Re: A hyphen bug or not?

[nix@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

> 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
>

R="-"
echo - "$R" did the trick.

Thank you.