.\" $NetBSD: printf.1,v 1.36.4.1 2023/02/14 16:12:42 martin Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" from: @(#)printf.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 .\" .Dd May 19, 2021 .Dt PRINTF 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm printf .Nd formatted output .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Ar format .Op Ar arguments ... .Sh DESCRIPTION .Nm formats and prints its arguments, after the first, under control of the .Ar format . The .Ar format is a character string which contains three types of objects: plain characters, which are simply copied to standard output, character escape sequences which are converted and copied to the standard output, and format specifications, each of which causes printing of the next successive .Ar argument . .Pp The .Ar arguments after the first are treated as strings if the corresponding format is either .Cm b , .Cm B , .Cm c , or .Cm s ; otherwise it is evaluated as a C\~constant, with the following extensions: .Bl -bullet -offset indent .It A leading plus or minus sign is allowed. .It If the leading character is a single or double quote, the value is the ASCII code of the next character. .El .Pp The format string is reused as often as necessary to satisfy the .Ar arguments . Any extra format specifications are evaluated with zero or the null string. .Pp Character escape sequences are in backslash notation as defined in .St -ansiC . The characters and their meanings are as follows: .Bl -tag -offset indent -width Cm .It Cm \ee Write an .Aq escape character. .It Cm \ea Write a .Aq bell character. .It Cm \eb Write a .Aq backspace character. .It Cm \ef Write a .Aq form-feed character. .It Cm \en Write a .Aq new-line character. .It Cm \er Write a .Aq carriage return character. .It Cm \et Write a .Aq tab character. .It Cm \ev Write a .Aq vertical tab character. .It Cm \e\(aq Write a .Aq single quote character. .It Cm \e\*q Write a .Aq double quote character. .It Cm \e\e Write a backslash character. .It Cm \e Ns Ar num Write an 8-bit character whose ASCII value is the 1-, 2-, or 3-digit octal number .Ar num . .It Cm \ex Ns Ar xx Write an 8-bit character whose ASCII value is the 1- or 2-digit hexadecimal number .Ar xx . .El .Pp Each format specification is introduced by the percent character .Pq Ql \&% . To produce a literal percent .Pq Ql \&% in the output, write the percent character twice: .Pq Ql \&%% . This is not a format conversion. The remainder of the format specification includes, in the following order: .Bl -tag -width 5n .It Zero or more of the following flags : .Bl -tag -width Cm .It Cm # A .Ql \&# character specifying that the value should be printed in an .Dq alternative form . For .Cm b , .Cm c , .Cm d , and .Cm s formats, this option has no effect. For the .Cm o format the precision of the number is increased to force the first character of the output string to a zero. For the .Cm x .Pq Cm X format, a non-zero result has the string .Ql 0x .Pq Ql 0X prepended to it. For .Cm e , .Cm E , .Cm f , .Cm F , .Cm g , and .Cm G formats, the result will always contain a decimal point, even if no digits follow the point (normally, a decimal point only appears in the results of those formats if a digit follows the decimal point). For .Cm g and .Cm G formats, trailing zeros are not removed from the result as they would otherwise be. .\" I turned this off - decided it isn't a valid use of '#' .\" For the .\" .Cm B .\" format, backslash-escape sequences are expanded first; .It Cm \&\- A minus sign which specifies .Em left adjustment of the output in the indicated field; .It Cm \&+ A plus sign which specifies that there should always be a sign placed before the number when using signed formats. .It Sq Cm \&\ \& A .Aq space character which specifies that a space should be left before a positive number for a signed format. A .Ql \&+ overrides a .Aq space if both are used; .It Cm \&0 A digit zero character which specifies that zero-padding should be used rather than space-padding. A .Ql \- overrides a .Ql \&0 if both are used; .El .It Field Width : An optional digit string specifying a .Em field width ; if the output string has fewer characters than the field width it will be space-padded on the left (or right, if the left-adjustment indicator has been given) to make up the field width (note that a leading zero is a flag, but an embedded zero is part of a field width); .It Precision : An optional period .Pq Ql \&. , followed by an optional digit string giving a .Em precision which specifies the number of digits to appear after the decimal point, for .Cm e and .Cm f formats, or the maximum number of characters to be printed from a string .Sm off .Pf ( Cm b , .Sm on .Cm B , and .Cm s formats); if the digit string is missing, the precision is treated as zero; .It Format : A character which indicates the type of format to use (one of .Cm diouxXfFeEgGaAbBcs ) . .El .Pp A field width or precision may be .Sq Cm \&* instead of a digit string. In this case an .Ar argument supplies the field width or precision. .Pp The format characters and their meanings are: .Bl -tag -width Fl .It Cm diouXx The .Ar argument , which must represent an integer constant, with an optional leading plus or minus sign, is printed as a signed decimal .Cm ( d or .Cm i ) , unsigned octal .Cm ( o ) , unsigned decimal .Cm ( u ) , or unsigned hexadecimal .Cm ( X or .Cm x ) . .It Cm fF The .Ar argument is printed in the style .Oo Li \&\- Oc Ns Ar \&\^ddd Ns Li \&\^\&. Ns Ar ddd where the number of .Ar d Ns \|'s after the decimal point is equal to the precision specification for the argument. If the precision is missing, 6 digits are given; if the precision is explicitly 0, no digits and no decimal point are printed. If the number is Infinity, or Not-a-Number, then .Ql inf or .Ql nan is printed for .Cm f format, and .Ql INF or .Ql NAN for .Cm F format. .It Cm eE The .Ar argument is printed in the style .Oo Li \&\- Oc Ns Ar \&\^d Ns Li \&. Ns Ar ddd Ns Li \&\|e\*(Pm Ns Ar \&\|dd where there is one digit before the decimal point and the number after is equal to the precision specification for the argument; when the precision is missing, 6 digits are produced. An upper-case .Ql E is used for an .Cm E format, and upper-case for Infinity and NaN as for .Cm F format. .It Cm gG The .Ar argument is printed in style .Cm f .Pq Cm F or in style .Cm e .Pq Cm E whichever gives full precision in minimum space. .It Cm aA The .Ar argument is treated as a floating point number, for which the underlying hexadecimal representation is printed. See .Xr printf 3 for the details. .It Cm b Characters from the string .Ar argument are printed with backslash-escape sequences expanded. .Pp The following additional backslash-escape sequences are supported: .Bl -tag -width Cm .It Cm \ec Causes .Nm to ignore any remaining characters in the string operand containing it, any remaining string operands, and any additional characters in the format operand. .It Cm \e0 Ns Ar num Write an 8-bit character whose ASCII value is the 1-, 2-, or 3-digit octal number .Ar num . .It Cm \e^ Ns Ar c Write the control character .Ar c . Generates characters .Sq \e000 through .Sq \e037 , and .Sq \e177 (from .Ql \e^\&? ) . .It Cm \eM^ Ns Ar c Write the control character .Ar c with the 8th bit set. Generates characters .Sq \e200 through .Sq \e237 , and .Sq \e377 (from .Ql \eM^\&? ) . .It Cm \eM\- Ns Ar c Write the character .Ar c with the 8th bit set. Generates characters .Sq \e241 through .Sq \e376 . .El .It Cm B Characters from the string .Ar argument are printed with unprintable characters backslash-escaped using the .Sq Cm \e Ns Ar c , .Sq Cm \e^ Ns Ar c , .Sq Cm \eM^ Ns Ar c , or .Sq Cm \eM\- Ns Ar c formats described above. .It Cm c The first character of .Ar argument is printed. .It Cm s Characters from the string .Ar argument are printed until the end is reached or until the number of characters indicated by the precision specification is reached; if the precision is omitted, all characters in the string are printed. .El .Pp In no case does a non-existent or small field width cause truncation of a field; padding takes place only if the specified field width exceeds the actual width. .Pp If the first character of .Ar format is a dash, .Ar format must be preceded by a word consisting of two dashes .Pq Sq Fl Fl to prevent it from being interpreted as an option string. .Sh EXIT STATUS .Ex -std .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr echo 1 , .Xr printf 3 , .Xr vis 3 , .Xr printf 9 .Sh STANDARDS The .Nm utility conforms to .St -p1003.1-2001 . .Pp Support for the floating point formats and .Sq Cm \&* as a field width and precision are optional in POSIX. .Pp The behaviour of the .Cm \&%B format and the .Cm \e\(aq , .Cm \e\*q , .Cm \ee , .Cm \e Ns Ar num , and .Cm \e Ns Oo Cm M Oc Ns Oo Cm \- Ns Li \&\(or Ns Cm ^ Oc Ns Ar c escape sequences are undefined in POSIX. .Sh BUGS Since the floating point numbers are translated from ASCII to floating-point and then back again, floating-point precision may be lost. .Pp Hexadecimal character constants are restricted to, and should be specified as, two character constants. This is contrary to the ISO C standard but does guarantee detection of the end of the constant. .Sh NOTES All formats which treat the .Ar argument as a number first convert the .Ar argument from its external representation as a character string to an internal numeric representation, and then apply the format to the internal numeric representation, producing another external character string representation. One might expect the .Cm \&%c format to do likewise, but in fact it does not. .Pp To convert a string representation of a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal number into the corresponding character, two nested .Nm invocations may be used, in which the inner invocation converts the input to an octal string, and the outer invocation uses the octal string as part of a format. For example, the following command outputs the character whose code is 0x0a, which is a newline in ASCII: .Pp .Dl printf \*q$(printf \(aq\e\e%o\(aq 0x0a)\*q