NAME
printf - format and print data
SYNOPSIS
printf FORMAT [ARGUMENT]... printf OPTION
DESCRIPTION
Print ARGUMENT(s) according to FORMAT, or execute according to OPTION:
| --help | display this help and exit |
| --version | |
| output version information and exit | |
| FORMAT controls the output as in C printf. Interpreted sequences are: | |
| \" | double quote |
| \NNN | character with octal value NNN (1 to 3 digits) |
| \\ | backslash |
| \a | alert (BEL) |
| \b | backspace |
| \c | produce no further output |
| \f | form feed |
| \n | new line |
| \r | carriage return |
| \t | horizontal tab |
| \v | vertical tab |
| \xHH | byte with hexadecimal value HH (1 to 2 digits) |
| \uHHHH | Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character with hex value HHHH (4 digits) |
| \UHHHHHHHH | |
| Unicode character with hex value HHHHHHHH (8 digits) | |
| %% | a single % |
| %b | ARGUMENT as a string with ‘\’ escapes interpreted, except that octal escapes are of the form \0 or \0NNN |
NOTE: your shell may have its own version of printf, which usually supersedes the version described here. Please refer to your shell’s documentation for details about the options it supports.
AUTHOR
Written by David MacKenzie.
REPORTING BUGS
Report printf bugs to bug-coreutils@gnu.org GNU coreutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/> General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
SEE ALSO
The full documentation for printf is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and printf programs are properly installed at your site, the command
| info coreutils 'printf invocation' | |
