PRINTF(1)                        User Commands                       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 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
       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.

GNU coreutils 7.2                 March 2009                         PRINTF(1)