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AWK(1) General Commands Manual AWK(1) NAME awk -- pattern-directed scanning and processing language SYNOPSIS awk [-safe] [-version] [-d[n]] [-F fs | --csv] [-v var=value] [prog | -f progfile] file ... DESCRIPTION awk scans each input file for lines that match any of a set of patterns specified literally in prog or in one or more files specified as -f progfile. With each pattern there can be an associated action that will be performed when a line of a file matches the pattern. Each line is matched against the pattern portion of every pattern-action state- ment; the associated action is performed for each matched pattern. The file name `-' means the standard input. Any file of the form var=value is treated as an assignment, not a filename, and is executed at the time it would have been opened if it were a filename. The options are as follows: -d[n] Debug mode. Set debug level to n, or 1 if n is not specified. A value greater than 1 causes awk to dump core on fatal errors. -F fs Define the input field separator to be the regular expression fs. --csv causes awk to process records using (more or less) standard comma-separated values (CSV) format. -f progfile Read program code from the specified file progfile instead of from the command line. -safe Disable file output (print >, print >>), process creation (cmd | getline, print |, system) and access to the environment (ENVIRON; see the section on variables below). This is a first (and not very reliable) approximation to a "safe" version of awk. -version Print the version number of awk to standard output and exit. -v var=value Assign value to variable var before prog is executed; any num- ber of -v options may be present. The input is normally made up of input lines (records) separated by newlines, or by the value of RS. If RS is null, then any number of blank lines are used as the record separator, and newlines are used as field separators (in addition to the value of FS). This is convenient when working with multi-line records. An input line is normally made up of fields separated by whitespace, or by the extended regular expression FS as described below. The fields are denoted $1, $2, ..., while $0 refers to the entire line. If FS is null, the input line is split into one field per character. While both gawk and mawk have the same behavior, it is unspecified in the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 ("POSIX.1") standard. If FS is a single space, then lead- ing and trailing blank and newline characters are skipped. Fields are delimited by one or more blank or newline characters. A blank charac- ter is a space or a tab. If FS is a single character, other than space, fields are delimited by each single occurrence of that charac- ter. The FS variable defaults to a single space. Normally, any number of blanks separate fields. In order to set the field separator to a single blank, use the -F option with a value of `[ ]'. If a field separator of `t' is specified, awk treats it as if `\t' had been specified and uses <TAB> as the field separator. In or- der to use a literal `t' as the field separator, use the -F option with a value of `[t]'. A pattern-action statement has the form: pattern { action } A missing { action } means print the line; a missing pattern always matches. Pattern-action statements are separated by newlines or semi- colons. Newlines are permitted after a terminating statement or following a comma (`,'), an open brace (`{'), a logical AND (`&&'), a logical OR (`||'), after the `do' or `else' keywords, or after the closing paren- thesis of an `if', `for', or `while' statement. Additionally, a back- slash (`\') can be used to escape a newline between tokens. An action is a sequence of statements. A statement can be one of the following: if (expression) statement [else statement] while (expression) statement for (expression; expression; expression) statement for (var in array) statement do statement while (expression) break continue { [statement ...] } expression # commonly var = expression print [expression-list] [>expression] printf format [..., expression-list] [>expression] return [expression] next # skip remaining patterns on this input line nextfile # skip rest of this file, open next, start at top delete array[expression] # delete an array element delete array # delete all elements of array exit [expression] # exit immediately; status is expression Statements are terminated by semicolons, newlines or right braces. An empty expression-list stands for $0. String constants are quoted "", with the usual C escapes recognized within (see printf(1) for a com- plete list of these). Expressions take on string or numeric values as appropriate, and are built using the operators + - * / % ^ (exponentiation), and concatenation (indicated by whitespace). The op- erators ! ++ -- += -= *= /= %= ^= > >= < <= == != ?: are also available in expressions. Variables may be scalars, array elements (denoted x[i]) or fields. Variables are initialized to the null string. Array subscripts may be any string, not necessarily numeric; this allows for a form of associative memory. Multiple subscripts such as [i,j,k] are permitted; the constituents are concatenated, separated by the value of SUBSEP (see the section on variables below). The print statement prints its arguments on the standard output (or on a file if >file or >>file is present or on a pipe if | cmd is present), separated by the current output field separator, and terminated by the output record separator. file and cmd may be literal names or paren- thesized expressions; identical string values in different statements denote the same open file. The printf statement formats its expression list according to the format (see printf(1)). Patterns are arbitrary Boolean combinations (with ! || &&) of regular expressions and relational expressions. awk supports extended regular expressions (EREs). See re_format(7) for more information on regular expressions. Isolated regular expressions in a pattern apply to the entire line. Regular expressions may also occur in relational expres- sions, using the operators ~ and !~. /re/ is a constant regular ex- pression; any string (constant or variable) may be used as a regular expression, except in the position of an isolated regular expression in a pattern. A pattern may consist of two patterns separated by a comma; in this case, the action is performed for all lines from an occurrence of the first pattern through an occurrence of the second, inclusive. A relational expression is one of the following: expression matchop regular-expression expression relop expression expression in array-name (expr, expr, ...) in array-name where a relop is any of the six relational operators in C, and a matchop is either ~ (matches) or !~ (does not match). A conditional is an arithmetic expression, a relational expression, or a Boolean combi- nation of these. The special patterns BEGIN and END may be used to capture control be- fore the first input line is read and after the last. BEGIN and END do not combine with other patterns. They may appear multiple times in a program and execute in the order they are read by awk Variable names with special meanings: ARGC Argument count, assignable. ARGV Argument array, assignable; non-null members are taken as filenames. CONVFMT Conversion format when converting numbers (default "%.6g"). ENVIRON Array of environment variables; subscripts are names. FILENAME The name of the current input file. FNR Ordinal number of the current record in the current file. FS Regular expression used to separate fields; also settable by option -F fs. NF Number of fields in the current record. $NF can be used to obtain the value of the last field in the current record. NR Ordinal number of the current record. OFMT Output format for numbers (default "%.6g"). OFS Output field separator (default blank). ORS Output record separator (default newline). RLENGTH The length of the string matched by the match() function. RS Input record separator (default newline). If empty, blank lines separate records. If more than one character long, RS is treated as a regular expression, and records are sepa- rated by text matching the expression. RSTART The starting position of the string matched by the match() function. SUBSEP Separates multiple subscripts (default 034). FUNCTIONS The awk language has a variety of built-in functions: arithmetic, string, input/output, general, and bit-operation. Functions may be defined (at the position of a pattern-action state- ment) thusly: function foo(a, b, c) { ...; return x } Parameters are passed by value if scalar, and by reference if array name; functions may be called recursively. Parameters are local to the function; all other variables are global. Thus local variables may be created by providing excess parameters in the function definition. Arithmetic Functions atan2(y, x) Return the arctangent of y/x in radians. cos(x) Return the cosine of x, where x is in radians. exp(x) Return the exponential of x. int(x) Return x truncated to an integer value. log(x) Return the natural logarithm of x. rand() Return a random number, n, such that 0<=n<1. sin(x) Return the sine of x, where x is in radians. sqrt(x) Return the square root of x. srand(expr) Sets seed for rand() to expr and returns the previous seed. If expr is omitted, the time of day is used in- stead. String Functions gsub(r, t, s) The same as sub() except that all occurrences of the regular expression are replaced. gsub() returns the number of replacements. index(s, t) The position in s where the string t occurs, or 0 if it does not. length(s) The length of s taken as a string, number of elements in an array for an array argument, or length of $0 if no argument is given. match(s, r) The position in s where the regular expression r oc- curs, or 0 if it does not. The variable RSTART is set to the starting position of the matched string (which is the same as the returned value) or zero if no match is found. The variable RLENGTH is set to the length of the matched string, or -1 if no match is found. split(s, a, fs) Splits the string s into array elements a[1], a[2], ..., a[n] and returns n. The separation is done with the regular expression fs or with the field separator FS if fs is not given. An empty string as field sepa- rator splits the string into one array element per character. sprintf(fmt, expr, ...) The string resulting from formatting expr, ... accord- ing to the printf(1) format fmt. sub(r, t, s) Substitutes t for the first occurrence of the regular expression r in the string s. If s is not given, $0 is used. An ampersand (`&') in t is replaced in string s with regular expression r. A literal amper- sand can be specified by preceding it with two back- slashes (`\\'). A literal backslash can be specified by preceding it with another backslash (`\\'). sub() returns the number of replacements. substr(s, m, n) Return at most the n-character substring of s that be- gins at position m counted from 1. If n is omitted, or if n specifies more characters than are left in the string, the length of the substring is limited by the length of s. tolower(str) Returns a copy of str with all upper-case characters translated to their corresponding lower-case equiva- lents. toupper(str) Returns a copy of str with all lower-case characters translated to their corresponding upper-case equiva- lents. Input/Output and General Functions close(expr) Closes the file or pipe expr. expr should match the string that was used to open the file or pipe. cmd | getline [var] Read a record of input from a stream piped from the output of cmd. If var is omitted, the vari- ables $0 and NF are set. Otherwise var is set. If the stream is not open, it is opened. As long as the stream remains open, subsequent calls will read subsequent records from the stream. The stream remains open until explicitly closed with a call to close(). getline returns 1 for a suc- cessful input, 0 for end of file, and -1 for an error. fflush([expr]) Flushes any buffered output for the file or pipe expr, or all open files or pipes if expr is omit- ted. expr should match the string that was used to open the file or pipe. getline Sets $0 to the next input record from the current input file. This form of getline sets the vari- ables NF, NR, and FNR. getline returns 1 for a successful input, 0 for end of file, and -1 for an error. getline var Sets $0 to variable var. This form of getline sets the variables NR and FNR. getline returns 1 for a successful input, 0 for end of file, and -1 for an error. getline [var] <file Sets $0 to the next record from file. If var is omitted, the variables $0 and NF are set. Other- wise var is set. If file is not open, it is opened. As long as the stream remains open, sub- sequent calls will read subsequent records from file. file remains open until explicitly closed with a call to close(). systime() returns the current date and time as a standard "seconds since the epoch" value. strftime(fmt, timestamp) formats timestamp (a value in seconds since the epoch) according to Fa fmt , which is a format string as supported by strftime(3). Both timestamp and fmt may be omitted; if no timestamp, the current time of day is used, and if no fmt, a default format of "%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z %Y" is used. system(cmd) Executes cmd and returns its exit status. This will be -1 upon error, cmd 's exit status upon a normal exit, 256 + sig upon death-by-signal, where sig is the number of the murdering signal, or 512 + sig if there was a core dump. Bit-Operation Functions compl(x) Returns the bitwise complement of integer argument x. and(v1, v2, ...) Performs a bitwise AND on all arguments provided, as in- tegers. There must be at least two values. or(v1, v2, ...) Performs a bitwise OR on all arguments provided, as inte- gers. There must be at least two values. xor(v1, v2, ...) Performs a bitwise Exclusive-OR on all arguments pro- vided, as integers. There must be at least two values. lshift(x, n) Returns integer argument x shifted by n bits to the left. rshift(x, n) Returns integer argument x shifted by n bits to the right. EXIT STATUS The awk utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs. But note that the exit expression can modify the exit status. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES If POSIXLY_CORRECT is set in the environment, then awk follows the POSIX rules for sub() and gsub() with respect to consecutive back- slashes and ampersands. EXAMPLES Print lines longer than 72 characters: length($0) > 72 Print first two fields in opposite order: { print $2, $1 } Same, with input fields separated by comma and/or spaces and tabs: BEGIN { FS = ",[ \t]*|[ \t]+" } { print $2, $1 } Add up first column, print sum and average: { s += $1 } END { print "sum is", s, " average is", s/NR } Print all lines between start/stop pairs: /start/, /stop/ Simulate echo(1): BEGIN { # Simulate echo(1) for (i = 1; i < ARGC; i++) printf "%s ", ARGV[i] printf "\n" exit } Print an error message to standard error: { print "error!" > "/dev/stderr" } SEE ALSO cut(1), lex(1), printf(1), sed(1), re_format(7) A. V. Aho, B. W. Kernighan, and P. J. Weinberger, The AWK Programming Language, Addison-Wesley, 1988, ISBN 0-201-07981-X. STANDARDS The awk utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 ("POSIX.1") specification, except awk does not support {n,m} pattern matching. The flags -d, -safe, and -version as well as the commands fflush, compl, and, or, xor, lshift, rshift, are extensions to that specifica- tion. HISTORY An awk utility appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX. BUGS There are no explicit conversions between numbers and strings. To force an expression to be treated as a number add 0 to it; to force it to be treated as a string concatenate "" to it. The scope rules for variables in functions are a botch; the syntax is worse. Input is expected to be UTF-8 encoded. Other multibyte character sets are not handled. However, in eight-bit locales, awk treats each input byte as a separate character. UNUSUAL FLOATING-POINT VALUES awk was designed before IEEE 754 arithmetic defined Not-A-Number (NaN) and Infinity values, which are supported by all modern floating-point hardware. Because awk uses strtod(3) and atof(3) to convert string values to dou- ble-precision floating-point values, modern C libraries also convert strings starting with inf and nan into infinity and NaN values respec- tively. This led to strange results, with something like this: echo nancy | awk '{ print $1 + 0 }' printing "nan" instead of zero. awk now follows GNU AWK, and prefilters string values before attempting to convert them to numbers, as follows: Hexadecimal values Hexadecimal values (allowed since C99) convert to zero, as they did prior to C99. NaN values The two strings "+nan" and "-nan" (case indepen- dent) convert to NaN. No others do. (NaNs can have signs.) Infinity values The two strings "+inf" and "-inf" (case indepen- dent) convert to positive and negative infinity, respectively. No others do. DEPRECATED BEHAVIOR One True Awk has accepted -F t to mean the same as -F <TAB> to make it easier to specify tabs as the separator character. Upstream One True Awk has deprecated this wart in the name of better compatibility with other awk implementations like gawk and mawk. Historically, awk did not accept "0x" as a hex string. However, since One True Awk used strtod to convert strings to floats, and since "0x12" is a valid hexadecimal representation of a floating point number, On FreeBSD, awk has accepted this notation as an extension since One True Awk was imported in FreeBSD 5.0. Upstream One True Awk has restored the historical behavior for better compatibility between the different awk implementations. Both gawk and mawk already behave similarly. Starting with FreeBSD 14.0 awk will no longer accept this extension. The FreeBSD awk sets the locale for many years to match the environment it was running in. This lead to pattern ranges, like "[A-Z]" sometimes matching lower case characters in some locales. This misbehavior was never in upstream One True Awk and has been removed as a bug in FreeBSD 12.3, FreeBSD 13.1, and FreeBSD 14.0. FreeBSD ports 15.0 September 3, 2025 AWK(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | FUNCTIONS | EXIT STATUS | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | STANDARDS | HISTORY | BUGS | UNUSUAL FLOATING-POINT VALUES | DEPRECATED BEHAVIOR
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