printf '\41' erroneously fails

[Ben Harris]

IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition states that in printf(1) format strings:

# ... "\ddd" , where ddd is a one, two, or three-digit octal number,
# shall be written as a byte with the numeric value specified by the
# octal number.
<http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009696899/utilities/printf.html>

But the version of printf(1) in GNU coreutils 5.0 (tested on a build from
clean GNU sources under Debian GNU/Linux i386 sarge) fails to correctly
handle such sequences unless the first digit is '0':

$ POSIXLY_CORRECT=1 _POSIX2_VERSION=200112 ./src/printf '\41\n'
\41
$ POSIXLY_CORRECT=1 _POSIX2_VERSION=200112 ./src/printf '\041\n'
!

The documentation for printf docuements its current behaviour and will
also need updating.

The version of printf build into GNU Bash 2.05b seems to behave correctly,
as does that shipped with NetBSD 1.6.

-- 
Ben Harris                                                   <address@hidden>
Portmaster, NetBSD/acorn26           <URL:http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/acorn26/>