[Bug 55371] New: printf: a conversion specifier doesn't necessarily ask for an argument

[bugzilla-daemon-590EEB7GvNiWaY/ihj7yzEB+6BGkLq7r@public.gmane.org]

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=55371

           Summary: printf: a conversion specifier doesn't necessarily ask
                    for an argument
           Product: Documentation
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: Linux
              Tree: Mainline
            Status: NEW
          Severity: low
          Priority: P1
         Component: man-pages
        AssignedTo: documentation_man-pages-ztI5WcYan/vQLgFONoPN62D2FQJk+8+b@public.gmane.org
        ReportedBy: chealer-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org
        Regression: No


The format string of printf is quite complicated, and while its documentation
is extensive, it has a bit too many errors and needs some cleanup for
comprehensibility.

In particular, man 3 printf contains:

By default, the arguments are used in the order given, where each '*' and each
conversion specifier asks for the next argument (and it is an error if
insufficiently many arguments are given).

This is inexact, as "%" is defined as a conversion specifier and doesn't
consume any argument.

It's also unclear in that sentence what "next argument" refers to. And "*"
hasn't been introduced at that point, so that part is hard to follow ("*" is
defined in section The precision).

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