1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
|
.\" 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.
.\" 4. 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.
.\"
.\" @(#)printf.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd May 28, 2011
.Dt PRINTF 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm printf
.Nd formatted output
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Ar format Op Ar arguments ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility 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 c , b
or
.Cm s ;
otherwise it is evaluated as a C constant, with the following extensions:
.Pp
.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact
.It
A leading plus or minus sign is allowed.
.It
If the leading character is a single or double quote, the value is the
character 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 the
.St -ansiC ,
with extensions.
The characters and their meanings
are as follows:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width Ds -offset indent -compact
.It Cm \ea
Write a <bell> character.
.It Cm \eb
Write a <backspace> character.
.It Cm \ec
Ignore remaining characters in this string.
.It Cm \ef
Write a <form-feed> character.
.It Cm \en
Write a <new-line> character.
.It Cm \er
Write a <carriage return> character.
.It Cm \et
Write a <tab> character.
.It Cm \ev
Write a <vertical tab> character.
.It Cm \e\'
Write a <single quote> character.
.It Cm \e\e
Write a backslash character.
.It Cm \e Ns Ar num
Write a byte whose
value is the 1-, 2-, or 3-digit
octal number
.Ar num .
Multibyte characters can be constructed using multiple
.Cm \e Ns Ar num
sequences.
.El
.Pp
Each format specification is introduced by the percent character
(``%'').
The remainder of the format specification includes,
in the following order:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It "Zero or more of the following flags:"
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Cm #
A `#' character
specifying that the value should be printed in an ``alternate form''.
For
.Cm b , c , d , s
and
.Cm u
formats, this option has no effect.
For the
.Cm o
formats 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
.Li 0x
.Pq Li 0X
prepended to it.
For
.Cm a , A , e , E , f , F , 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;
.It Cm \&\-
A minus sign `\-' which specifies
.Em left adjustment
of the output in the indicated field;
.It Cm \&+
A `+' character specifying that there should always be
a sign placed before the number when using signed formats.
.It Sq \&\ \&
A space specifying that a blank should be left before a positive number
for a signed format.
A `+' overrides a space if both are used;
.It Cm \&0
A zero `0' character indicating that zero-padding should be used
rather than blank-padding.
A `\-' overrides a `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 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);
.It Precision:
An optional period,
.Sq Cm \&.\& ,
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; 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 diouxXfFeEgGaAcsb ) .
The uppercase formats differ from their lowercase counterparts only in
that the output of the former is entirely in uppercase.
The floating-point format specifiers
.Pq Cm fFeEgGaA
may be prefixed by an
.Cm L
to request that additional precision be used, if available.
.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
is printed as a signed decimal (d or i), unsigned octal, unsigned decimal,
or unsigned hexadecimal (X or x), respectively.
.It Cm fF
The
.Ar argument
is printed in the style `[\-]ddd.ddd' where the number of d'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.
The values \*[If] and \*[Na] are printed as
.Ql inf
and
.Ql nan ,
respectively.
.It Cm eE
The
.Ar argument
is printed in the style
.Cm e
.Sm off
.Sq Op - Ar d.ddd No \(+- Ar dd
.Sm on
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.
The values \*[If] and \*[Na] are printed as
.Ql inf
and
.Ql nan ,
respectively.
.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 printed in style
.Sm off
.Sq Op - Ar h.hhh No \(+- Li p Ar d
.Sm on
where there is one digit before the hexadecimal point and the number
after is equal to the precision specification for the argument;
when the precision is missing, enough digits are produced to convey
the argument's exact double-precision floating-point representation.
The values \*[If] and \*[Na] are printed as
.Ql inf
and
.Ql nan ,
respectively.
.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; however if the
precision is 0 or missing, all characters in the string are printed.
.It Cm b
As for
.Cm s ,
but interpret character escapes in backslash notation in the string
.Ar argument .
The permitted escape sequences are slightly different in that
octal escapes are
.Cm \e0 Ns Ar num
instead of
.Cm \e Ns Ar num .
.It Cm \&%
Print a `%'; no argument is used.
.El
.Pp
The decimal point
character is defined in the program's locale (category
.Dv LC_NUMERIC ) .
.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
Some shells may provide a builtin
.Nm
command which is similar or identical to this utility.
Consult the
.Xr builtin 1
manual page.
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std
.Sh COMPATIBILITY
The traditional
.Bx
behavior of converting arguments of numeric formats not beginning
with a digit to the
.Tn ASCII
code of the first character is not supported.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr builtin 1 ,
.Xr echo 1 ,
.Xr sh 1 ,
.Xr printf 3
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm
command is expected to be compatible with the
.St -p1003.2
specification.
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in
.Bx 4.3 Reno .
It is modeled
after the standard library function,
.Xr printf 3 .
.Sh CAVEATS
.Tn ANSI
hexadecimal character constants were deliberately not provided.
.Pp
Trying to print a dash ("-") as the first character causes
.Nm
to interpret the dash as a program argument.
.Nm --
must be used before
.Ar format .
.Sh BUGS
Since the floating point numbers are translated from
.Tn ASCII
to floating-point and
then back again, floating-point precision may be lost.
(By default, the number is translated to an IEEE-754 double-precision
value before being printed.
The
.Cm L
modifier may produce additional precision, depending on the hardware platform.)
.Pp
The escape sequence \e000 is the string terminator.
When present in the argument for the
.Cm b
format, the argument will be truncated at the \e000 character.
.Pp
Multibyte characters are not recognized in format strings (this is only
a problem if
.Ql %
can appear inside a multibyte character).
|