printf(1) does not support argument swapping

[Antonio Bonifati]

Hi,
I'm using coreutils 6.12 and bash 3.2.048. I notice command line versions
of printf(1), both external (/usr/bin/printf) and internal (bash command)
do not support argument swapping as printf(3) does.

Reproduce with:

$ printf '%2$s is %1$u years old' 31 Antonio
bash: printf: `$': invalid format character

or

$ /usr/bin/printf '%2$s is %1$u years old' 31 Antonio
/usr/bin/printf: %2$: invalid conversion specification

This issue is not covered by the FAQ at
http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/faq/coreutils-faq.html, therefore I
think it's a bug, isn't it?

thanks for help
-- 
Antonio Bonifati
http://monitor.deis.unical.it/ant
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