printf format [ arg ... ]
       Print  the arguments according to the format speci-
       fication. Formatting rules are the same as used  in
       C. The same escape sequences as for echo are recog-
       nised in the format. All  C  conversion  specifica-
       tions  ending in one of csdiouxXeEfgGn are handled.
       In addition to this, `%b' can be  used  instead  of
       `%s'  to  cause escape sequences in the argument to
       be recognised and `%q' can be  used  to  quote  the
       argument  in such a way that allows it to be reused
       as shell input. With the numeric format specifiers,
       if  the  corresponding argument starts with a quote
       character, the numeric value of the following char-
       acter  is used as the number to print otherwise the
       argument is evaluated as an arithmetic  expression.
       See  the  section  `Arithmetic  Evaluation'  for  a
       description of arithmetic expressions.  With  `%n',
       the  corresponding  argument is taken as an identi-
       fier which is created as an integer parameter.

       Normally, conversion specifications are applied  to
       each  argument  in  order  but  they can explicitly
       specify the nth argument is to be used by replacing
       `%'  by  `%n$' and `*' by `*n$'.  It is recommended
       that you do not mix  references  of  this  explicit
       style  with  the  normal  style and the handling of
       such mixed styles may be subject to future  change.

       If  arguments  remain  unused after formatting, the
       format string is reused until  all  arguments  have
       been  consumed. With the print builtin, this can be
       suppressed by using the -r option.  If  more  argu-
       ments  are  required  by  the format than have been
       specified, the behaviour is as if zero or an  empty
       string had been specified as the argument.
