| 1 | ---
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| 2 | title: Mini Languages (Oils Reference)
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| 3 | all_docs_url: ..
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| 4 | body_css_class: width40
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| 5 | default_highlighter: oils-sh
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| 6 | preserve_anchor_case: yes
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| 7 | ---
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| 8 | 
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| 9 | <div class="doc-ref-header">
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| 10 | 
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| 11 | [Oils Reference](index.html) —
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| 12 | Chapter **Mini Languages**
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| 13 | 
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| 14 | </div>
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| 15 | 
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| 16 | This chapter describes "mini-languages" like glob patterns and brace expansion.
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| 17 | 
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| 18 | In contrast, the main sub languages of YSH are [command](chap-cmd-lang.html),
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| 19 | [word](chap-word-lang.html), and [expression](chap-expr-lang.html).
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| 20 | 
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| 21 | <span class="in-progress">(in progress)</span>
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| 22 | 
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| 23 | <div id="dense-toc">
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| 24 | </div>
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| 25 | 
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| 26 | <h2 id="sublang">Other Shell Sublanguages</h2>
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| 27 | 
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| 28 | ## Arithmetic
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| 29 | 
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| 30 | ### arith-context
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| 31 | 
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| 32 | Arithmetic expressions are parsed and evaluated in many parts of POSIX shell
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| 33 | and bash.
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| 34 | 
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| 35 | Static:
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| 36 | 
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| 37 |     a=$(( x + 1 ))  # POSIX shell
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| 38 | 
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| 39 |     # bash
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| 40 |     (( a = x + 1 ))
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| 41 | 
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| 42 |     for (( i = 0; i < n; ++i )); do
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| 43 |       echo $i
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| 44 |     done
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| 45 | 
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| 46 | Dynamic:
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| 47 | 
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| 48 |     [[ 5 -eq 3+x ]]   # but not test  5 -eq 3+x
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| 49 | 
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| 50 | Array index contexts:
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| 51 | 
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| 52 |     echo ${a[i+1]}      # get
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| 53 |     echo ${#a[i+1]}     # calculate
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| 54 | 
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| 55 |     a[i+1]=foo          # set
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| 56 | 
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| 57 |     printf -v 'a[i+1]'  # assign to this location
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| 58 |     unset 'a[i+1]'      # unset location
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| 59 | 
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| 60 |     echo ${a[@] : i+1 : i+2 }  # bash slicing
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| 61 | 
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| 62 | bash allows similar array expressions with `test -v`:
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| 63 | 
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| 64 |     test -v 'array[i+1]'       # is array item set?
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| 65 |     test -v 'assoc[$myvar]'    # is assoc array key set?
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| 66 | 
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| 67 |     [[ -v 'array[i+1]' ]]      # ditto
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| 68 |     [[ -v 'assoc[$myvar]' ]]
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| 69 | 
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| 70 | But OSH allows only integers and "bare" string constants:
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| 71 | 
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| 72 |     test -v 'array[42]'        # is array item set?
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| 73 |     test -v 'assoc[key]'       # is assoc array key set?
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| 74 | 
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| 75 | ### sh-numbers
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| 76 | 
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| 77 | ### sh-arith
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| 78 | 
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| 79 | ### sh-logical
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| 80 | 
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| 81 | ### sh-bitwise
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| 82 | 
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| 83 | ## Boolean
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| 84 | 
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| 85 | ### bool-expr
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| 86 | 
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| 87 | Boolean expressions can be use the `test` builtin:
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| 88 | 
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| 89 |     test ! $x -a $y -o $z
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| 90 | 
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| 91 | Or the `[[` command language:
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| 92 | 
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| 93 |     [[ ! $x && $y || $z ]]
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| 94 | 
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| 95 | ### bool-infix
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| 96 | 
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| 97 | Examples:
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| 98 | 
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| 99 |     test $a -nt $b
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| 100 |     test $x == $y
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| 101 | 
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| 102 | ### bool-path
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| 103 | 
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| 104 | Example:
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| 105 | 
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| 106 |     test -d /etc
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| 107 |     test -e /
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| 108 |     test -f myfile
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| 109 | 
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| 110 | YSH has long flags:
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| 111 | 
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| 112 |     test --dir /etc
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| 113 |     test --exists /
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| 114 |     test --file myfile
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| 115 | 
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| 116 | ### bool-str
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| 117 | 
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| 118 |     test -n foo  # => status 0 / true -- foo is non-empty
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| 119 |     test -z ''   # => status 0 / true -- '' is empty / zero-length
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| 120 | 
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| 121 | ### bool-other
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| 122 | 
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| 123 | Test if a shell option is set:
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| 124 | 
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| 125 |     test -o errexit      
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| 126 | 
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| 127 | Test the values of variables:
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| 128 | 
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| 129 |     test -v var_name     # is variable defined?
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| 130 |     test -v name[index]  # is an entry in a container set?
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| 131 | 
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| 132 | Notes:
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| 133 | 
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| 134 | - In `name[index]`, OSH doesn't allow arithmetic expressions / dynamic parsing,
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| 135 |   as bash does.
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| 136 | - `shopt --set strict_word_eval` exposes "syntax errors" in `name[index]`, and
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| 137 |   is recommended.
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| 138 |   - Without this option, `test -v` will silently return `1` (false) when given
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| 139 |     nonsense input, like `test -v /`.
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| 140 | 
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| 141 | ## Patterns
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| 142 | 
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| 143 | ### glob-pat
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| 144 | 
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| 145 | TODO: glob syntax
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| 146 | 
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| 147 | ### extglob
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| 148 | 
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| 149 | TODO: extended glob syntax
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| 150 | 
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| 151 | ### regex
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| 152 | 
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| 153 | Part of [dbracket](chap-cmd-lang.html#dbracket)
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| 154 | 
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| 155 | ## Other Sublang
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| 156 | 
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| 157 | ### braces
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| 158 | 
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| 159 | ### histsub
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| 160 | 
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| 161 | History substitution uses `!`.
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| 162 | 
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| 163 | ### char-escapes
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| 164 | 
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| 165 | These backslash escape sequences are used in [echo
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| 166 | -e](chap-builtin-cmd.html#echo), [printf](chap-builtin-cmd.html#printf), and in
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| 167 | C-style strings like `$'foo\n'`:
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| 168 | 
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| 169 |     \\         backslash
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| 170 |     \a         alert (BEL)
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| 171 |     \b         backspace
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| 172 |     \c         stop processing remaining input
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| 173 |     \e         the escape character \x1b
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| 174 |     \f         form feed
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| 175 |     \n         newline
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| 176 |     \r         carriage return
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| 177 |     \t         tab
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| 178 |     \v         vertical tab
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| 179 |     \xHH       the byte with value HH, in hexadecimal
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| 180 |     \uHHHH     the unicode char with value HHHH, in hexadecimal
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| 181 |     \UHHHHHHHH the unicode char with value HHHHHHHH, in hexadecimal
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| 182 | 
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| 183 | Also:
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| 184 | 
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| 185 |     \"         Double quote.
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| 186 | 
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| 187 | Inconsistent octal escapes:
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| 188 | 
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| 189 |     \0NNN      echo -e '\0123'
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| 190 |     \NNN       printf '\123'
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| 191 |                echo $'\123'
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| 192 | 
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| 193 | TODO: Verify other differences between `echo -e`, `printf`, and `$''`.  See
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| 194 | `frontend/lexer_def.py`.
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| 195 | 
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