MS DOS Command: ECHO

Reference from Microsoft MS-DOS cmd help

Description

Displays or hides the text in batch programs when the program is running. Also indicates whether the command-echoing feature is on or off.

When you run a batch program, MS-DOS typically displays (echoes) the batch program's commands on the screen. You can turn this feature on or off by using the ECHO command.

Syntax

ECHO [ON|OFF]

To use the echo command to display a message, use the following syntax:

echo [message]

Parameters

ON|OFF	Specifies whether to turn the command-echoing feature on or off. To display the current ECHO setting, use the ECHO command without a parameter.
message	Specifies text you want MS-DOS to display on the screen.

Related Command

For information about suspending the execution of a batch program, see the PAUSE command.

Remarks

Using a message with the ECHO command

The ECHO message command is useful when ECHO is off. To display a message that is several lines long without displaying other commands, you can include several ECHO message commands after the ECHO OFF command in your batch program.

Hiding the command prompt

If you use the ECHO OFF command on the command line, the command prompt does not appear on your screen. To redisplay the command prompt, type ECHO ON.

Preventing MS-DOS from echoing a line

You can insert an at sign (@) in front of a command in a batch program to prevent MS-DOS from echoing that line.

Echoing a blank line

To echo a blank line on the screen, you can type ECHO and then a period (ECHO.). There must be no intervening space.

Displaying pipes and redirection characters

You cannot display a pipe (|) or redirection character (< or >) by using the ECHO command.

Examples

The following example shows a batch program that includes a three-line message preceded and followed by a blank line:

• echo off
• echo.
• echo This batch program
• echo formats and checks
• echo new disks
• echo.

If you want to turn ECHO off and you do not want to echo the ECHO command itself, include an at sign (@) before the command, as follows:

@echo off

You can use the IF and ECHO commands on the same command line, as follows:

if exist *.rpt echo The report has arrived.