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)

            backspace

       c     produce no further output

       f     form feed

       
     new line

       
     carriage return

       	     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  or NNN

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

       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 (C) 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 7.1						     July 2010								 PRINTF(1)