PRINT(1) User Commands PRINT(1)

NAME

print - shell built-in function to output characters to the screen or
window

SYNOPSIS

ksh
print [-Rnprsu [n]] [arg]...


ksh93
print [-Renprs] [-f format] [-u fd] [string...]

DESCRIPTION

ksh
The shell output mechanism. When no options are specified, or when an
option followed by ' a - is specified, or when just - is specified, the
arguments are printed on standard output as described by echo(1).

ksh93
By default, print writes each string operand to standard output and
appends a NEWLINE character.


Unless, the -r, -R, or -f option is speciifed, each \ character in each
string operand is processed specially as follows:

\a
Alert character.


\b
Backspace character.


\c
Terminate output without appending NEWLINE. The remaining string
operands are ignored.


\E
Escape character (ASCII octal 033).


\f
FORM FEED character.


\n
NEWLINE character.


\t
Tab character.


\v
Vertical tab character.


\\
Backslash character.


\0x
The 8-bit character whose ASCII code is the 1-, 2-, or 3-digit
octal number x.

OPTIONS

ksh
The following options are supported by ksh:

-n
Suppresses new-line from being added to the output.


-r-R
Raw mode. Ignore the escape conventions of echo. The -R
option prints all subsequent arguments and options other than
-n.


-p
Cause the arguments to be written onto the pipe of the
process spawned with |& instead of standard output.


-s
Cause the arguments to be written onto the history file
instead of standard output.


-u [ n ]
Specify a one digit file descriptor unit number n on which
the output is placed. The default is 1.


ksh93
The following options are supported by ksh93:

-e
Unless -f is specified, process \ sequences in each string
operand as described above. This is the default behavior.

If both -e and -r are specified, the last one specified is
the one that is used.


-f format
Write the string arguments using the format string format
and do not append a NEWLINE. See printf(1) for details on
how to specify format.

When the -f option is specified and there are more string
operands than format specifiers, the format string is
reprocessed from the beginning. If there are fewer string
operands than format specifiers, then outputting ends at the
first unneeded format specifier.


-n
Do not append a NEWLINE character to the output.


-p
Write to the current co-process instead of standard output.


-r
-R
Do not process \ sequences in each string operand as
described above.

If both -e and -r are specified, the last one specified is
the one that is used.


-s
Write the output as an entry in the shell history file
instead of standard output.


-u fd
Write to file descriptor number fd instead of standard
output. The default value is 1.

EXIT STATUS

The following exit values are returned:

0
Successful completion.


>0
Output file is not open for writing.

SEE ALSO

echo(1), ksh(1), ksh93(1), printf(1), attributes(5)


March 27, 2008 PRINT(1)