11.1 Conceptual Overview

awk is a pattern-matching program for processing files, especially when they are databases. The new version of awk , called nawk , provides additional capabilities.[1 ] Every modern Unix system comes with a version of new awk , and its use is recommended over old awk .

[1] It really isn't so new. The additional features were added in 1984, and it was first shipped with System V Release 3.1 in 1987. Nevertheless, the name was never changed on most systems.

Different systems vary in what the two versions are called. Some have oawk and awk , for the old and new versions, respectively. Others have awk and nawk . Still others only have awk , which is the new version. This example shows what happens if your awk is the old one:

$ awk 1 /dev/null


awk: syntax error near line 1
awk: bailing out near line 1

awk exits silently if it is the new version.

Source code for the latest version of awk , from Bell Labs, can be downloaded starting at Brian Kernighan's home page: http://cm.bell-labs.com/~bwk . Michael Brennan's mawk is available via anonymous FTP from ftp://ftp.whidbey.net/pub/brennan/mawk1.3.3.tar.gz . Finally, the Free Software Foundation has a version of awk called gawk , available from ftp://gnudist.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/gawk-3.0.4.tar.gz . All three programs implement "new" awk . Thus, references below such as "nawk only," apply to all three. gawk has additional features.

With original awk , you can:

• Think of a text file as made up of records and fields in a textual database.

• Perform arithmetic and string operations.

• Use programming constructs such as loops and conditionals.

• Produce formatted reports.

With nawk , you can also:

• Define your own functions.

• Execute Unix commands from a script.

• Process the results of Unix commands.

• Process command-line arguments more gracefully.

• Work more easily with multiple input streams.

• Flush open output files and pipes (latest Bell Labs awk ).

In addition, with GNU awk (gawk ), you can:

• Use regular expressions to separate records, as well as fields.

• Skip to the start of the next file, not just the next record.

• Perform more powerful string substitutions.

• Retrieve and format system time values.