Format
print [–npRrs]
[–u[descriptor]]
[argument …]
Description
Calling print without
options or with only the – option
displays each argument to the standard output
using the same escape conventions as echo.
In this case, print and echo work
the same way; see echo.
Options
The options accepted by
print increase
its utility beyond that of
echo.
- –n
- Does not automatically add a new line to the end of the output.
- –p
- Sends output to a coprocess.
- –R
- Is similar to –r, except that print treats
all subsequent options (except –n) as arguments
rather than as options.
- –r
- Ignores escape conventions.
- –s
- Appends the output to the command history file rather than sending
it to standard output.
- –u[descriptor]
- Redirects the output to the file corresponding to the single digit
file descriptor. The default file descriptor
is 1.
Usage notes
print is
a built-in shell command.
Localization
print uses
the following localization environment variables:
- LANG
- LC_ALL
- LC_MESSAGES
- NLSPATH
See Localization for more
information.
Exit values
- 0
- Successful completion
- 1
- Failure due to any of the following:
- Incorrect descriptor specified with –u
- Nonexistent coprocess
- 2
- Failure due to an incorrect command-line option
Messages
Possible error messages include:
- Cannot print on file descriptor …
- You tried to print on a file descriptor that was not opened for
writing.
- History not available
- You specified the –s option to write
into a history file, but you are not now using a history file.
Portability
print is
an extension to POSIX.2 and
XPG.
Related information
echo, fc, read, sh