CODEWITHSUNDEEP
windowsbatch-filecmd
BAR Software
BAR Software

Reputation: 163

How does the echo command works in batch programming

I'm have started to learn batch programming to go a little more deeper in the Windows Machines. In Internet I have seen some commands with echo like "@echo off" or "on" and also this: "echo." but I don't know what are they doing. If anyone can explain me the functions of the echo command, please answer me.

Upvotes: 13

Views: 101638

Answers (3)

Harun
Harun

Reputation: 1662

By default, every command executed in a batch file is also echoed to the output - not just the output of the command, but the command itself.

The echo command has three modes:

  1. When called with some arguments AFTER a space, it will output the arguments.
  2. When called as echo. (no space) it will output just a blank line.
  3. When called with just the arguments on or off, it controls the behaviour of printing the commands as they execute.

So, the echo off command turns off the output at the start of the batch file. However, that command itself is still echoed before it has a chance to turn off the echoing. The @ symbol has the effect of turning off the output for only the current command.

Combining the two, the @echo off at the start of a batch file turns off the echoing without itself being echoed.

It follows from this that if you try to echo just the word off, without quotes, it will turn off command printing instead. If you try to work around this by quoting the word "off", the output will include the quotes. The answer, thanks to @JeffZeitlin's comment below, is:

In the presumably unusual case of wanting to echo just the word off or on (i.e., not a part of any other string), it turns out that echo.off and echo.on do the trick.

Upvotes: 5

Antonio Gschossmann
Antonio Gschossmann

Reputation: 622

The ECHO command in Windows CMD is used to print out text to the screen, display the actual setting of the Command-line which means when you do:

@echo off

The "C:\Users[User]" line before your command input will disappear. You can restore it with:

@echo on

Here all functions of ECHO explained:

  • @echo [on/off] (to set the command-line settings)

  • echo [text] (to print text to the screen)

  • echo. (to print an empty line to the screen)

  • echo (displays the current setting of the command-line)

  • echo /? (displays help for the command ECHO)

I hope I was able to help you.

Upvotes: 22

lostbard
lostbard

Reputation: 5220

Partial answer is this: What does "@" mean in Windows batch scripts

The @ before the command means do not print that command when running it.

The off argument tells the script not output any other commands, however without the @ would output the echo off (since echoing hasn't yet been turned off)

The on argument turns command echoing back on.

Any other arguments are just echoed to the display

Upvotes: 4

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