The FreeBSD manpages have: Note that the -n option as well as the effect of `\c' are implementation-defined in IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (``POSIX.1'') a

The FreeBSD manpages have: Note that the -n option as well as the effect of `\c' are implementation-defined in IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (``POSIX.1'') as amended by Cor. 1-2002. -- http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?echo So there's probably some system (or shell) out there where -n doesn't work?