Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Name

printf

Synopsis

printf [-v var] format [val ...]

Format the specified values according to the format format and write them to standard output. The possible format character strings are those of the ANSI C printf function plus several additional strings.

Option

-v var

Write output to the variable var instead of standard output.

Additional format strings

%b

Expand escape sequences in strings (e.g., \t to tab, and so on).

%q

Print a quoted string that can be reread later on.

Example

$ date             Reformat date/time
Fri May 15 15:39:42 EDT 2009
$ printf "%(It is now %m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S)T\n" "$(date)"
It is now 05/15/2009 15:40:10