4.4BSD/usr/share/man/cat1/printf.0

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PRINTF(1) BSD Reference Manual PRINTF(1)

NNAAMMEE
pprriinnttff - formatted output

SSYYNNOOPPSSIISS
pprriinnttff ffoorrmmaatt [arguments ...]

DDEESSCCRRIIPPTTIIOONN
PPrriinnttff formats and prints its arguments, after the first, under control
of the _f_o_r_m_a_t. The _f_o_r_m_a_t 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 _a_r_g_u_m_e_n_t.

The _a_r_g_u_m_e_n_t_s after the first are treated as strings if the corresponding
format is either cc or ss; otherwise it is evaluated as a C constant, with
the following extensions:

++oo A leading plus or minus sign is allowed.
++oo If the leading character is a single or double quote, or not a
digit, plus, or minus sign, the value is the ASCII code of the
next character.

The format string is reused as often as necessary to satisfy the
_a_r_g_u_m_e_n_t_s. Any extra format specifications are evaluated with zero or the
null string.

Character escape sequences are in backslash notation as defined in the
draft proposed ANSI C Standard X3J11. The characters and their meanings
are as follows:

\\aa Write a <bell> character.

\\bb Write a <backspace> character.

\\ff Write a <form-feed> character.

\\nn Write a <new-line> character.

\\rr Write a <carriage return> character.

\\tt Write a <tab> character.

\\vv Write a <vertical tab> character.

\\'' Write a <single quote> character.

\\\\ Write a backslash character.

\\_n_u_m Write an 8-bit character whose ASCII value is the 1-, 2-,
or 3-digit octal number _n_u_m.

Each format specification is introduced by the percent character (``%'').
The remainder of the format specification includes, in the following or-
der:

Zero or more of the following flags:

## A `#' character specifying that the value should be
printed in an ``alternate form''. For cc, dd, and ss, for-
mats, this option has no effect. For the oo formats the
precision of the number is increased to force the first
character of the output string to a zero. For the xx (XX)
format, a non-zero result has the string 0x (0X) prepend-
ed to it. For ee, EE, ff, gg, and GG, 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 gg and GG formats, trailing zeros are
not removed from the result as they would otherwise be;

-- A minus sign `-' which specifies _l_e_f_t _a_d_j_u_s_t_m_e_n_t of the
output in the indicated field;

++ A `+' character specifying that there should always be a
sign placed before the number when using signed formats.

` ' 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;

00 A zero `0' character indicating that zero-padding should
be used rather than blank-padding. A `-' overrides a `0'
if both are used;

Field Width:
An optional digit string specifying a _f_i_e_l_d _w_i_d_t_h; 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 indi-
cator 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);

Precision:
An optional period, `..', followed by an optional digit string
giving a _p_r_e_c_i_s_i_o_n which specifies the number of digits to appear
after the decimal point, for ee and ff formats, or the maximum num-
ber of characters to be printed from a string; if the digit
string is missing, the precision is treated as zero;

Format:
A character which indicates the type of format to use (one of
ddiioouuxxXXffwwEEggGGccss).

A field width or precision may be `**' instead of a digit string. In this
case an _a_r_g_u_m_e_n_t supplies the field width or precision.

The format characters and their meanings are:

ddiioouuXXxx The _a_r_g_u_m_e_n_t is printed as a signed decimal (d or i), un-
signed decimal, unsigned octal, or unsigned hexadecimal (X or
x), respectively.

ff The _a_r_g_u_m_e_n_t is printed in the style `[-]ddd.ddd' where the
number of d's after the decimal point is equal to the preci-
sion 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.

eeEE The _a_r_g_u_m_e_n_t is printed in the style ee 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. An upper-case E
is used for an `E' format.

ggGG The _a_r_g_u_m_e_n_t is printed in style ff or in style ee (EE) whichev-
er gives full precision in minimum space.

cc The first character of _a_r_g_u_m_e_n_t is printed.

ss Characters from the string _a_r_g_u_m_e_n_t 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.

%% Print a `%'; no argument is used.

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.

RREETTUURRNN VVAALLUUEESS
PPrriinnttff exits 0 on success, 1 on failure.

SSEEEE AALLSSOO
printf(3)

HHIISSTTOORRYY
The pprriinnttff command appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno. It is modeled after the stan-
dard library function, printf(3).

BBUUGGSS
Since the floating point numbers are translated from ASCII to floating-
point and then back again, floating-point precision may be lost.

ANSI hexadecimal character constants were deliberately not provided.

4.4BSD June 6, 1993 3