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authorjilles <jilles@FreeBSD.org>2011-05-28 14:32:47 +0000
committerjilles <jilles@FreeBSD.org>2011-05-28 14:32:47 +0000
commit711efafb9136817a889237364dff3d79634e8ebd (patch)
tree8a28714837a46e9f7433b9eba9a6afd245c1fec8 /usr.bin/printf
parent979af05e7725d814570e4633b10a5d49e67e987c (diff)
downloadFreeBSD-src-711efafb9136817a889237364dff3d79634e8ebd.zip
FreeBSD-src-711efafb9136817a889237364dff3d79634e8ebd.tar.gz
printf(1): Document that %c and precision for %b/%s use bytes, not chars.
This means these features do not work as expected with multibyte characters. This perhaps less than ideal behaviour matches printf(3) and is specified by POSIX.
Diffstat (limited to 'usr.bin/printf')
-rw-r--r--usr.bin/printf/printf.123
1 files changed, 17 insertions, 6 deletions
diff --git a/usr.bin/printf/printf.1 b/usr.bin/printf/printf.1
index 2afb9d3..792529a 100644
--- a/usr.bin/printf/printf.1
+++ b/usr.bin/printf/printf.1
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ A `\-' overrides a `0' if both are used;
.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
+if the output string has fewer bytes than the field width it will
be blank-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);
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ for
.Cm e
and
.Cm f
-formats, or the maximum number of characters to be printed
+formats, or the maximum number of bytes to be printed
from a string; if the digit string is missing, the precision is treated
as zero;
.It Format:
@@ -271,15 +271,15 @@ and
.Ql nan ,
respectively.
.It Cm c
-The first character of
+The first byte of
.Ar argument
is printed.
.It Cm s
-Characters from the string
+Bytes from the string
.Ar argument
-are printed until the end is reached or until the number of characters
+are printed until the end is reached or until the number of bytes
indicated by the precision specification is reached; however if the
-precision is 0 or missing, all characters in the string are printed.
+precision is 0 or missing, the string is printed entirely.
.It Cm b
As for
.Cm s ,
@@ -346,6 +346,17 @@ to interpret the dash as a program argument.
.Nm --
must be used before
.Ar format .
+.Pp
+If the locale contains multibyte characters
+(such as UTF-8),
+the
+.Cm c
+format and
+.Cm b
+and
+.Cm s
+formats with a precision
+may not operate as expected.
.Sh BUGS
Since the floating point numbers are translated from
.Tn ASCII
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