diff --git a/ctdb/config/ctdb.init b/ctdb/config/ctdb.init
index f7ba95ced69..b9c0a6deb0f 100755
--- a/ctdb/config/ctdb.init
+++ b/ctdb/config/ctdb.init
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ pidfile="${CTDB_PIDFILE:-/var/run/ctdb/ctdbd.pid}"
 
 start()
 {
-    echo -n "Starting ctdbd service: "
+    printf "Starting ctdbd service: "
 
     case "$CTDB_INIT_STYLE" in
 	suse)
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ start()
 
 stop()
 {
-    echo -n "Shutting down ctdbd service: "
+    printf "Shutting down ctdbd service: "
 
     case "$CTDB_INIT_STYLE" in
 	suse)
diff --git a/ctdb/config/events.d/13.per_ip_routing b/ctdb/config/events.d/13.per_ip_routing
index 9b16138da6e..cfb8348078e 100755
--- a/ctdb/config/events.d/13.per_ip_routing
+++ b/ctdb/config/events.d/13.per_ip_routing
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ get_config_for_ip ()
 	# that we get the maskbits as item #2 without further parsing.
 	while IFS="/$IFS" read _i _maskbits _x ; do
 	    if [ "$_ip" = "$_i" ] ; then
-		echo -n "$_ip "; ipv4_host_addr_to_net "$_ip" "$_maskbits"
+		printf "%s" "$_ip "; ipv4_host_addr_to_net "$_ip" "$_maskbits"
 	    fi
 	done <"${CTDB_PUBLIC_ADDRESSES:-/dev/null}"
     else
diff --git a/ctdb/config/events.d/20.multipathd b/ctdb/config/events.d/20.multipathd
index f12ead6bd05..3dd58dae8ad 100755
--- a/ctdb/config/events.d/20.multipathd
+++ b/ctdb/config/events.d/20.multipathd
@@ -29,13 +29,15 @@ multipathd_check_background()
 	# Check multipath knows about the device
 	_out=$(multipath -ll "$_device")
 	if [ -z "$_out" ] ; then
-	    echo "device \"${_device}\" not known to multipathd" >"$multipath_fail"
+	    echo "ERROR: device \"${_device}\" not known to multipathd" \
+		 >"$multipath_fail"
 	    exit 1
 	fi
 
 	# Check for at least 1 active path
 	if ! echo "$_out" | grep 'prio=.* status=active' >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
-	    echo "multipath device \"${_device}\" has no active paths" >"$multipath_fail"
+	    echo "ERROR: multipath device \"${_device}\" has no active paths" \
+		 >"$multipath_fail"
 	    exit 1
 	fi
     done
@@ -58,7 +60,6 @@ multipathd_check()
 	    if wait $_pid ; then
 		return 0
 	    else
-		echo -n "ERROR: "
 		cat "$multipath_fail"
 		rm -f "$multipath_fail"
 		return 1
diff --git a/ctdb/config/functions b/ctdb/config/functions
index be308e7b3a2..603cbf0a490 100755
--- a/ctdb/config/functions
+++ b/ctdb/config/functions
@@ -769,8 +769,8 @@ ctdb_counter_init () {
 ctdb_counter_incr () {
     _ctdb_counter_common "$1"
 
-    # unary counting!
-    echo -n 1 >> "$_counter_file"
+    # unary counting using newlines!
+    echo >>"$_counter_file"
 }
 ctdb_counter_get () {
     _ctdb_counter_common "$1"