printf and echo — printing text in scripts
cheat sheet · bash / coreutils https://lab.dimsanych.ru/en/wiki/printf/Cheat sheet
-
printf '%s\n' "$var"a reliable way to print a string -
printf '%-10s %5d\n' name 42alignment -
printf '%.2f\n' 3.14159two digits after the point -
printf '%05d\n' 42leading zeros -
printf -v v '%s' "$x"into a variable -
printf '%(%F)T\n' -1a date, without calling date -
printf '%q\n' "$s"escape for the shell
Options
printf barely has any options of its own — control happens through the
format string; the exception is -v, which writes the result into a
variable instead of printing it. echo's options, by contrast, define its
whole behavior: -n drops the trailing newline, -e/-E turn
interpretation of \n/\t in the argument on and off — the default
behavior of -e differs between bash's echo and /bin/echo, which is
why printf is more reliable in scripts.