printf escape sentences are insufficiently documented
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
coreutils (Ubuntu) |
New
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
The info page for ‘printf’ is misleading because the C ‘printf’ function does not interpret any escape sequences. So, interpreting this specification literally, all escape sequences are differences but not all of them are listed below. In particular, the sequence ‘\e’ is not listed.
1) The release of Ubuntu you are using, via 'lsb_release -rd' or System -> About Ubuntu
19.04
2) The version of the package you are using, via 'apt-cache policy pkgname' or by checking in Software Center
8.30-1ubuntu1
3) What you expected to happen
‘printf’ prints the FORMAT string, interpreting ‘\’ escapes as specified below
and interpreting ‘%’ directives
to format numeric and string arguments in a way that is
mostly similar to the C ‘printf’ function. *Note ‘printf’ format
directives: (libc)Output Conversion Syntax, for details. The
differences are listed below.
4) What happened instead
‘printf’ prints the FORMAT string, interpreting ‘%’ directives and
‘\’ escapes to format numeric and string arguments in a way that is
mostly similar to the C ‘printf’ function. *Note ‘printf’ format
directives: (libc)Output Conversion Syntax, for details. The
differences are listed below.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04
Package: coreutils 8.30-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSign
Uname: Linux 5.0.0-31-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu27.1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Mon Oct 7 23:24:39 2019
ProcEnviron:
TERM=xterm-
PATH=(custom, no user)
XDG_RUNTIME_
LANG=pl_PL.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: coreutils
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
Hello Christopher, thank you for opening this bug and helping make Ubuntu (and coreutils!) better.
I am somewhat confused here. Are you suggesting a change in wording?