Re: A hyphen bug or not?

[Mikael Magnusson <mikachu@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 18 March 2011 15:15,  <nix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> #!/bin/zsh
>
> emulate zsh
>
> R="-"
>
> echo "$R" # <--- its empty here as well !
>
> R=$(echo "$R" | base64)
> R=$(print ${R//$'\n'})
>
> echo "R: $R" # <--- this is wrong, it should be a hyphen -
>
> # When we change the "R" variable to a octal presentation of hyphen
>
> R="\055"
> R=$(echo "$R" | base64)
> R=$(print ${R//$'\n'})
>
> echo "R: $R" # <--- now it works and base64 decod returns a hyphen "-" as
> it should.
>
>
> How I can echo a hyphen without echoing octal?

Your problem is that echo actually interprets options, if you want to
echo arguments starting with a hyphen you should use echo - "arguments
here" (it's always safe to add the leading hyphen to separate options
from arguments). If you also don't want to interpret escapes, use echo
-E - "arguments here".

-- 
Mikael Magnusson