Hi, POSIX:2024 specifies that printf(1) should support numbered conversion specifications: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/utilities/printf.html https://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=1592
Could this support please be added to GNU coreutils? As of coreutils 9.5, I still get: $ /usr/bin/printf 'abc%2$sdef%1$sxxx\n' 1 2 abc/usr/bin/printf: %2$: invalid conversion specification Rationale: It was pointed out in https://austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=1592 that these four statements do all the same thing: 1) pid=$$; eval_gettext "Running as process number \$pid."; echo 2) printf_gettext "Running as process number %d." $$; echo 3) printf "`gettext 'Running as process number %d.'`" $$; echo 4) printf $(gettext 'Running as process number %d.') $$; echo The first one has the drawback that it requires the programmer to add backslashes to their format strings. The second one has the drawback that it requires a 'printf_gettext' program (that does not yet exist). The third and fourth one (suggested by Jörg Schilling, IIRC) feel more natural to a shell script programmer. However, they require that printf supports numbered arguments. In the first time, we would use a shorthand $printf where (on most GNU systems) printf='/usr/bin/printf', until bash, dash, etc. support it as well. The long-term goal is to be able to change the GNU gettext documentation https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/html_node/sh.html to list: " Formatting with positions printf " Bruno
