hi, The /bin/echo I used to use in Solaris understand \n and \t stuffs by default. Is there any trick I can play so that I don't need to specify the -e parameter for echo? The reason I'm asking is that debian is the only un*x I've used that /bin/echo don't interprate \n... by default. I've already wirtten tons of scripts using /bin/echo. Please help. Thanks Tong