If there's no newline, cat won't output one, and bash will put the prompt right after: [dale@host ~]$ echo -n "hi" > test [dale@host ~]$ cat test h

If there's no newline, cat won't output one, and bash will put the prompt right after: [dale@host ~]$ echo -n "hi" > test [dale@host ~]$ cat test hi[dale@host ~]$ If you add a \r, then the cursor goes back to the start of the line, and the prompt overwrites the "hi". [dale@host ~]$ echo -en "hi\r" > test [dale@host ~]$ cat test [dale@host ~]$