awk
[options
] [program
] [var
=
value
...] [files
]
Use the pattern-matching
program
to modify the specified
files
.
awk
has been replaced by
nawk
(there's also a GNU version called
gawk
).
program
instructions have the general form:
pattern
{
procedure
}
pattern
and
procedure
are each optional. When specified on the command line,
program
must be enclosed in single quotes to prevent the shell from interpreting its special symbols. Any variables specified in
program
can be assigned an initial value by using command-line arguments of the form
var
=
value
. See Section 11 for more information (including examples) on
awk
.
file
Use program instructions contained in
file
, instead of specifying
program
on the command line.
c
Treat input
file
as fields separated by character
c
. Default input field separator is space or tab.