(gawk.info) What Is Awk

 
 Introduction
 ************
 
    If you are like many computer users, you would frequently like to
 make changes in various text files wherever certain patterns appear, or
 extract data from parts of certain lines while discarding the rest.  To
 write a program to do this in a language such as C or Pascal is a
 time-consuming inconvenience that may take many lines of code.  The job
 may be easier with `awk'.
 
    The `awk' utility interprets a special-purpose programming language
 that makes it possible to handle simple data-reformatting jobs with
 just a few lines of code.
 
    The GNU implementation of `awk' is called `gawk'; it is fully upward
 compatible with the System V Release 4 version of `awk'.  `gawk' is
 also upward compatible with the POSIX specification of the `awk'
 language.  This means that all properly written `awk' programs should
 work with `gawk'.  Thus, we usually don't distinguish between `gawk'
 and other `awk' implementations.
 
    Using `awk' you can:
 
    * manage small, personal databases
 
    * generate reports
 
    * validate data
 
    * produce indexes, and perform other document preparation tasks
 
    * even experiment with algorithms that can be adapted later to other
      computer languages

 
* This Manual                 Using this Info file. Includes sample
                                 input files that you can use.
* Conventions                 Typographical Conventions.
* Sample Data Files           Sample data files for use in the `awk'
                                 programs illustrated in this Info file.

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