bash - magic bytes (or removing latest newlines from being piped) -

as messing multipart messages encountered strange behavior evaluating content length of multipart message bodies.

long story short. can broke down newlines being piped.

$ a="x"; b="y" $ echo -e "${a}" | wc -c 2 # strange, shouldn't single byte? $ echo -e "${b}" | wc -c 2 # @ point 1 guess sum **4**, not $ echo -e "${a}${b}" | wc -c 3 $ echo -e "${a}${b}" | hexdump -c  00000000  78 79 0a  |xy.| 00000003 

is there possibility avoid magic/invisible byte being piped or - if not possible - @ least removed?

thanks in advance.

the magic character you're referring to, newline character \n. newline tells terminal emulator you're running — guessed — print newline!

echo default appends newline end of string, string doesn't end on same line prompt.

echo can passed -n, prevents appending newline end of string. use printf command not append newline default.

i suggest printf on echo, there many portability problems echo now-a-days.

so, in end, sample command like:

printf "${a}" | wc -c

or echo:

echo -en "${a}" | wc -c