## 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:

e" double quote

ee backslash

ea alert (BEL)

eb backspace

ec produce no further output

ee escape

ef form feed

en new line

er carriage return

et horizontal tab

ev vertical tab

eNNN byte with octal value NNN (1 to 3 digits)

exHH byte with hexadecimal value HH (1 to 2 digits)

euHHHH Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character with hex value HHHH (4 digits)

eUHHHHHHHH Unicode character with hex value HHHHHHHH (8 digits)

%% a single %

%b ARGUMENT as a string with 'e' escapes interpreted, except that octal escapes are of the form e0 or e0NNN

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

GNU coreutils online help: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report printf translation bugs to <http://translationproject.org/team/>

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2014 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)

Full documentation at: <http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/printf>
or available locally via: info (aq(coreutils) printf invocation(aq