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Asked: 2026-06-17T04:23:33+00:00

The new-line character is correctly recognized on server2 (Solaris) while it is taken as

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The new-line character is correctly recognized on server2 (Solaris) while it is taken as a backslashn character on server1 (Linux). How do I correct this?

While working on a simple script that accepts arguments and sends out mails I first noticed this rather odd behavior..

Syntax: $ ksh SEND_MAIL.sh <to> <Subject> <body>

  1. Now when I run that script on server-1

    [kent@server1] $ ksh SEND_MAIL.sh name@site.com “Subject” “123\n456”
    [Thu Jan 10 10:51:18 EST 2013] – Starting to send mail to: name@site.com,
    with the subject \’>>>123\n456\’

    Notice that the new-line character is taken as backlash-n.

  2. While on server-2 the \n special character correctly expands to a new-line character.

    [kent@server2] $ ksh SEND_MAIL.sh name@site.com “Subject” “123\n456”
    [Thu Jan 10 10:51:18 EST 2013] – Starting to send mail to: name@site.com,
    with the subject \’>>>123
    456\’

I think I may need to change some KornShell environment variables but I can not figure it out.

UPDATE:

After Henk’s guidance below… I see that knowing the difference is not enough in helping me solve main issue – that is to have the script on server1 recognize the \n characters as a new-line. So I have improved my question.

Notes:

Server1 is a Linux server, while Server2 is Solaris.

Environment details > KornShell: – As suggested by Henk Langeveld

On server1:

[kent@server1]$ ksh --version
  version         sh (AT&T Research) 93t+ 2010-02-02
[kent@server1]$ echo ${.sh.version}
bash: ${.sh.version}: bad substitution
[kent@server1]$ [ "${ERRNO}" ] && echo ksh88 || echo ksh93
ksh93
[kent@server1]$ [ "`echo "\c" | grep c`" ] && echo ksh93 || echo ksh88 
ksh93

On server2:

# I'm am in bash
[kent@server2]$ ksh --version 
$
$ ksh --version
$ 
[kent@server2]$ echo ${.sh.version}
bash: ${.sh.version}: bad substitution
[kent@server2]$ [ "${ERRNO}" ] && echo ksh88 || echo ksh93
ksh93
[kent@server2]$ [ "`echo "\c" | grep c`" ] && echo ksh93 || echo ksh88 
ksh93

On server 1 & 2 I get the same behavior:

$ echo -e "1\n2"
1
2
$ echo "1\n2"
1\n2
$ echo $'1\n2'
1
2

Code:

SEND_MAIL.sh

#Syntax: $ ksh SEND_MAIL.sh <to> <Subject> <body>
TO_REC=$1
SUBJECT=$2
MESSAGE=$3
echo "$MESSAGE"| mailx -s "$SUBJECT" $TO_REC

Putting the line set | grep SH in the script on both the servers to check the shell it is running on as Oliver suggested below.

On server1:

[kent@server1]$ ksh SEND_MAIL.sh kent@123.com "Subject" ">>>123\n\n456$a"
KSH_VERSION=.sh.version
SHELL=/bin/bash
SHLVL=3
SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/libexec/openssh/gnome-ssh-askpass
SSH_CLIENT='3.209.100.144 59645 22'
SSH_CONNECTION='3.209.100.144 59645 3.56.9.127 22'
SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/1
...

On server2:

[kent@server2]$ ksh SEND_MAIL.sh kent@123.com "Subject" ">123\n\n456$a"
SHELL=/bin/ksh
SHLVL=1
SSH_CLIENT='3.209.100.144 49351 22'
SSH_CONNECTION='3.209.100.144 49351 3.56.29.159 22'
SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/2
...
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Is this AST ksh93, pdksh, or an older ksh88?

    Here’s how you can check the version of your ksh by checking the output of ksh --version and the value of ${.sh.version}

    $ ksh --version
version         sh (AT&T Research) 93u+ 2012-06-26
$ ksh -c 'echo ${.sh.version}'
Version AJM 93u+ 2012-06-26

    Then tell us if the results are the same on the two servers. Older versions of ksh may actually report an error.

    Solution for ksh93:

    On server1, embed your \n in a ksh93 Ansi string, by enclosing it in $' and ':

    two_lines=$'one\ntwo'  && print "$two_lines"
one
two

    This will extrapolate any C-style escapes.

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