File: gawk.info,  Node: Awk Debugging,  Prev: Debugging_Terms.php">Debugging Terms,  Up: Debugging

14.1.3 'awk' Debugging
----------------------

Debugging an 'awk' program has some specific aspects that are not shared
with programs written in other languages.

   First of all, the fact that 'awk' programs usually take input line by
line from a file or files and operate on those lines using specific
rules makes it especially useful to organize viewing the execution of
the program in terms of these rules.  As we will see, each 'awk' rule is
treated almost like a function call, with its own specific block of
instructions.

   In addition, because 'awk' is by design a very concise language, it
is easy to lose sight of everything that is going on "inside" each line
of 'awk' code.  The debugger provides the opportunity to look at the
individual primitive instructions carried out by the higher-level 'awk'
commands.(1)

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) The "primitive instructions" are defined by 'gawk' itself; the
debugger does not work at the level of machine instructions.