File: gawk.info,  Node: Command Line,  Next: Options,  Up: Invoking Gawk

2.1 Invoking 'awk'
==================

There are two ways to run 'awk'--with an explicit program or with one or
more program files.  Here are templates for both of them; items enclosed
in [...] in these templates are optional:

     'awk' [OPTIONS] '-f' PROGFILE ['--'] FILE ...
     'awk' [OPTIONS] ['--'] ''PROGRAM'' FILE ...

   In addition to traditional one-letter POSIX-style options, 'gawk'
also supports GNU long options.

   It is possible to invoke 'awk' with an empty program:

     awk '' datafile1 datafile2

Doing so makes little sense, though; 'awk' exits silently when given an
empty program.  (d.c.)  If '--lint' has been specified on the command
line, 'gawk' issues a warning that the program is empty.