[comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc] ECHOing > < | & in command.com

henkf@dnlunx.pttrnl.nl (Henk Fictorie) (11/30/90)

In a bat file I would like to ECHO the special characters: < > | &.

I know how to do it in 4DOS (using the escape character ^X).
I would like to know, how I can do it in command.com.
Is there also an escape character or should I provide the ASCII
code (if so, how) or do something else??

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Henk Fictorie, PTT Research Neher Labs,    H_Fictorie@pttrnl.nl
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rmich@Lise.Unit.NO (Rolf Michelsen) (11/30/90)

Henk Fictorie (henk@dnlunx) asks how to echo the special characters < > & | from a batch file.

I haven't tested this, but the standard way of passing special characters as parameters is to enclose the entire parameter in double quotes. You could try something like this:  ECHO "this is a <silly> test"

fisher@sc2a.unige.ch (12/03/90)

henkf@dnlunx.pttrnl.nl (Henk Fictorie) writes:
> In a bat file I would like to ECHO the special characters: < > | &.

rmich@Lise.Unit.NO (Rolf Michelsen) replies:
> I haven't tested this, but the standard way of passing special characters as
> parameters is to enclose the entire parameter in double quotes. You could
> try something like this:  ECHO "this is a <silly> test"

This works, but you'll see the double quotes.  I didn't find any good way to
display these characters - special to command.com - using DOS.

Many replacements of DOS' echo provide ways to display them, or to skip the
final CR-LF.  BTW: such a program (quite trivial to, really) is in queue for
posting in c.b.i.p.  It's called `write', and uses the `prompt' syntax for
special characters ($e=ESC, $l='<', $g='>', etc.).