manpagez: man pages & more
info gawk
Home | html | info | man
[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]

1.1.2 Running awk Without Input Files

You can also run awk without any input files. If you type the following command line:

 
awk 'program'

awk applies the program to the standard input, which usually means whatever you type on the terminal. This continues until you indicate end-of-file by typing Ctrl-d. (On other operating systems, the end-of-file character may be different. For example, on OS/2, it is Ctrl-z.)

As an example, the following program prints a friendly piece of advice (from Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), to keep you from worrying about the complexities of computer programming(7) (BEGIN is a feature we haven’t discussed yet):

 
$ awk "BEGIN { print \"Don't Panic!\" }"
-| Don't Panic!

This program does not read any input. The ‘\’ before each of the inner double quotes is necessary because of the shell’s quoting rules—in particular because it mixes both single quotes and double quotes.(8)

This next simple awk program emulates the cat utility; it copies whatever you type on the keyboard to its standard output (why this works is explained shortly).

 
$ awk '{ print }'
Now is the time for all good men
-| Now is the time for all good men
to come to the aid of their country.
-| to come to the aid of their country.
Four score and seven years ago, ...
-| Four score and seven years ago, ...
What, me worry?
-| What, me worry?
Ctrl-d

[ < ] [ > ]   [ << ] [ Up ] [ >> ]         [Top] [Contents] [Index] [ ? ]
© manpagez.com 2000-2024
Individual documents may contain additional copyright information.