> Linux (apparently) allows qualifiers of the form "$n", where "n" is a 
> number to specify a different sequence in which the printf() arguments 
> are to be output.

So that printf("%2$s %$1s", "world", "hello") will print "hello world"?

I think that that sort of stuff was defined as part of nl_printf() and
friends in XPG2, and has been moved into printf() and friends in the
current version of The Open Group's "Single UNIX Specification".

--apb (Alan Barrett)