Echo vs printf

This is an observation of the behavior of echo vs printf when used on the command line. This behavior may not cause any issues when used inside a script.

Echo does what you’d expect it to do:

user@computer:~$ echo HELLO
HELLO
user@computer:~$

Printf lands inside my prompt:

user@computer:~$ printf HELLO
HELLOuser@computer:~$

To get printf to do what echo does takes the addition of the \n code for a newline:

user@computer:~$ printf "HELLO\n"
HELLO
user@computer:~$

Obligatory Happy Ending

And they all lived happily ever after. The end.