PRINTF(1)

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

and all C format specifications ending with one of diouxXfeEgGcs, with ARGUMENTs converted to proper type first. Variable widths are handled.

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 bugs to <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2008 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
printf(3)

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'

should give you access to the complete manual.