The shell builtin command that formats and prints data. Questions that deal with printf command or broadly using printf syntax by programming language (like awk, PHP, perl, C++...)
6
votes
5answers
373 views
bash + using printf in order to print in special format
I just wrote the following bash script to check the ping access on list of Linux machines
for M in $list
do
ping -q -c 1 "$M" >/dev/null
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]]
then
echo "($C) $...
1
vote
2answers
49 views
print multiple words seperated by space
I have a text file and the data inside has format like (name age country):
michael jordans 25 US
adam smith 30 UK
chris wood ABC 22 Aus
if I use command: cat text.txt | awk {'print $1'} --> it ...
0
votes
1answer
36 views
What is special about printf over echo
I was finding length of a variable as below:
`set num=123456`
`echo $num|wc -c`
it returned output as 7 (suppose to return 6)
I did same with printf
`printf "%s" $num|wc -c`
it returned output ...
0
votes
1answer
24 views
How to print ${STR1} and $STR2 - not their contents - into a file?
I need to print expressions ${STR1} and $STR2 into a file -- not the content of the variables. How can I accomplish this using echo or printf?
2
votes
0answers
39 views
Portable color codes with printf? [duplicate]
There is a color codes script on GitHub suitable for sourcing, which I am modifying for my own purposes.
Background
I have an odd mix of environments to work in, from a Mac OS terminal, to various ...
3
votes
2answers
164 views
posting data using cURL in a script
I'm trying to write a simple alternative script for uploading files to the transfer.sh service. One of the examples on the website mentions a way of uploading multiple files in a single "session":
$ ...
1
vote
2answers
37 views
Get the output in a formatted way
In a for loop, I am using the command:
echo " Job_time is $i : Stopping the job "
Sample output:
Job_time is 6 : Stopping the job
Job_time is 6.50 : Stopping the job
Desired output:
Job_time is ...
0
votes
0answers
13 views
running command in Mobax Terminal are there plugins that are needed
while read CTFlist; do
#next we need to create ctfs padded with zeros as a variable
ctfPadded=$(printf ${ctflist}00000000)
#then call rc2 key as variable
rc2Key="TemporaryRC2Key1"
#next create a ...
3
votes
2answers
70 views
use printf to format output of an array
I have an array that contains details about each NIC.
Each array index consists of three space-separated values.
I would like to have a nice table as output. Is there a way to assign formatting ...
0
votes
1answer
33 views
Printing Space Between Strings
#!/bin/bash
ARRAY="185.18.207.66 31.18.212.113"
result=""
for i in $ARRAY
do
result=$(printf '%s %s' "$result" "$i" "checked")
done
paste <(printf "%s\n" $result)
I am trying to print ...
-1
votes
3answers
118 views
Why am I getting an error “print_unicode: line 9: printf: missing unicode digit for \u Unicode 0187” with this script
I have written them following shell script to view what the Unicode characters look like on my terminal.
#!/bin/bash
X=0
while [ $X -lt 65536 ]; do
HEX=`bc <<< "obase=16; $X"`
HEX="...
1
vote
2answers
100 views
format command output with variable and fixed space
How can I achieve this best maintaining the hierarchy on the left and aligning the size value on the right?
Also, at the same time I'd like to round the size to one or two digits.
I tried with printf ...
3
votes
2answers
435 views
Printf printing only a single line
I'm trying to get the output of env in a shell variable and print it.
#!/bin/sh
ENV_BEFORE=$(env)
printf $ENV_BEFORE
As a result a single variable from the env output gets printed.
When using echo ...
1
vote
1answer
97 views
Bash script how to accept single or double digit number and make it 2 digit
I have a following simple extract from my script which is strangely stuck up for a particular inputs.
echo -e "Enter the Day of the Month : \c "
read input_day
printf -v input_day '%02d' "$...
3
votes
1answer
51 views
How can I print a variable with padded center alignment?
How can I print $myvar padded so that it is in the center of the terminal, and to either side are = to the edge of the screen?
0
votes
0answers
34 views
Include text from other file in screen printf
The original code of main.sh:
screen -S myscreenname -p 0 -X stuff "`printf "myabcdefg"`"
I want to put only abcdefg (without my) in other file.
Below codes works just fine but I need the text.txt ...
3
votes
2answers
51 views
using printf function for repeated patterns
I have codes which append the patterns into text file w.r.t. the user's input as follows;
echo -n "WHICH STATIONS?"
read station
awk -v input="$station" '
BEGIN {
n = split(tolower(input), ...
0
votes
1answer
42 views
Display non-printable parameters in running processes
ps aux displays commands running on the server, but it does not display non-printable parameters in any sort of way that is useful.
mycmd.sh:
#!/bin/bash
while true
do
sleep 5
done
...
6
votes
3answers
640 views
Weird float rounding behavior with printf
I've read some answers on this site and found the printf rounding desirable.
However when I used it in practice, a subtle bug led me to the following behavior:
$ echo 197.5 | xargs printf '%.0f'
198
...
2
votes
4answers
402 views
How do I append multiple lines involving variables to the end of a bash script?
I would like to add:
function ps_mem {
python /home/vagrant/ps_mem/ps_mem.py -p $@
}
To the end of ~/.bashrc from the command-line. I have tried using:
printf "function ps_mem {\n python /home/...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
Where is `scanf` implementation source code?
I want to find C source code for scanf implementation on Linux machine. Googling to find scanf implementation does not tell me the way to find it. I tried to find that source code from gcc source tree ...
3
votes
3answers
788 views
How do I use a multi-character delimiter for array expansion in bash?
I'm reducing the question to (I believe) the simplest case. Let's say I have a script myscript.sh with the following contents:
#!/bin/bash
IFS='%20'
echo "$*"
If I run the command as follows, the ...
2
votes
4answers
525 views
Human-readable filesize with find's printf
I am writing a simple helper function to show a specific folder in the format I want:
find . -maxdepth 1 -not -name "." -printf '[%TY-%Tm-%Td]\t%s\t%f\n' | sort -n
However I want to show the ...
0
votes
0answers
80 views
Logging to a file in tabular format
I am trying to print something into a file through the script which will be sent as an attachment to the mail.
Now what i am willing is to preserve a proper formatting within the file.
Can i print ...
2
votes
3answers
62 views
Print columns of data that wrap internally
I am printing some monitoring data from a log as such:
printf " %10s %5s %25s %15s %15s %s${txtrst}\n" $date $time $metric $status $current_criticality "$failure"
I would like the last ...
0
votes
1answer
63 views
Need help understanding this cpu utilization script
Need help in understanding the below Script :
HEADER='CPU pctUser pctNice pctSystem pctIowait pctIdle'
HEADERIZE="BEGIN {print \"$HEADER\"}"
PRINTF='{printf "%-3s %9s %9s %9s %9s %...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
convert timestamp to epoch with bash builtin printf
While researching a different approach to convert a timestamp like
2015-09-08 11:07:35
to
1441703255
I found a lot of pretty commonly found solutions use e.g.
date +%s --date "2015-09-...
4
votes
1answer
154 views
bash prevent printf from interrupting another printf
I have the following test script.
#!/bin/bash
function foo {
printf "Test line break: $1\nafter line break\n\n"
}
for VARIABLE in {1..30}
do
foo $VARIABLE &
done
wait
Now I executed the ...
-1
votes
1answer
215 views
How to rename or delete an alias permanently from system?
I have created one alias in my system,
printf "%s\n" "alias shh='sqlplus hfdora/hfdora@hfd2" >> ~/.kshrc
Now, I want to change the alias name from shh2 to shh
Also, how to delete other ...
4
votes
3answers
581 views
How to print control characters with escape sequences?
I have defined the color red using tput
red=$(tput setaf 1)
to colorize warnings in my program. This works fine:
printf '%sfail\n' "$red"
# prints 'fail' in red
But on one occasion I would like ...
1
vote
2answers
199 views
Unable to store ascii value in a variable
I am trying to convert hex to decimal to ascii and store it in a variable.
I am using the following code.
HEX=30
DEC=`printf "%d\n" 0x${HEX}`
echo "$DEC"
ASC=`printf \\$(printf '%03o' $DEC)`
echo "$...
0
votes
1answer
248 views
print characters repetitively using asterisk symbol in bash [duplicate]
print '*' * 80
This python snippet prints 80 asterisks, which I use often as delimiters in log files.
How can I do it in bash script using operator overloading?
3
votes
3answers
55 views
printing a series of characters
My ultimate goal here is to generate a block of text that can be used to test out various fonts at a terminal. I want to generate the file as basically an ascii chart. A series of characters from 1 ...
1
vote
2answers
73 views
Alignment when printing a series of records
How can I resolve the problem of the tables going to the right. I just want it to be shown under 1.
Here's my script with START added. The alignment has gone wonky now:
while IFS="," read f1 f2 f3 ...
4
votes
3answers
3k views
How to use printf and %s when there are color codes?
I had these lines:
if [[ $# -eq 0 ]]; then
printf "$fail_color Error - Function: $function, Line: $line_number \n"
printf "do_test: Third parameter missing - expected result\n"
exit 1
fi
This ...
1
vote
2answers
341 views
bash - Why does type -a execute “$(printf 'a')” and is it possible to get back the original alias? [duplicate]
After i ask this question 2 days ago, i decided to make this alias in my ~/.bashrc:
alias catvu="LC_ALL=C sed \"$(printf 's/[^\t
-\176\200-\377]/^&/g')\"|LC_ALL=C tr '\0-\10\13-\37\177' '@-...
1
vote
2answers
213 views
Format Column Width with Printf
I have searched online for 10 hours now and tried various codes, but still need help. I am attempting to merge three files using 'paste' and 'awk'. However, the columns are not adjusting to the ...
3
votes
1answer
3k views
Printf formatting with variable format - what does this var reference?
I am experimenting with printf formatting in bash and I ran across this piece of code:
#/bin/bash
divider===============================
divider=$divider$divider
header="\n %-15s %8s %10s %11s\n"
...
9
votes
3answers
2k views
Writing a character N times using the printf command
I found the following command to repeat a character in Linux:
printf 'H%.0s' {1..5000} > H.txt
I want, for example, H to repeat 5000 times. What does %.0s mean here?
3
votes
0answers
108 views
find printf switch POSIX alternative
I'd like to rewrite these 2 command so they will use only POSIX-complaint switches:
find "$TARGET_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -type d -printf '(DIR) %f\n'
find "$TARGET_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -type f -printf '%s %f ...
2
votes
1answer
328 views
How do I print hyphens if a variable is empty?
I am collecting windows system information using wmic on Linux system. For that purpose, I make various wmic calls and their output is stored in some variables. After required data is collected, I ...
0
votes
1answer
673 views
How do I escape quotes for json conversion in Bash
I have a file which I need to convert to a json string and it needs to be done via bash.
My test file looks like
1
2
'
3
4
Here is what's happening
$ LOG=$(cat file)
$ printf '{"log": "%q"}\n' "$...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
How to use printf to show the results of a calculation?
My program is
#!/bin/sh
printf 'Please enter salary amount: '
read salary
TAX="echo $salary * 0.15 | bc"
NET="echo $salary + $TAX | bc"
printf "Net Salary= %.2f" $NET
printf "\n"
But whatever I ...
1
vote
2answers
368 views
How to printf an exclamation point in tcsh?
What's the best way to printf an exclamation point in tcsh?
It seems like using single or double quotes has no effect on escaping the exclamation point; and using a backspace does work, but then it ...
5
votes
3answers
1k views
How do I capture stdin to a variable without stripping any trailing newlines?
In a shell script...
How do I capture stdin to a variable without stripping any trailing newlines?
Right now I have tried:
var=`cat`
var=`tee`
var=$(tee)
In all cases $var will not have the ...
1
vote
3answers
408 views
Using a command's output in printf in ksh
I am trying to perform the following :
printf "Are you sure you want to copy %s (y/n) ? (file bigger than 10 MB) " "$0"
It works fine, nevertheless, I would like to display the actual size of my ...
4
votes
5answers
4k views
Add leading characters in front of string using printf or echo
How can I add leading characters to fill a string to a certain length?
Assume I want to add zeroes in front of a string, if said string is shorter than 20 characters:
printf '%020s\n' "$line"
...
4
votes
2answers
652 views
Thousands separator in printf in zsh
I have been trying to define a thousands separator in printf for a while now and I have discovered that zsh has some problems with it.
In bash I can use something like:
$ printf "%'d\n" 1234567890
...
7
votes
3answers
16k views
Awk printf number in width and round it up
I need to printf a number out, but with given width and rounded (with awk!)
%10s
I have this and somehow I need to connect the %d but everything I do, ends up with too much parametres for awk (...
2
votes
2answers
787 views
printf output running over into next line
I have created Bash SS in vi. My output is running over into the line below it. I am new to UNIX so I'm trying to learn. My output is displayed using printf.
printf "%-15s %15s %15s %2d\n %2s " $...
