Multiplying strings in bash script
You can use bash command substitution to be more portable across systems than to use a variant specific command.
$ myString=$(printf "%10s");echo ${myString// /m} # echoes 'm' 10 timesmmmmmmmmmm$ myString=$(printf "%10s");echo ${myString// /rep} # echoes 'rep' 10 timesreprepreprepreprepreprepreprepWrapping it up in a more usable shell-function
repeatChar() { local input="$1" local count="$2" printf -v myString "%s" "%${count}s" printf '%s\n' "${myString// /$input}"}$ repeatChar str 10strstrstrstrstrstrstrstrstrstr
In bash you can use simple string indexing in a similar manner
#!/bin/bashoos="oooooooooooooo"n=2printf "%c%s\n" 'f' ${oos:0:n}output
fooAnother approach simply concatenates characters into a string
#!/bin/bashn=2chr=ostr=for ((i = 0; i < n; i++)); do str="$str$chr"doneprintf "f%s\n" "$str"Output
fooThere are several more that can be used as well.