I want to do sth like zsh's print -r -- ...
which just echoes the arguments without changing them at all.
printf --
still interprets directives.
The usual wisdom is to use:
printf '%s\n' ....
For example:
$ printf '%s\n' "a\nb\tc"
a\nb\tc
If you need that called print
or say
or pr
or any other
, define:
pr () { printf '%s\n' "$@"; }
And do:
$ pr "a\nb\tc"
a\nb\tc
And (most of the time) it will do what you are asking for. It could be extended to cover more issues if needed, but that serves as an excellent starting point.