> printf can also replace a lot of uses of the "date" command

Very cool (but bash-specific). Manual: https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html#index-pri...

> sh /bin/echo -n "test"

This is gibberish -- it's trying to execute /bin/echo as if it was a shell script. Maybe you meant:

  sh -c '/bin/echo -n "test"'