Use of \c in shell scripting

Answer 1

The \c keeps the cursor on the same line after the end of the echo, but to enable it, you need the -e flag:

echo -e "bla bla \c"

Answer 2

I think the attempt is to terminate echo without a new line.

If it does not work on your system, you can replace this way,

echo "test \c"; echo " same line"

can become,

echo -n "test"; echo " same line"

An easier change will be (as suggested by Neil, +1 there),

echo -e "test \c"; echo " same line"

Answer 3

No automatic line break, apparently:

Use in UNIX Shells

UNIX Korn shells use the \c escape character to signal continuation (no automatic line break):

echo "Enter the path to the data file: \c"