a CR character is automatically printed at the end of shell script. e.g. $ echo "Hello, world." Hello, world. $ echo -r "Hello, world." # on LM 8.0 $ echo -r "Hello, world." # on LM 7.2 ( no problem! ) Hello, world.$ when i execute 'echo -r "Hello, world."' through slow connection, i can see the string "Hello, wolrd." is printed exactly before the prompt of bash ($), but the '$' erases it. in other words, 'echo -r -e "Hello, world.\r" on LM 7.2 will show the same result. i have installed LM 8.0 with the free release from <http://www.mandrake.com>, and the packages related to the problem are : $ rpm -qa | grep ncurses ncurses-5.1-8mdk ncurses-devel-5.1-8mdk ncurses-extraterms-5.1-8mdk is there anyone who can help me ? thanks in advance. -- War doesnt determine whos right, just whos left.