, and it's definitely supported by /bin/sh (really, the only one you should be scripting in). It's easier to see and to follow than backticks, which may or may not appear different from single-quotes/apostrophes in every font.

But, yeah, going back to the original question:
You stick your information into variables, then use printf or echo to display the variables, formatted however you want.

 

[UNIXgod]

Backticks are so 1990s.

$() construct is supported by almost every shell out there, and it's definitely supported by /bin/sh (really, the only one you should be scripting in). It's easier to see and to follow than backticks, which may or may not appear different from single-quotes/apostrophes in every font.

Interesting. I am so used to backticks. I have always considered parens for precedence. Is there any benefit to using parens verses backtick besides readability? Is there any performance benefit?

 

[dandelion]

% echo -n "A\t"; echo "B"

won't work with BSD echo, which doesn't understand all the useful escapes.

Better check the doc
$ echo -e "A\t\c"; echo -e "B"

sh[/man]"]echo [-e | -n] [string ...]
Print a space-separated list of the arguments to the standard
output and append a newline character.

-n Suppress the output of the trailing newline.

-e Process C-style backslash escape sequences. The echo
command understands the following character escapes:
[...]
\t Horizontal tab

-e option is a BSD extension, according to POSIX 2008 escape sequences may be supported without specifying the option.

Is there any benefit to using parens verses backtick besides readability?

- less confusing nesting $(...$(...$(...)...)...) vs. `...\`...\\\`...\\\`...\`...`
- more sane quoting, e.g. $(echo -e $(echo -e $(echo -e \\a))) vs. `echo -e \`echo -e \\\`echo -e \\\\\\\\\a\\\`\``

 

[wblock@]

Better check the doc
$ echo -e "A\t\c"; echo -e "B"-e option is a BSD extension, according to POSIX 2008 escape sequences may be supported without specifying the option.

If you mean I was not specific enough, I'll modify that:
FreeBSD's echo(1) does not have -e, or support C-style escapes:

% echo -e "a\tb"
-e a\tb

 

[phoenix]

/bin/echo does not support -e.

Neither does the echo builtin to /bin/csh.

However, the echo builtin to /bin/sh does.

So, it depends on the shell you are using, and whether or not you use the builtin echo() or the binary echo(1).