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 specified, 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(7)

December 28, 2020 PRINT(1)