[PATCH 1/2] tools/nolibc: support left-aligned printing in printf

From: licheng.li

Date: Sun Jan 25 2026 - 22:10:54 EST


From: Cheng Li <im.lechain@xxxxxxxxx>

Currently, __nolibc_printf() in nolibc does not support the '-' flag
for left alignment. This limits the ability to format tabular output
nicely.

This patch adds support for the '-' flag. The implementation is kept
minimal to minimize the binary size impact.

Measuring the nolibc-test binary on x86_64 shows a small increase in
the text section:

text data bss dec hex filename
43552 248 112 43912 ab88 nolibc-test (before)
43677 248 112 44037 ac05 nolibc-test (after)

The net increase is 125 bytes.

Signed-off-by: Cheng Li <im.lechain@xxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/include/nolibc/stdio.h | 18 +++++++++++++++---
1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/include/nolibc/stdio.h b/tools/include/nolibc/stdio.h
index 1f16dab2ac88..b90b59237bda 100644
--- a/tools/include/nolibc/stdio.h
+++ b/tools/include/nolibc/stdio.h
@@ -250,7 +250,7 @@ typedef int (*__nolibc_printf_cb)(intptr_t state, const char *buf, size_t size);
static __attribute__((unused, format(printf, 4, 0)))
int __nolibc_printf(__nolibc_printf_cb cb, intptr_t state, size_t n, const char *fmt, va_list args)
{
- char escape, lpref, c;
+ char escape, lpref, padc, c;
unsigned long long v;
unsigned int written, width;
size_t len, ofs, w;
@@ -261,11 +261,17 @@ int __nolibc_printf(__nolibc_printf_cb cb, intptr_t state, size_t n, const char
while (1) {
c = fmt[ofs++];
width = 0;
+ padc = ' ';

if (escape) {
/* we're in an escape sequence, ofs == 1 */
escape = 0;

+ if (c == '-' || c == '0') {
+ padc = c;
+ c = fmt[ofs++];
+ }
+
/* width */
while (c >= '0' && c <= '9') {
width *= 10;
@@ -358,13 +364,19 @@ int __nolibc_printf(__nolibc_printf_cb cb, intptr_t state, size_t n, const char
if (n) {
w = len < n ? len : n;
n -= w;
- while (width-- > w) {
- if (cb(state, " ", 1) != 0)
+ while (padc != '-' && width > w) {
+ if (cb(state, &padc, 1) != 0)
return -1;
written += 1;
+ width--;
}
if (cb(state, outstr, w) != 0)
return -1;
+ while (width-- > w) {
+ if (cb(state, " ", 1) != 0)
+ return -1;
+ written += 1;
+ }
}

written += len;
--
2.52.0