[LUG] Echo command

[John Horne <john.horne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Running Fedora 7, I noticed that many of the system startup scripts
(in /etc/init.d) use the 'echo' command with a preceeding '$' character.
The scripts use bash. For example in sshd it uses:

    echo -n $"Generating SSH1 RSA host key: "

A little testing seems to show that it does nothing - i.e. echo does not
display it. It does not seem to matter if I use the external command
'/bin/echo' or let it use the shell builtin 'echo' command.

So what is the point of the '$'? 


Thanks,

John.

-- 
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John Horne, University of Plymouth, UK  Tel: +44 (0)1752 233914
E-mail: John.Horne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx       Fax: +44 (0)1752 233839

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