PRINTF(1) General Commands Manual PRINTF(1) (NAME) printf - . (SYNOPSIS) printf FORMAT [ARGUMENT]... printf OPTION (DESCRIPTION) . (OPTIONS) --help --version [FORMAT] [ARGUMENT] (EXTRA) : (escape) . . (ESCAPE SEQUENCES): : - \" (double quote) - \\ (backslash) - \\a (BEL) - \\b (backspace) - \\c (End-of-Input) - \\e (escape) - \\f (form feed) - \\n (new line) - \\r (carriage return) - \\t (horizontal tab) - \\v (vertical tab) - \\NNN NNN ( ) - \\xHH NN ( ) - \\uHHHH (IEC 10646) HHHH ( ) - \\uHHHH HHHH ( ) - %% % (SUBSTITUTIONS): : - %s: - %b: - %c: - %i %d: - %u: - %x %X: () - %o: () - %q: ARGUMENT $'' . - %f %F: - %e %E: - %g %G: . : - - : printf '%4.3i' 7 ' 007' printf '%.1s' abcde 'a' printf '%4c' q ' q' . . . - 0: ( 010) ( ) - 0x: ( 0xABC) ( ) - \': ( \'a) : () FORMAT : printf 'the letter %X comes before the letter %X' 10 11 : the letter A comes before the letter B %X << >> . : printf 'it is %i F in %s \n' 22 Portland 25 Boston 27 New York : it is 22 F in Portland it is 25 F in Boston it is 27 F in Boston 0 . : printf GNU coreutils printf POSIX C . : << >> %.3s << >> - %s: - %b: - \\n . %b . %b \0NNN \\NNN. ( \\NNN \0NNN .) - %q: - . `$''' . ls --quoting=shell-escape . : . - %c: : << >> %.4i . - %d %i: - %u: - %x %X: (Hexadecimal). %X %x 'a' 'f' - %o: (octal) : << / >> %.10f %.10e %.10g . GNU coreutils double . . +/- 1 printf GNU coreutils printf . - %f: . double Coreutils printf . - %e %E: . %E E . - %g %G: %f %E posix printf : - - - printf GNU coreutils . : % . . . : : ( ): 0 : 0x ( ) 10^-15 : . ( POSIXLY_CORRECT ) (VERSION) v(uutils coreutils) 0.11.0 2026-09-01 PRINTF(1)