How to add a line break inside a bash string?

Question

I have the following bash string and I need to add a line break to it, before the 'Hello' string:

bash -c "echo 'Hello' > /location/file"

I already tried adding it with different variations of the \n syntax; Before the double quotes, inside the range of the double quotes, and with different variations of escaping.

How could I add a line break just before the 'Hello' string, so to make it appear in the second row?

Answer 1

There are (at least) three options here.

1. Use a literal newline:

bash -c "echo '
Hello' > /location/file"

2. Use printf (or the non-standard echo -e), which expands backslash escaped characters as part of the commands themselves (of which both are shell builtins):

bash -c "printf '\n%s\n' Hello > /location/file"

3. Use bash's nonstandard $' quoting, which expands backslash escaped characters as part of the shell:

bash -c "echo $'\nHello' > /location/file

Answer 2

You may use $'\n':

$ bash -c "echo $'\nHello'" >somefile

The Bash manual mentions this:

Words of the form $'string' are treated specially. The word expands to string, with backslash-escaped characters replaced as specified by the ANSI C standard. Backslash escape sequences, if present, are decoded as follows:

(table of standard escape sequences left out)

Answer 3

You can do it with:

bash -c "echo $'\nHello'"