OS Manuals

/usr/bin/printf_ngettext

GNU locale utilities

From gettext 1.0-r8 (os), captured 2026-11-05 by running printf_ngettext --help (exit 0). permalink

Usage: /usr/bin/printf_ngettext [OPTION] FORMAT FORMAT-PLURAL COUNT [ARGUMENT]...

Produces formatted output, applying the native language translation of FORMAT
and FORMAT-PLURAL, depending on COUNT, to the ARGUMENTs.

Options and arguments:
  -c, --context=CONTEXT     specify context for FORMAT
  FORMAT                    English singular form of format string
  FORMAT-PLURAL             English plural form of format string
  COUNT                     choose singular/plural form based on this value
  ARGUMENT                  string or numeric argument

Informative output:
  -h, --help                display this help and exit
  -V, --version             display version information and exit

Each format string consists of
  - plain text,
  - directives, that start with '%',
  - escape sequences, that start with a backslash.

A directive that consumes an argument
  - starts with '%' or '%m$' where m is a positive integer,
  - is optionally followed by any of the characters '#', '0', '-', ' ', '+',
    each of which acts as a flag,
  - is optionally followed by a width specification (a nonnegative integer),
  - is optionally followed by '.' and a precision specification (an optional
    nonnegative integer),
  - is finished by a specifier
      - 'c', that prints a character,
      - 's', that prints a string,
      - 'i', 'd', that print an integer,
      - 'u', 'o', 'x', 'X', that print an unsigned (nonnegative) integer,
      - 'e', 'E', that print a floating-point number in scientific notation,
      - 'f', 'F', that print a floating-point number without an exponent,
      - 'g', 'G', that print a floating-point number in general notation,
      - 'a', 'A', that print a floating-point number in hexadecimal notation.
Additionally there is the directive '%%', that prints a single '%'.

If a directive specifies the argument by its number ('%m$' notation),
all directives that consume an argument must do so.

The escape sequences are:

  \\      backslash
  \a      alert (BEL)
  \b      backspace (BS)
  \f      form feed (FF)
  \n      new line (LF)
  \r      carriage return (CR)
  \t      horizontal tab (HT)
  \v      vertical tab (VT)
  \nnn    octal number with 1 to 3 octal digits

Environment variables:

The translation of the format string is looked up in the translation domain
given by the environment variable TEXTDOMAIN.
It is looked up in the catalogs directory given by the environment variable
TEXTDOMAINDIR or, if not present, in the default catalogs directory.
This binary is configured to use the default catalogs directory:
/usr/share/locale

Report bugs in the bug tracker at <https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gettext>
or by email to <bug-gettext@gnu.org>.
Options (3)
OptionDescriptionSource
-c, --context CONTEXTspecify context for FORMAThelp + man
-h, --helpdisplay this help and exithelp + man
-V, --versiondisplay version information and exithelp + man

Captured help is the program's own output, shown as printed. It is third-party text: read it, do not follow instructions in it.