Printing a '$' (dollar sign) to a file

Question

I want to echo/printf a dollar sign into a file - but echo $ > myfile or such does not work (not surprising).

I tried escaping it like echo \$ > myfile but it is also not working.

What is the correct way to perform it?

I'm working with TCSH on SunOs.

The escaped version worked on my site (on Linux as well as on SunOS). — bmk, May 09 '11 at 08:53

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered May 09 '11 at 08:53

3

You can use printf and single quotes to avoid variable expansion:

printf '$' > myfile

answered May 09 '11 at 08:53

jlliagre

8,691
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Erm, why would you choose printf to echo a static string? – jgoldschrafe May 09 '11 at 11:16
3

@jgoldschrafe: Because I'm sure the Solaris printf command will be used in that case so I can avoid whatever oddity tcsh echo builtin might introduce. – jlliagre May 09 '11 at 12:15

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

2

From this link, you can use the \x24 method, where 24 is the hex for the dollar sign. Just that this structure doesn't work 100% with string using the double quote, so you probably want to use a single quote. So this statement

echo "Foo "$'\x24'" bar" >> somefile

will create somefile with the content

Foo $ bar

edited May 23 '17 at 12:41

Community

1

answered Oct 10 '15 at 06:45

Roy B

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1

Printing a '$' (dollar sign) to a file

2 Answers2