printf1

Usage

Overview

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

\\

backslash

\a

alert (bell)

\b

backspace

\c

produce no further output

\e

escape

\f

form feed

\n

new line

\r

carriage return

\t

horizontal tab

\v

vertical tab

\NNN

byte with octal value NNN (1 to 3 digits)

\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 should have a leading 0 like \0NNN

%q

ARGUMENT is printed in a format that can be reused as shell input, escaping non-printable characters with the POSIX $'' syntax

and all C printf(3) format specifications ending with one of diouxXfaAeEgGcs, with ARGUMENTs converted to proper type first. FORMAT is reused to convert all specified arguments. The following table shows supported conversion specifiers, with examples including usage of width, precision, and flags.

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.