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Zunaid Ali first became interested in technology after using a computer for the first time in 2006. He’s been producing how-to content since 2018, reaching thousands of people in the process.

As a kid, Zunaid used to read tech tutorials and troubleshooting guides on popular blogs. That made him want to start his own writing career. After the coronavirus pandemic, he finally decided to jump into the tech writing world. Before joining How-To Geek, he had written for HecticGeek, Distroid, and UbuntuPIT, among others.

Zunaid first tried Linux when he wanted to learn Web Development in 2021. Due to his inexperience, he messed up his laptop trying to dual-boot Ubuntu with Windows. Frustrated, he went all-in with Linux and removed Windows completely. And that’s when he fell in love with it. He’s been actively experimenting with Linux since then.

After finding his first writing gig on Linux in April 2022, he decided to specialize in it so he could share his knowledge and insights with fellow open-source enthusiasts. He joined How-To Geek in September 2023 and has been writing as a freelance contributor since then.

Zunaid is currently pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in Information & Communication Technology. When he’s not writing, he’s reading tech blogs, coding fun projects, or learning about new technologies. Other than Linux, he also has an interest in Android Development and Cybersecurity. He has experience in C/C++, Java, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and Python. You can find some of his hobby projects on his GitHub.

One of the first commands new Linux users learn is echo. Need to print some text or debug a script? Add an echo statement. However, from my usage, I’ve found printf to be far more powerful. Once you understand its basics, it becomes a safer default for printing output in ​scripts.

Why echo isn’t as simple as it looks

One of the biggest issues with echo is that its behavior isn’t fully standardized. Different shells handle it differently, especially when it comes to options and escape sequences. For example, whether echo -n actually suppresses the trailing newline or just prints it verbatim depends on the shell. The same goes for escape characters like \n or \t. They may work in one environment and be printed literally in another.

It can cause subtle bugs in scripts. A script that works perfectly on your system might behave differently on another machine, or when run under a different shell. For example, the zipgrep tool uses echo under the hood, and due to echo’s unpredictable behavior, it causes issues with zipgrep’s usage.

Why printf is more reliable

The printf command offers well-defined behavior following the POSIX standard, which means it works the same way across shells and systems. Where echo often fails with escape sequences, printf handles them gracefully, which makes it a safer alternative for bash scripts.

Beyond reliability, printf offers features that echo simply doesn’t have. It supports formatted output, allowing you to control how strings, numbers, and variables are displayed. You can align text, control decimal places, and combine multiple values into a single, predictable output. All using a single command.

# Alignment
printf "%-10s %s\n" "User:" "$USER"
# Numeric output
printf "Usage: %.2f\n" 3.141592
# Table output
printf "%-5s %s\n" "CPU" "Usage"
printf "%-5s %d%%\n" "core0" 42
printf "%-5s %d%%\n" "core1" 37
# Multiple values, one format
printf "%s logged in at %s\n" "$USER" "$TIME"

As your script grows, you start appreciating these neat features.

Replacing echo with printf

Switching from echo to printf may look intimidating at first, but most common use cases translate cleanly, and often more explicitly. The simplest replacement is printing text with a newline. With echo, the newline is implicit. With printf, it’s explicit:

echo "Hello, world"
printf "Hello, world\n"

This may seem verbose, but that explicit \n makes the output predictable. You always know when a newline is added.

Suppressing a newline is another common case where echo becomes unreliable. Some shells support echo -n, others don’t behave consistently. With printf, there’s no option to remember. You just omit the newline:

echo -n "Processing..."
printf "Processing..."

Printing variables is also safer with printf. Instead of relying on shell expansion rules, you specify exactly how the variable should be treated:

echo $USER
printf "%s\n" "$USER"

This avoids surprises when variables contain spaces, special characters, or unexpected values.

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Where printf really stands out is when you need structured output. Combining text and values is straightforward:

echo "User: $USER | UID: $UID"
printf "User: %s | UID: %d\n" "$USER" "$UID"

With printf, you explicitly define how each value should be formatted, which makes scripts easier to read and maintain. Doing the same thing with echo quickly becomes messy or fragile, especially as scripts grow.

Even escape sequences are more predictable with printf:

echo "Line 1\nLine 2"
printf "Line 1\nLine 2\n"

Depending on the shell, echo may print \n literally. But printf never does.

Once you start writing output this way, the benefits become obvious. The printf command doesn’t guess what you want. It prints exactly what you specify. That makes it a better default for scripts, logs, and any output that needs to be reliable.

When to use which

Despite its quirks, echo isn’t a bad command. In fact, most Linux users still use it every day, and that’s perfectly fine. For quick, interactive use in the terminal, echo is convenient. If you’re just printing a string to see a value or debug something briefly, echo gets the job done with minimal typing.

For example, in an interactive shell session, this is completely reasonable:

echo "$PATH"

In situations like this, portability and strict output control usually don’t matter. You’re the only consumer of the output, and you can immediately see if something looks off.

Where printf really shines is in scripts and anything meant to be reused. If the output is consumed by another command, written to a file, or expected to behave the same way across systems, printf is the safer choice. Its consistency makes scripts more predictable and easier to maintain over time.

As a rule of thumb, use echo for quick, interactive output and one-off checks. Use printf in scripts, logs, and anywhere output format matters. If you ever find yourself relying on echo options or escape sequences, that’s usually a sign that printf is the better tool.

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The echo command has earned its place in the Linux toolbox. It’s simple, familiar, and good enough for quick checks. But when output matters, simplicity alone isn’t enough. The printf command gives you consistency, control, and clarity.