printf(1) User Commands printf(1)
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:
\" double quote
\\ backslash
\a alert (bell)
\b backspace
\c produce no further output
\e escape
\f form feed
\n new line
\r carriage return
\t horizontal tab
\v vertical tab
\NNN byte with octal value NNN (1 to 3 digits)
\xHH byte with hexadecimal value HH (1 to 2 digits)
\uHHHH Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) character with hex value HHHH (4
digits)
\UHHHHHHHH Unicode character with hex value HHHHHHHH (8 digits)
%% a single %
%b ARGUMENT as a string with '\' escapes interpreted, except that
octal escapes should have a leading 0 like \0NNN
%q ARGUMENT is printed in a format that can be reused as shell
input, escaping non-printable characters with the POSIX $''
syntax
and all C printf(1) format specifications ending with one of
diouxXfaAeEgGcs, with ARGUMENTs converted to proper type first. FORMAT
is reused to convert all specified arguments. The following table
shows supported conversion specifiers, with examples including usage of
width, precision, and flags.
CONVERSION Shell format example Output
%s '[%10s]' 'left pad' [ left pad]
%s '[%-10s]' 'right pad' [right pad ]
%c %s '%c %.3s' un unibyte u uni
%d %i "%'d ;%04i" 1234 '-1' 1,234 ;-001
%o '%#o' $((2#110100100)) 0644
%u '%u' 0xFFFFFFFF 4294967295
%x '0x%08x' 11259375 0x00abcdef
%a %f '%1$a %1$f' 0.0009765625 0x8p-13 0.000977
%e %f '%1$e %1$f' 123.456789 1.234568e+02 123.456789
%g '%1$g %1$.2g' 1.2345678e3 1234.57 1.2e+03
%b '%bfoo' 'bar\cbaz' qux bar
%q '%q ' 'a' \;b $'c\n' a ';b' 'c'$'\n'
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
Report bugs to: <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.
Report any translation bugs to: <https://translationproject.org/team/>.
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU
GPL version 3 or later <https://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(1)
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/printf>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) printf invocation'
GNU coreutils 9.12 September 2026 printf(1)
coreutils 9.12 - Generated Tue Sep 22 15:57:28 CDT 2026