Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 09:22:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Jeff Frost <jeff@frostconsultingllc.com>
To: Simon Riggs <simon@2ndquadrant.com>
cc: pgsql-docs@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: psql man page error?
In-Reply-To: <1165319827.3839.146.camel@silverbirch.site>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0612050914320.3166@glacier.frostconsultingllc.com>
References: <1165319827.3839.146.camel@silverbirch.site>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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On Tue, 5 Dec 2006, Simon Riggs wrote:

> which gives
>
> 	prompt> echo "\x \\ select * from foo;" | psql
> 	Expanded display is on.
> 	invalid command \
>
> i.e. doesn't work on bash. With bash the command should be:
>
> 	echo -e "\x \n select * from foo;" | psql
>
> which gives
>
> 	prompt> echo -e "\x \n select * from foo;" | psql
> 	Expanded display is on.
> 	ERROR:  relation "foo" does not exist
>
> Does this mean there are multiple forms of the echo command, or is this
> example just wrong?

I believe that /bin/echo and the bash built-in used to be slightly different, 
although reviewing both man pages on my FC5 system seem to indicate that they 
have the same command-line arguments.

It's also possible that I'm thinking back to my Solaris (2.5.1) days when the 
built-in tcsh echo was in fact different than /bin/echo.  That's why all my 
scripts seem to call the binary and not the built-in.

Another possibility is that the original author had the options set in his 
xpg_echo environment variable and forgot about it...or his distro was setting 
it in a profile.d file.

-- 
Jeff Frost, Owner 	<jeff@frostconsultingllc.com>
Frost Consulting, LLC 	http://www.frostconsultingllc.com/
Phone: 650-780-7908	FAX: 650-649-1954