[Linuxcommand-discuss] shell printf function

[Bram M. <bra...@li...>]

Hi,

The signature at the end of this message is generated by two little
shell-scripts I wrote:
---sig-linux---
#!/bin/bash

echo '<pre>-- '
echo '#  Mertens Bram "M8ram" &lt;bra...@li...&gt;   Linux User
#249103  #'
/home/m8ram/bin/sig-general
---end---
---sig-general---
#!/bin/bash
current_uptime=$(uptime)
current_kernel=$(uname -r)
current_machine=$(uname -m)
current_release="SuSE 8.1 Pro"

echo -n '# '; echo -n $current_release; echo -n ' kernel '; echo -n
$current_kernel; echo -n ' '; echo -n $current_machine; echo ' 128MB RAM
#'
echo -n '#  '; echo -n $current_uptime; echo ' #'
echo '</pre>'
---end---

Unfortunately it still doesn't look very pretty, what I would like is
something like:
---new-sig---
# Mertens Bram "M8ram" <bra...@li...>  Linux User #249103 #
# SuSE 8.1 Pro kernel 2.4.19-4GB i686 128MB RAM                    #
# 1:16am up 12:19, 1 user, load average: 0.06, 0.04, 0.06          #
---end---

Is there a shell-function that allows the output to be of certain length
like printf in C and Perl (IIRC)?
I want all lines to be 78 chars wide, regardless of the kernel-version
or the uptime.

Is this possible with a shell-script? Or should I write a Perl-script?

TIA
-- 
#  Mertens Bram "M8ram" <bra...@li...>   Linux User #249103  #
# SuSE 8.1 Pro kernel 2.4.19-4GB i686 128MB RAM #
#  1:16am up 12:19, 1 user, load average: 0.06, 0.04, 0.06 #