This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2010) |
Developer(s) | Various open-source and commercial developers |
---|---|
Operating system | Unix and Unix-like |
Platform | Cross-platform |
Type | Command |
License | coreutils: GPLv3+[1] |
In Unix and Unix-like operating systems, printf is a shell builtin (and utility program[2]) that formats and outputs text like the same-named C function.
Originally named for outputting to a printer, it actually outputs to standard output.[3]
The command accepts a format string, which specifies how to format values, and a list of values.
Characters in the format string are copied to the output verbatim except when a format specifier is found which causes a value to be output.
In addition to the standard format specifiers, %b
causes the command to expand backslash escape sequences (for example \n
for newline), and %q
outputs an item that can be used as shell input.[3] The format string is reused if there are more items than format specs. Unused format specs provide a zero value or null string.