man(1) Manual page archive


     PRINT(3)                                                 PRINT(3)

     NAME
          print, fprint, sprint, snprint, seprint, smprint,
          runesprint, runesnprint, runeseprint, runesmprint, vfprint,
          vsnprint, vseprint, vsmprint, runevsnprint, runevseprint,
          runevsmprint - print formatted output

     SYNOPSIS
          #include <u.h>

          #include <libc.h>

          int   print(char *format, ...)

          int   fprint(int fd, char *format, ...)

          int   sprint(char *s, char *format, ...)

          int   snprint(char *s, int len, char *format, ...)

          char* seprint(char *s, char *e, char *format, ...)

          char* smprint(char *format, ...)

          int   runesprint(Rune *s, char *format, ...)

          int   runesnprint(Rune *s, int len, char *format, ...)

          Rune* runeseprint(Rune *s, Rune *e, char *format, ...)

          Rune* runesmprint(char *format, ...)

          int   vfprint(int fd, char *format, va_list v)

          int   vsnprint(char *s, int len, char *format, va_list v)

          char* vseprint(char *s, char *e, char *format, va_list v)

          char* vsmprint(char *format, va_list v)

          int   runevsnprint(Rune *s, int len, char *format, va_list
          v)

          Rune* runevseprint(Rune *s, Rune *e, char *format, va_list
          v)

          Rune* runevsmprint(Rune *format, va_list v)

     DESCRIPTION
          Print writes text to the standard output.  Fprint writes to
          the named output file descriptor: a buffered form is

     PRINT(3)                                                 PRINT(3)

          described in bio(3). Sprint places text followed by the NUL
          character (\0) in consecutive bytes starting at s; it is the
          user's responsibility to ensure that enough storage is
          available.  Each function returns the number of bytes trans-
          mitted (not including the NUL in the case of sprint), or a
          negative value if an output error was encountered.

          Snprint is like sprint, but will not place more than len
          bytes in s. Its result is always NUL-terminated and holds
          the maximal number of complete UTF-8 characters that can
          fit.  Seprint is like snprint, except that the end is indi-
          cated by a pointer e rather than a count and the return
          value points to the terminating NUL of the resulting string.
          Smprint is like sprint, except that it prints into and
          returns a string of the required length, which is allocated
          by malloc(3).

          The routines runesprint, runesnprint, runeseprint, and
          runesmprint are the same as sprint, snprint, seprint and
          smprint except that their output is rune strings instead of
          byte strings.  They return a rune count rather than a byte
          count.

          Finally, the routines vfprint, vsnprint, vseprint, vsmprint,
          runevsnprint, runevseprint, and runevsmprint are like their
          v-less relatives except they take as arguments a va_list
          parameter, so they can be called within a variadic function.
          The Example section shows a representative usage.

          Each of these functions converts, formats, and prints its
          trailing arguments under control of a format string.  The
          format contains two types of objects: plain characters,
          which are simply copied to the output stream, and conversion
          specifications, each of which results in fetching of zero or
          more arguments.  The results are undefined if there are
          arguments of the wrong type or too few arguments for the
          format.  If the format is exhausted while arguments remain,
          the excess is ignored.

          Each conversion specification has the following format:

               % [flags] verb

          The verb is a single character and each flag is a single
          character or a (decimal) numeric string.  Up to two numeric
          strings may be used; the first is called width, the second
          precision. A period can be used to separate them, and if the
          period is present then width and precision are taken to be
          zero if missing, otherwise they are `omitted'.  Either or
          both of the numbers may be replaced with the character *,
          meaning that the actual number will be obtained from the
          argument list as an integer.  The flags and numbers are

     PRINT(3)                                                 PRINT(3)

          arguments to the verb described below.

          The numeric verbs d, o, b, x, and X format their arguments
          in decimal, octal, binary, hexadecimal, and upper case hex-
          adecimal.  Each interprets the flags 0, h, hh, l, u, +, -,
          ,, and # to mean pad with zeros, short, byte, long,
          unsigned, always print a sign, left justified, commas every
          three digits, and alternate format.  Also, a space character
          in the flag position is like +, but prints a space instead
          of a plus sign for non-negative values.  If neither short
          nor long is specified, then the argument is an int.  If
          unsigned is specified, then the argument is interpreted as a
          positive number and no sign is output.  If two l flags are
          given, then the argument is interpreted as a vlong (usually
          an 8-byte, sometimes a 4-byte integer).  If precision is not
          omitted, the number is padded on the left with zeros until
          at least precision digits appear.  If precision is explic-
          itly 0, and the number is 0, no digits are generated, and
          alternate formatting does not apply.  Then, if alternate
          format is specified, for o conversion, the number is pre-
          ceded by a 0 if it doesn't already begin with one; for x
          conversion, the number is preceded by 0x; for X conversion,
          the number is preceded by 0X.  Finally, if width is not
          omitted, the number is padded on the left (or right, if left
          justification is specified) with enough blanks to make the
          field at least width characters long.

          The floating point verbs f, e, E, g, and G take a double
          argument.  Each interprets the flags 0, L +, -, and # to
          mean pad with zeros, long double argument, always print a
          sign, left justified, and alternate format.  Width is the
          minimum field width and, if the converted value takes up
          less than width characters, it is padded on the left (or
          right, if `left justified') with spaces.  Precision is the
          number of digits that are converted after the decimal place
          for e, E, and f conversions, and precision is the maximum
          number of significant digits for g and G conversions.  The f
          verb produces output of the form [-]digits[.digits].  E con-
          version appends an exponent E[-]digits, and e conversion
          appends an exponent e[-]digits.  The g verb will output the
          argument in either e or f with the goal of producing the
          smallest output.  Also, trailing zeros are omitted from the
          fraction part of the output, and a trailing decimal point
          appears only if it is followed by a digit.  The G verb is
          similar, but uses E format instead of e.  When alternate
          format is specified, the result will always contain a deci-
          mal point, and for g and G conversions, trailing zeros are
          not removed.

          The s verb copies a NUL-terminated string (pointer to char)
          to the output.  The number of characters copied (n) is the
          minimum of the size of the string and precision. These n

     PRINT(3)                                                 PRINT(3)

          characters are justified within a field of width characters
          as described above.  If a precision is given, it is safe for
          the string not to be nul-terminated as long as it is at
          least precision characters (not bytes!) long.  The S verb is
          similar, but it interprets its pointer as an array of runes
          (see utf(7)); the runes are converted to UTF before output.

          The c verb copies a single char (promoted to int) justified
          within a field of width characters as described above.  The
          C verb is similar, but works on runes.

          The p verb formats a pointer value.  At the moment, it is a
          synonym for x, but that will change if pointers and integers
          are different sizes.

          The r verb takes no arguments; it copies the error string
          returned by a call to errstr(3).

          Custom verbs may be installed using fmtinstall(3).

     EXAMPLE
          This function prints an error message with a variable number
          of arguments and then quits.

               void fatal(char *msg, ...)
               {
                     char buf[1024], *out;
                     va_list arg;

                     out = seprint(buf, buf+sizeof buf, "Fatal error: ");
                     va_start(arg, msg);
                     out = vseprint(out, buf+sizeof buf, msg, arg);
                     va_end(arg);
                     write(2, buf, out-buf);
                     exits("fatal error");
               }

     SOURCE
          /src/lib9/fmt

     SEE ALSO
          fmtinstall(3), fprintf(3), utf(7)

     DIAGNOSTICS
          Routines that write to a file descriptor or call malloc set
          errstr.

     BUGS
          The formatting is close to that specified for ANSI
          fprintf(3); the main difference is that b and r are not in
          ANSI and u is a flag here instead of a verb.  Also, and dis-
          tinctly not a bug, print and friends generate UTF rather

     PRINT(3)                                                 PRINT(3)

          than ASCII.

          There is no runeprint, runefprint, etc. because runes are
          byte-order dependent and should not be written directly to a
          file; use the UTF output of print or fprint instead.  Also,
          sprint is deprecated for safety reasons; use snprint,
          seprint, or smprint instead.  Safety also precludes the
          existence of runesprint.