Computer Science
PRINTF(1) PRINTF(1)
NAME
printf - format and print data
SYNOPSIS
printf format [argument...]
printf {--help,--version}
DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents the GNU version of printf.
printf prints the format string, interpreting `%' direc-
tives and `\' escapes in the same way as the C `printf'
function. The format argument is re-used as many times as
necessary to convert all of the given arguments.
printf interprets `\0ooo' as a an octal number (`ooo' is 0
to 3 digits) specifying a character to print, and `\xhhh'
as a hexadecimal number (`hhh' is 1 to 3 digits) specify-
ing a character to print. It has an additional escape,
`\c', which causes printf to produce no further output,
and an additional directive, `%b', which prints its argu-
ment string with `\' escapes interpreted the way they are
in the format string.
OPTIONS
When GNU printf is invoked with exactly one argument, the
following options are recognized:
--help Print a usage message on standard output and exit
successfully.
--version
Print version information on standard output then
exit successfully.
FSF GNU Shell Utilities 1
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