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Archive-name: computer-lang/awk/faq
Author: [e-mail] (Russell Schulz)
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Frequently Asked Questions == FAQ

The FAQ list for comp.lang.awk can be found on the Internet:
  <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.lang.awk/faq>
  <http://www.faqs.org/faqs/computer-lang/awk/faq/>

A version reformatted for PalmPilot may be found at
  <http://www.castagnetto.org/download.php?fname=awkfaq.zip>

An Italian translation may be found at
  <http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Plaza/7153/i-awk-faq.html>
  [error 1999-Jul-20]


========================================================================

Contents:

   1. Disclaimer
   2. Spam
   3. Can you answer my awk question?
   4. How can I add a FAQ and its answer to the FAQ list?
   5. What is awk?
   6. What well-maintained awk-compatible languages are there?
     6.1 nawk
     6.2 gawk
     6.3 mawk
     6.4 tawk
     6.5 mksawk
     6.6 awkcc
     6.7 awk2c
     6.8 a2p
     6.9 awka
   7. Where can I buy awk?
     7.1 AT&T (awk, awkcc)
     7.2 Thompson Automation (tawk)
     7.3 MKS (awk, can generate standalone interpreted .exe)
   8. Where can I get awk for free?  For what platforms?
     8.0 meta-answer
     8.1 the one true awk
     8.2 gawk
       8.2.1 gawk precompiled for MS-DOS or OS/2
       8.2.2 gawk precompiled for Macintosh
       8.2.3 gawk precompiled for Risc OS on Acorn
       8.2.4 jgawk (Japanese gawk)
       8.2.5 gawk.dll
     8.3 mawk
     8.4 awk2c
     8.5 awka
     8.6 awk in scheme
     8.98 various old binary-only distributions for MSDOS
     8.99 awkcc
   9. Why would anyone still use awk instead of perl?
  10. How can I learn awk?
  11. What are some other awk resources?
  12. How do I report a bug in gawk?
  13. What's wrong with gawk on Digital's OSF/1?
  14. How can I access shell or environment variables in an awk script?
    14.1 Environment variables in general
    14.2 Unix Shell Quoting
    14.3 ENVIRON and "env"|getline
    14.4 exporting environment variables back to the parent process
  15. Is there an easy way to determine if you have oawk or nawk?
  16. How does awk deal with multiple files?
    16.0 Version warning
    16.1 How can awk test for the existence of a file?
    16.2 How can I get awk to read multiple files?
    16.3 How can I tell from which file my input is coming?
    16.4 How can I get awk to open multiple files (selected at runtime)?
    16.5 How can I treat the first file specially?
    16.6 How can I explicitly pass in a filename to treat specially?
  17. How many elements were created by split()?
  18. How can I split a string into characters?
  19. Why does SunOS/Solaris awk behave oddly?
  20. How do I have dynamic-width printf strings, like C?
  21. Why doesn't "\\$" behave like /\\$/ ?  Why don't parentheses match?
  22. What is awk's exit code?
  23. How can I get awk to be case-insensitive?
  24. How can I force a numeric/non-numeric comparison?
  25. Why does { FS=":"; print $1 } not split the first record?
  26. Did ^ and $ and . change in gawk?
  27. Why doesn't awk 'begin {...}' work?
  28. Why does awk 'BEGIN { print 6 " " -22 }' lose the space?
  29. How do I take advantage of gawk's networking support?
  98. Miscellaneous
  99. Credits


========================================================================

1. Disclaimer

Read at your own risk.  The current, previous, or original authors
make no claim as to fitness for any purpose or absence of any errors,
and offer no warranty.  Do not eat.


========================================================================

2. Spam

you wouldn't believe how much spam I get to this address.


========================================================================

3. Can you answer my awk question?

Probably not.  Please don't mail it to me.

Read the FAQ, and the materials pointed to by it, and if you can't find
an answer there, by all means post to the newsgroup.

If you need help posting, see <http://groups.google.com/> among others.

A FAQ list is intended to reduce traffic on a newsgroup, not eliminate it.


========================================================================

4. How can I add a FAQ and its answer to the FAQ list?

Mail BOTH of them to me.  Then I can add them to the FAQ and it should
help people who have that same question later, as well as everyone who
reads the group, because they won't see it asked and answered so often.

I do not work on this FAQ every day, but I will try to get updates
incorporated in a timely manner.

Of course, don't mail me my entire FAQ!  I already have a copy!  There
are copies available all over the web that I could use if I lost mine!
I pay for my access; don't you?


========================================================================

5. What is awk?

awk is a programming language, named after its three original authors:

  Alfred V. Aho
  Brian W. Kernighan
  Peter J. Weinberger

they write:

``
  Awk is a convenient and expressive programming language that can be
  applied to a wide variety of computing and data-manipulation tasks.
''

the title of the book uses `AWK', but the contents of the book
use `awk' (except at the beginning of sentences, as above).  I
will attempt to do the same (except perhaps at the beginning of
sentences, as above).

most implementations of awk are interpreters which read your awk
source program and parse it and act on it directly.

some vendors have developed awk compilers which will produce an
`executable' that may be run stand-alone -- thus, the end user
does not have access to the source code.  there are also various
awk->C converters which allow you to achieve the same
functionality (by compiling the resulting C code later).

one of the most popular compilers, from Thompson Automation,
continues to be the subject of many positive posts in the group.

  [
    I don't really want to start a reviews section, but it may be
    appropriate.  I think it's of general interest, and a good thing
    for the FAQ, but I don't want to be given any grief by a negative
    review I didn't write just because I'm distributing it.

    if you have a review you'd like me to put a pointer to, please
    inform me -- I already have some pointers of this form listed.
  ]

comp.lang.awk is not particularly about sed; for sed discussion, see
the sed FAQ (and other documents) for answers to common questions and
group recommendations:

  <http://www.dbnet.ece.ntua.gr/~george/sed/sedfaq.html>
  <http://www.wollery.demon.co.uk/sed_faq.txt>

  <http://www.student.northpark.edu/pemente/sed/index.htm>
  <http://www.student.northpark.edu/pemente/sed/sedfaq.html>
  <http://www.student.northpark.edu/pemente/sed/sed1line.txt>

this all seems unrelated to AWK Engineering AG at <http://www.awk.ch/>.


========================================================================

6. What well-maintained awk-compatible languages are there?

  6.1 nawk
    AT&T's `new awk' -- probably nobody uses the `old awk' anymore.
    interpreter
    might NOT be well-maintained

  6.2 gawk
    from the GNU project
    interpreter

  6.3 mawk
    from Michael Brennan
    interpreter

  6.4 tawk
    from Thompson Automation
    interpreter
    compiler
    MS-Windows DLL

  6.5 mksawk
    interpreter
    compiler
    from Mortice Kern Systems (MKS)

    an old version of mksawk is shipped as `nawk' on Ultrix and
    OSF/1.

  6.6 awkcc
    translator to C
    might NOT be well-maintained

  6.7 Brian Kernighan's awkc++
    translator to C++
    experimental
    <http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/bwk/awkc++.ps>

  6.8 awk2c
    translator to C
    uses GNU awk libraries extensively, and is subject to GPL
    might NOT be well-maintained

  6.9 a2p
    translator to Perl
    comes with Perl
    didn't used to handle multiple concatenations:  e.g., var="x" "y" "z"
      -> must be in pairs:  e.g.,  var=( "x" "y" ) "z"
    didn't used to handle redirection:  e.g., { print("data") > "filename" }
      -> no known workaround

  6.10 awka
    translator to C (comes with library)
    based on mawk
    subject to GPL
    <http://awka.sourceforge.net/>


========================================================================

7. Where can I buy awk?

7.1 AT&T (awk, awkcc)

  _The AWK Programming Language_ says:
    phone
      [phone] [is this number still valid?]
    and login as `guest'.

  <http://www.unipress.com/att/new/awk.html>
  <http://www.unipress.com/att/new/awkcc.html>

  these versions might NOT be well-maintained

  they might also have the old `99 fields' limitation

7.2 Thompson Automation (tawk)

  <http://www.tasoft.com/tawk.html>

  Thompson Automation Software
  5616 SW Jefferson
  Portland, OR   97221
  USA

  North America: 800-944-0139
  Phone: [phone]
  Fax: [phone]

7.3 MKS (awk, can generate standalone interpreted .exe)

  <http://www.mks.ca/solution/tk/>

  Mortice Kern Systems
  185 Columbia Street W
  Waterloo, ON
  N2L 5Z5
  Canada

  North America: 800-265-2797
  Phone: [phone]
  Fax: [phone]


========================================================================

8. Where can I get awk for free?  For what platforms?

  8.0 meta-answer
    Obtaining Awk and Perl
    <http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/htmlchek/awk-perl.html>

  8.1 the one true awk
    <http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/bwk/>
    <http://plan9.bell-labs.com/who/bwk/>
    <ftp://netlib.bell-labs.com/netlib/research/awk.bundle.Z>
      [ appears to no longer be available via ftp 1997/Oct/23 ]

    This is the version of awk described in "The Awk Programming Language",
    by A. V. Aho, B. W. Kernighan, and P. J. Weinberger
    (Addison-Wesley, 1988, ISBN 0-201-07981-X).
    Changes, mostly bug fixes, are listed in FIXES.

      8.1.1 the one true awk precompiled for Win32 is available from the
      locations in 8.1; MS-DOS and OS/2 executables are available in the
      GNUish collection:

        <http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/>
        <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish>

  8.2 gawk
    NOTE:  gawk 3.0.2 had a per-record memory leak which was fixed
      for gawk 3.0.3 .

    <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/>
    e.g.,
      <ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/gawk-3.1.0.tar.gz>

      8.2.1 gawk precompiled for MS-DOS, Win32, or OS/2

        The djgpp collection contains a 32-bit DOS gawk, along with
        many GNU utilities which may be useful with gawk (djgpp ports
        understand long filenames on Windows 95):

        <http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/>
        <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/>
          (look for gwk*.zip)

        32-bit DOS (djgpp), Win32, and 16-bit OS/2 and DOS versions are
        part of the GNUish project:

        <http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/>
        <ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/gnuish/>
        <http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/msdos/gnuish/> [error 1998/Apr/16]
        <http://simtel.coast.net/SimTel/gnu/gnuish.html> [defunct]

        32-bit OS/2, Win32, and DOS (emx) versions:

        <http://www.leo.org/pub/comp/os/os2/leo/gnu/script/gnuawk.zip> (DE)
        <ftp://ftp-os2.cdrom.com/pub/os2/lang/gnuawk.zip>              (US)

        32-bit Win32 version (cygwin)

        <http://www.cygwin.com/>

        (CygWin requires some `buy in' to the CygWin Way -- this may not
        affect you, or it may make your life much easier, or it may break
        some small things you currently do.  In particular, I have been
        bitten by CRLF-vs-LF issues and no-drive-letters issues.)

      8.2.2 gawk precompiled for Macintosh

        <ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/mac/programming/gawk.sit>
        <ftp://ezinfo.ethz.ch/mac/programming/gnu-awk-211.> [note trailing .]
        <ftp://ftp.uwtc.washington.edu/pub/Mac/Programming/>
        <ftp://ftp.eos.hokudai.ac.jp/pub/mac/util/Gawk/>
        <ftp://ftp.cs.tu-berlin.de/pub/mac/lang/MPW/>

      8.2.3.1 gawk 3.0.3 for Risc OS (versions >= 3.1) on Acorn
        Binary ported by J.Kortink, available from
        <http://www.inter.nl.net/users/J.Kortink/>
        Wimp front end available from
        <http://www.wraith.u-net.com/soft.html>

      8.2.3.2 gawk 3.0.4 for Risc OS on Acorn
        Binary (with extensions) ported by Gavin Wraith, available from
        <http://www.wraith.u-net.com/arc/Gawk304.arc >

      8.2.4 jgawk (Japanese gawk)
        <ftp://ftp.eos.hokudai.ac.jp/pub/mac/util/jgawk/>
        <ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/mac/mirrors/info-mac/text/jgawk-215.hqx>

      8.2.5 gawk.dll
        <http://www.walkerj.muc.de/>
          old Gawk 2.15.2 (from 1995) plus extensions
          + read/Write functions for INI files
          + read-only functions for DBF files
          this is a _16-bit_ DLL, unfortunately without thunks
          works with Win3.1x, plus Win9x _from 16-bit callers_
          intermittent pointer problems with complex regexs

  8.3 mawk
    NOTE:  do not use mawk 1.3.2 (a one-character change yields 1.3.3)
      due to an obscure (and rarely-appearing) regex problem.

    <ftp://ftp.whidbey.net/pub/brennan/>
      e.g.,
      <ftp://ftp.whidbey.net/pub/brennan/mawk1.3.3.tar.gz>

      8.3.1 mawk 1.3.3 for Risc OS on Acorn
        Binary (with extensions) ported by Gavin Wraith, available from
        <http://www.wraith.u-net.com/arc/Mawk133.arc>

  8.4 awk2c
    <ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/utils/text/awk2c050.tgz>

  8.5 awka
    <http://awka.sourceforge.net/>

  8.6 awk in scheme
    <http://charles.lehalle.free.fr/tools.html>

  8.98 various old binary-only distributions for MSDOS
    <ftp://ftp.sunsite.org.uk/Mirrors/simtel.coast.net/coast/msdos/awk/>
    <http://www.simtel.net/pub/msdos/txtutl/>

  8.99 awkcc [unknown]
    previous versions of this FAQ mentioned a file on MKS' web site.
    Neil Mahoney spent some time examining it and discovered it is
    just a package BUILT with awkcc, not awkcc itself.  eventually,
    this notice will be removed.

some of Neil's explorations are interesting for those looking
for the real awkcc:

Get file copied to my Sun 4 file system (where I do most of my work)

$ ls -l awkcc
-rw-r--r--  1 neilm        1827 May 20 11:20 README
-rw-r--r--  1 neilm        1378 May 20 11:20 awk.h
-rwxr-xr-x  1 neilm         118 May 20 11:20 awkcc.sh
-rw-r--r--  1 neilm         824 May 20 11:20 dollars.h
-rw-r--r--  1 neilm        3858 May 20 11:20 ear.h
-rw-r--r--  1 neilm         993 May 20 11:20 hash.h
-rw-r--r--  1 neilm        1707 May 20 11:20 header.h
-rw-r--r--  1 neilm      103468 May 20 11:21 libAWK.a
-rw-r--r--  1 neilm        4136 May 20 11:20 specassign.h
-rw-r--r--  1 neilm       14467 May 20 11:20 unipen.c
-rw-r--r--  1 neilm         275 May 20 11:20 y.tab.h

Looking good!

$ awkcc.sh
fix errors found by run
$ awkcc.sh

no awkcc executable... what is this ?
-rwxr-xr-x  1 neilm      106496 May 20 11:21 uniparse

$ head -20 README

        ##############################################
        To compile the UNIPEN 1.0 parser, run awkcc.sh
        ##############################################

The following files are from the awkcc package,
provided by Chris Ramming ([e-mail]),
Copyright (c) 1991 AT&T.
All Rights Reserved

awk.h                              awkcc.sh
copyright                          dollars.h
ear.h                              hash.h
header.h                           libAWK.a
specassign.h                       y.tab.h

The file unipen.c is machine generated c code from the unipen.awk
parser, using the awkcc package.
Copyright (c) 1994 - I. Guyon, AT&T Bell Labs.

#  DISCLAIMER:                        #


========================================================================

9. Why would anyone still use awk instead of perl?

  a valid question, since awk is a subset of perl (functionally, not
  necessarily syntactically); also, the authors of perl have usually
  known awk (and sed, and C, and a host of other Unix tools) very well,
  and still decided to move on.

  there are some things that perl has built-in support for that almost
  no version of awk can do without great difficulty (if at all); if you
  need to do these things, there may be no choice to make.  for instance,
  no reasonable person would try to write a web server in awk instead
  of using perl or even C, if the actual socket programming has to be
  written in traditional awk.  however, gawk 3.1.0's /inet and ftwalk's
  built-in networking primitives may remove this particular limitation.

  however, there are some things in awk's favor compared to perl:

  - awk is simpler (especially important if deciding which to learn first)
  - awk syntax is far more regular (another advantage for the beginner,
    even without considering syntax-highlighting editors)
  - you may already know awk well enough for the task at hand
  - you may have only awk installed
  - awk can be smaller, thus much quicker to execute for small programs
  - awk variables don't have `$' in front of them :-)
  - clear perl code is better than unclear awk code; but NOTHING comes
    close to unclear perl code

  Tom Christiansen wrote in Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
  > Awk is a venerable, powerful, elegant, and simple tool that everyone
  > should know.  Perl is a superset and child of awk, but has much more
  > power that comes at expense of sacrificing some of that simplicity.


========================================================================

10. How can I learn awk?

  The commercial vendors of DOS versions (MKS and Thompson) each have
  their own well written books with examples.  [available separately?]

  English Book:

      _The AWK Programming Language_, by Aho, Kernighan and Weinberger,
      who invented the language.  Published by Addison-Wesley.  Lots of
      good material in not a lot of space.  A little out of date
      with regard to POSIX awk.

      ISBN 0-201-07981-X

      <http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/awkbook/>
      <http://cseng.aw.com/book/0,3828,020107981X,00.html>
        [ text looks mangled at the beginning ]

  English Book:

      Effective Awk Programming
      ISBN 0-596-00070-7 (third edition)

      <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/awkprog3/>
        (includes link to DocBook source)
      <http://www.gnu.org/manual/gawk>

      Russell recommends buying the book instead of trying to print it
      all out, for three reasons:

        1. it's probably cheaper than using your own toner and paper.

        2. some money goes back to help further development, both to
           Arnold Robbins (only if you buy from ORA) and the Free
           Software Foundation (if you buy from either ORA or the FSF).

        3. it helps convince publishers that we _like_ having full
           documentation available on-line (e.g., for searching), but
           will still pay for a compact, bound copy.

      information, including an errata list, is on the web site.


      older editions, historical interest only:

      _Effective AWK Programming_ by Arnold Robbins.  Published by
      SSC (+1 206-FOR-UNIX, <http://www.ssc.com/>,
      <mailto:[e-mail]>).  Also published by the FSF as
      "The GNU AWK User's Guide"; Texinfo source is included with
      the gawk distribution, so you can also print this yourself.

      A highly-praised reference card is also included.

      ISBN 1-57831-000-8 (second edition)

      <http://www.ssc.com/ssc/eap/>

      ISBN 0-916151-88-3 (first edition)

  English reference card:

      ISBN 1-56592-729-X
      <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/sedawkrepr/>

  English Book:

      second edition:

      _Sed & Awk_, by Dale Dougherty & Arnold Robbins, published
      by O'Reilly and Associates.

      _sed & awk_ describes two text manipulation programs that are
      mainstays of the UNIX programmer's toolbox.  This new edition
      covers the sed and awk programs as they are now mandated by
      the POSIX standard and includes discussion of the GNU versions
      of these programs.

      <http://www.ora.com/catalog/sed2/>
      <http://www.ora.com/catalog/covers/sedawk-t.gif>

      ISBN 1-56592-225-5

      An errata for the second edition of Sed & Awk is at

      <http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~dzubera/sedawk2.txt>

      historical notes on the first edition:

      _Sed & Awk_, by Dale Dougherty, published by O'Reilly and
      Associates.  A nice introduction to sed and awk, showing how
      they relate to each other.  However, the first edition is
      `full of typos and out-and-out mistakes'.

      <http://www.ora.com/catalog/sed/>

      ISBN 0-937175-59-5

      a `by no means complete' errata list is available.
      the author mentions `later printings of the book have
      many of the errors fixed.'

      <http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~dzubera/sedawk.txt>

  English Book:

      _Unix awk and sed programmer's interactive workbook_

      ISBN 0-13-082675-8

      <http://www.phptr.com/phptrinteractive/>
      <http://www.phptr.com/phptrinteractive/unix/>
      <http://cw.prenhall.com/patsis/>

      How can people publish Unix books that mix up ` and ' ?!?!
      (Example:  "sed `s/://'" won't do what they seem to think it
      will.)  And why create a frames-only Java-only
      Navigator/IE-centric gratuitously-incompatible website?!

      None of these things entice me to actually read the book
      in any depth.

  Deutsch Book:

      awk und sed
      Helmut Herold
      ISBN 3-89319-685-4

      <http://www.addison-wesley.de/projector/projector.asp?page=bookdetails&isbn=3893196854>
      <http://www.addison-wesley.de/katalog/item.ppml?textexpr=awk&id=00018>

  Deutsch Book:

      Linux-Unix Profitools, by Helmut Herold.
      awk, sed, lex, yacc, und make

      <http://www.addison-wesley.de/projector/projector.asp?page=bookdetails&isbn=3827314488>
      <http://www.addison-wesley.de/katalog/item.ppml?textexpr=awk&id=00287>

      ISBN 3-8273-1448-8

  English Book:

      _Mastering Regular Expressions_, by Jeffrey E.F. Friedl, published
      by O'Reilly and Associates.  (the `Hip Owls Book')

      ``... you will learn how to use regular expressions to
      solve problems and get the most out of tools that provide
      them.  Not only that, but much more:  this book is about
      _mastering_ regular expressions.''

      <http://www.ora.com/catalog/regex/>

      errata, additions, change log available at the author's home page
      <http://public.yahoo.com/~jfriedl/regex/>

      ISBN 1-56592-257-3

  Deutsch Book:

      Friedl's _Mastering Regular Expressions_.

      <http://www.oreilly.de/catalog/regexger/index.html>

  Web Site:

      <http://www.cs.hmc.edu/qref/awk.html>

      Getting started with Awk

  Web Site:

      <http://www.uga.edu/~ucns/wsg/unix/awk/>

      Awk introduction

  Web Site:

      <http://www.mbnet.mb.ca/~natewild/awk/awk.html>
        [ no longer available 1997/Oct/28 ]

      Information about Tawk; Awk sample source code

  Ian Gordon's Introduction to Gawk from Linux Journal

      <http://www.ssc.com/lj/issue25/1156.html>

  Juergen Kahrs' Gawk 3.1 introduction from Linux Journal

      <http://www.ssc.com/lj/issue60/>

  Awk Introduction

      <http://www.softlab.ece.ntua.gr/facilities/documentation/unix/docs/awk.ps>
      <http://www.softlab.ece.ntua.gr/facilities/documentation/unix/docs/awk.txt>
      <ftp://www.brooks.af.mil/pub/unix/white_papers/awk.ps>
      [error 2001/Apr/07]

      Awk introduction (PostScript and text) by awk authors
      (somewhat old, doesn't cover the many recent extensions,
      but still a valid introduction to the language)

  Web Site:

      <http://www.shelldorado.com/articles/awkcompat.html>

      Awk compatibility

  Web Site:

      <http://www.canberra.edu.au/~sam/whp/awk-guide.html>

      How to get things done in Awk

  Web Site:

      <http://www.novia.net/~phridge/programming/awk/>

      Awk Programming examples

  Japanese Book:

      _Tanoshii UNIX -UNIX he no shoutai-_, by Aya Sakamoto
      (UNIX is fun -an invitation to UNIX-)
      ASCII October 1990
      <http://www.ascii.co.jp/>
      ISBN 4-7561-0785-0
      A step by step UNIX tutorial for novices. Long chapter about
      awk, which follows chapters about grep and sed, gives good
      advice on general expressions and how awk is used in practice.

  Japanese Book:

     _Grep,Sed,Awk_ by Akihiro Miyoshi
     ISBN  4-87966-794-3
     June 1998 264 pages
     Shuwa System Manual & Reference Series
     <http://www.shuwasystem.co.jp/books/wwwsrch/cgi-bin/content/794/index.htm>
     Serves both as a tutorial and a manual. Divided quite evenly into three
     parts. Regular expressions explored in detail in grep section.

  Japanese Book:

    _Awk wo 256 bai tsukau tame no hon_ by Shimura, Washikita and Nishimura
    ASCII  August 1993 277 pages
    ISBN 4-75610-162-3

    Manic book titled 'The Book to Use Awk 256 Times More'. Good
    illustrations and interesting insights. Lists '100 liners': a game,
    fortune telling etc.

  English Booklet:

    TCP/IP Internetworking With Gawk
    ISBN 1-882114-93-0
    <http://home.vr-web.de/Juergen.Kahrs/gawk/gawkinet.html>

    An abridged form is included in O'Reilly's Effective Awk Programming 3e

    Hard copy also available as book on demand from
    <http://www.lob.de>


========================================================================

11. What are some other awk resources?

  Alta Vista awk Related Searches (inconspicuously placed under the
  search edit box, given to graphical browsers only)

    <http://www.altavista.com/cgi-bin/query?pg=q&kl=XX&q=awk>

  Awk collections in various search engines

    <http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Programming_Languages/awk/>
    <http://dir.altavista.com/Computers/Programming/Languages/Awk.shtml>
    <http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Programming/Languages/Awk/>

  Arnold Robbins' collection

      <ftp://ftp.freefriends.org/arnold/Awkstuff/>

      > A collection of awk related stuff that I'm starting and willing
      > to maintain.  Currently includes Henry Spencer's awf and aaa
      > programs, Brian Kernighan's chem, and Nelson Beebe's awkpretty,
      > and some smaller items.

  Awk quick reference (in plain ASCII and PalmPilot format)

      <http://www.castagnetto.org/download.php?fname=awkqref.zip>

  Unix and awk courseware

      <http://www.cit.ac.nz/smac/unix/default.htm>

  Awk course

      <http://www.ee.ic.ac.uk/course/advanced/awk/awk.html>
      [error 2001/Apr/07]

  Developer information on awk

      <http://www.devinfo.com/languages/awk/>

  Spatial Analysis with Awk (course)

      <http://www.udel.edu/johnmack/frec682/682awk.html>

  Debugger and Assertion Checker for Awk

      <http://www.irisa.fr/EXTERNE/manifestations/AADEBUG95/Abstracts/auguston2.html>
      [error 2001/Apr/07]

  Free Compilers and Interpreters List

      <http://www.idiom.com/free-compilers/LANG/awk-1.html>

  Voicenet.com awk page

      <http://www.voicenet.com/tech/comp/prog/awk/>
      [error 2001/Apr/07]

  Four awk implementations for MS-DOS:  How do they compare?

      <http://www.voicenet.com/tech/comp/prog/awk/awk2.rev>
      [error 2001/Apr/07]

  Gawk 3 manual

      <http://sunsite.ualberta.ca/Documentation/Info/by-chapter/gawk-3.0.3/>
      <ftp://sunsite.ualberta.ca/pub/Mirror/gnu/gawk/>

  Unix Vault

      <http://www2.shore.net/~jblaine/vault/>
      [error 2001/Apr/07]

  Yahoo's awk links

      <http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Programming_Languages/Awk/>

  New Mexico Tech awk information

      <http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/help/lang/awk.html>
      <http://www.nmt.edu/bin/man?awk> [empty 1998/Apr/16]
      <http://www.nmt.edu/bin/man?gawk>

  A Supplemental Document For AWK
  - or -
  Things Al, Pete, And Brian Didn't Mention Much

      <http://oak.oakland.edu/pub/unix-c/info/awk-supplement.txt>
      [error 2001/Apr/07]

      [
        interesting historically -- I always wondered exactly why I
        mistrusted setting `$n' and expecting `$0' to change -- and this
        document explains why.  (it has since become standard behavior.)
      ]

  A* - an awk extension (paper by D.A.Ladd and J.C.Ramming)

      <http://sunsite.ust.hk/dblp/db/journals/tse/tse21.html>
      [error 2001/Apr/07]
      <http://www.usenix.org/~jcr/> [error 1998/Apr/16]

      [ does anyone know what issue of _Unix Review_ mentioned it? ]

  Konrad Hambrick's `rawketry' and AltAcc data reduction scripts

      <ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ko/konrad/rawketry/>
      <ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ko/konrad/altacc/software/>

  Ralph Becket's CGI and HTML Awk libraries

      <http://www.cam.sri.com/people/becket/awk/awk.html>
      [error 2001/Apr/07]

  E. Stiltner's creation of HTML tables with awk

      <http://www.sni.net/sccs/sccsadoc.htm>
      [error 2001/Apr/07]

  ftwalk / hawk

  > a language that attempts to scale awk principles up to
  > a level competitive with Perl, Python, etc. Run as ftwalk,
  > it does a file tree walk (think of find+awk). Run as hawk,
  > it runs awk scripts (not quite compatibly).

      <http://www.tomhull.com/ocston/projects/hawk.html>
      <http://ftwalk.sourceforge.net/>

  Data Junction Content Extraction Language (DJ CXL)

      similar to awk
      <http://www.datajunction.com/products/djxl.html>

  English Book

      Language and Computers
      ISBN 0-7486-0785-4 (paperback)
      ISBN 0-7486-0848-6 (hardcover)
      New Scientist #2071, 1997/Mar/01, p45; paragraph titled `Dream in awk'
      <http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/andrew/etel.htm>
      <http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/andrew/pubs.htm>
      <http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/>
      <http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/cgi/odbic.exe?input=NewWeb/Books/Barnbrook9856.htm>

      [ Blackwell's in Oxford has 3 copies under General Linguistics ]

      a book about computer-aided linguistics which uses awk as its
      implementation language

  English Lecture Notes; Combining sh, sed, and awk for language analysis

      <ftp://ftp.u-aizu.ac.jp/u-aizu/doc/Tech-Report/1997/97-2-007.ps.gz>
      <ftp://ftp.u-aizu.ac.jp/u-aizu/doc/Tech-Report/1997/97-2-007.tar.gz>

  Consultix:  Awk Lecture / Lab courses (instructor-led)

      <http://www.consultix-inc.com/>

  How to get started with AWK

      <http://www.bolthole.com/AWK.html>

  awk resources for the Acorn RISC OS

      <http://www.awk.riscos.org.uk/>

  Troy A. Tiritilli's Awk Overview

      <http://www.students.stedwards.edu/~ttiriti/pl.htm
      (email me; stedwards.edu mail setup is broken)

  Henry Spencer's awf (Amazingly Workable Formatter)

      <http://www.simtel.net/simtel.net/>
      <ftp://ftp.zoo.toronto.edu/>
      (more precise URL eventually...)

  Jon-Egil Korsvold's awk archive

      <http://www.kortext.no/awk.htm> (English)
      <http://www.kortext.no/awkno.htm> (Norwegian)


========================================================================

12. How do I report a bug in gawk?

This is described in great detail in the gawk documentation.  In brief:

   1. Make sure what you've discovered is really a bug by checking
      the documentation and, if possible, comparing with nawk and mawk.

   2. Cut down the program and data to as small as possible a test
      case that will illustrate the bug.

   3. Optionally post to comp.lang.awk; this allows others to confirm
      or deny the behavior, and its incorrectness (or lack thereof).

   4. Send mail to <mailto:[e-mail]>.  This automatically sends
      a copy to Arnold Robbins.  Do not JUST post in comp.lang.awk;
      Arnold's readership there is sporadic, and of course any Usenet
      article can be missed, killed, or dropped.


========================================================================

13. What's wrong with gawk on Digital's OSF/1?

The version of gawk shipped with OSF/1 is very old, based on gawk
2.14.  Get the current version from a GNU mirror near you, and if
you still have a problem, report it as per the directions in the
gawk documentation.


========================================================================

14. How can I access shell or environment variables in an awk script?

14.0 shells

the examples using quoting are intended for use with any standard
(sh-compatible-quoting) Unix shell.  as with all complex quoting,
all these examples become much easier to work with (or under DOS
and MS-Windows, less impossible) when put in a file and invoked with
`awk -f filename.awk' instead.

non-sh-compatible shells will require different quoting.  if you're
not even using Unix (or a ported Unix shell), just ignore the whole
section on quoting.

14.1 Environment variables in general

Answer 1:  on Unix, use "alternate quoting", e.g.

        awk -F: '$1 ~ /'"$USER"'/ {print $5}' /etc/passwd
                ^^^^^^^^*******^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

        any standard Unix shell will send the underlined part as one
        long argument (with embedded spaces) to awk, for instance:

        $1 ~ /bwk/ {print $5}

        Note that there may not be any spaces between the quoted
        parts.  Otherwise, you wouldn't end up a single, long script
        argument, because Unix shells break arguments on spaces
        (unless they are `escaped' with `\', or in '' or "", as the
        above example shows).

Answer 2:  RTFM to see if and how your awk supports variable definitions
           on the command line, e.g.,

        awk -F: -v name="$USER" '$1 ~ name {print $5}' /etc/passwd

Answer 3:  RTFM if your awk can access enviroment vars.  Then perhaps

        awk -F: '$1 ~ ENVIRON["USER"] {print $5}' /etc/passwd

        Always remember for your /bin/sh scripts that it's easy to put
        things into the environment for a single command run:

        name=felix age=56 awk '... ENVIRON["name"] .....'

        this also works with ksh and some other shells.

The first approach is extremely portable, but doesn't work with
awk "-f" script files.  In that case, it's better to use a shell
script and stretch a long awk command argument in '...' across
multiple lines if need be.

Also note: /bin/csh requires a \ before an embedded newline, /bin/sh not.


14.2 Unix Shell Quoting

Quoting can be such a headache for the novice, in shell programming,
and especially in awk.

Art Povelones posted a long tutorial on shell quoting on 1999/09/30
which is probably too much detail to repeat with the FAQ; if you
could use it, search via <http://groups.google.com/>.

Tim Maher offered his <http://www.consultix-inc.com/quoting.txt>.

This approach is probably the best, and easiest to understand and
maintain, for most purposes:  (the '@@' is quoted to ensure the
shell will copy verbatim, not interpreting environment variable
substitutions etc.)

    cat <<'@@' > /tmp/never$$.awk
    { print "Never say can't." }
    @@
    awk -f /tmp/never$$.awk; rm /tmp/never$$.awk

If you enjoy testing your shell's quoting behavior frequently, you
could try these:

    (see below for a verbose explanation of the first one, with 7 quotes)

    awk 'BEGIN { q="'"'"'";print "Never say can"q"t."; exit }'
    nawk -v q="'" 'BEGIN { print "Never say can"q"t."; exit }'
    awk 'BEGIN { q=sprintf("%c",39); print "Never say can"q"t."; exit }'
    awk 'BEGIN { q=sprintf("%c",39); print "Never say \"can"q"t.\""; exit }'

However, you would also have to know why you could not use this:

    awk 'BEGIN { q="\'"; print "Never say \"can"q"t.\""; exit }'

explanation of the 7-quote example:

note that it is quoted three different ways:

    awk 'BEGIN { q="'
                     "'"
                        '";print "Never say can"q"t."; exit }'

and that argument comes out as the single string (with embedded spaces)

    BEGIN { q="'";print "Never say can"q"t."; exit }

which is the same as

    BEGIN { q="'"; print "Never say can" q "t."; exit }
                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^  ^  ^^
                          |           |  |  ||
                          |           |  |  ||
                          vvvvvvvvvvvvv  |  ||
                          Never say can  v  ||
                                         '  vv
                                            t.

which, quite possibly with too much effort to be worth it, gets you

                          Never say can't.


14.3 ENVIRON[] and "env"|getline

   Modern versions of new awk (gawk, mawk, Bell Labs awk, any POSIX
   awk) all provide an array named ENVIRON.  The array is indexed by
   environment variable name; the value is that variable's value.
   For instance, ENVIRON["HOME"] might be "/home/chris".  To print
   out all the names and values, use a simple loop:

        for (i in ENVIRON)
                printf("ENVIRON['%s'] = '%s'\n", i, ENVIRON[i])

   What if my awk doesn't have ENVIRON[]?

   Short answer, get a better awk.  There are many freely available
   versions.

   Longer answer, on Unix you can use a pipe from the `env' or
   `printenv' commands, but this is less pretty, and may be a
   problem if the values contain newlines:

        # test this on your system before you depend on it!
        while ( ("env" | getline line) >0 )
        {
                varname=line
                varvalue=line
                sub(/=.*$/,"",varname)
                sub(/^[^=]*=/,"",varvalue)
                print "var [" varname "]='" varvalue "'"
        }

14.4 exporting environment variables back to the parent process

   How can I put values into the environment of the program that
   called my awk program?

   Short answer, you can't.  Unix ain't Plan 9, and you can't tweak
   the parent's address space.

   (DOS isn't even Unix, so it lets any program overwrite any memory
   location, including the parent's environment space.  But the
   details are [obviously] going to be fairly icky.  Avoid.)

   Longer answer, write the results in a form the shell can parse
   to a temporary file, and have the shell "source" the file after
   running the awk program:

        awk 'BEGIN { printf("NEWVAR='%s'\n", somevalue) }' > /tmp/awk.$$
        . /tmp/awk.$$        # sh/ksh/bash/pdksh/zsh etc
        rm /tmp/awk.$$

   With many shells, you can use `eval', but this is also cumbersome:

        eval `awk 'BEGIN { print "NEWVAR=" somevalue }'`

   Csh syntax and more robust use of quotation marks are left as
   exercises for the reader.


========================================================================

15. Is there an easy way to determine if you have oawk or nawk?

The following in a BEGIN rule will do the trick.

        if (ARGC == 0)
                # old awk
        else
                # new awk


========================================================================

16. How does awk deal with multiple files?

  16.0 Version warning

    some of these techniques will require non-ancient versions of awk.

  16.1 How can awk test for the existence of a file?

    the most portable way is to simply try and read from the file.

        function exists(file,        dummy, ret)
        {
                ret=0;
                if ( (getline dummy < file) >=0 )
                {
                        # file exists (possibly empty) and can be read
                        ret = 1;
                        close(file);
                }
                return ret;
        }

[ I've read reports that earlier versions of mawk would write to stderr
as well as getline returning <0 -- is this still true? ]

        on Unix, you can probably use the `test' utility

        if (system("test -r " file) == 0)
            # file is readable
        else
            # file is not readable

  16.2 How can I get awk to read multiple files?

    it's automatic (under Unix at least) -- use something like:

    awk '/^#include/ {print $2}' *.c *.h

  16.3 How can I tell from which file my input is coming?

    use the built-in variable FILENAME:

    awk '/^#include/ {print FILENAME,$2}' *.c *.h

  16.4 How can I get awk to open multiple files (selected at runtime)?

    use `getline', `close', and `print EXPR > FILENAME', like:

    # assumes input file has at least 1 line, output file writeable
    function double(infilename,outfilename,    aline)
    {
      while ( (getline aline < infilename) >0 )
        print(aline aline) > outfilename;
      close(infilename);
      close(outilename);
    }

  16.5 How can I treat the first file specially?

    use FILENAME, thusly:

    BEGIN { rulesfile="" }
    rulesfile == "" { rulesfile = FILENAME; }
    FILENAME == rulesfile { build_rule($0); }
    FILENAME != rulesfile { apply_rule($0); }

    Example:

    Suppose you have a text-line "database" and you want to make some
    batch changes to it, by replacing some old lines with new lines.

    BEGIN { rulesfile="" }
    rulesfile == "" { rulesfile = FILENAME; }
    rulesfile == FILENAME { replace[$1] = $0; }
    rulesfile != FILENAME \
    {
            if ($1 in replace)
                    print replace[$1];
            else
                    print;
    }

    another way, using ARGV:

    (FILENAME == ARGV[1]) { replace[$1] = $0; next }
    ($1 in replace) { print replace[$1]; next }
    { print }

  16.6 How can I explicitly pass in a filename to treat specially?

    use `-v rulesfile=filename' like you would any other variable,
    and then use a `getline' loop (and `close') in your BEGIN
    statement.

    BEGIN \
    {
      if (rulesfile=="")
      {
        print "must use -v rulesfile=filename";
        exit(1);
      }
      while ( (getline < rulesfile) >0 )
        replace[$1]=$0;
      close(rulesfile);
    }

    {
      if ($1 in replace)
        print replace[$1];
      else
        print;
    }


========================================================================

17. How many elements were created by split()?

   when I do a split on a field, e.g.,

        split($1,x,"string")

   how can i find out how many elements x has (I mean other than
   testing for null string or doing a `for (n in x)' test)?

split() is a function; use its return value:

        n = split($1, x, "string")


========================================================================

18. How can I split a string into characters?

in portable POSIX awk, the only way to do this is to use substr to pull
out each character, one by one.  this is painful.  however, gawk, mawk,
and the newest version of the Bell Labs awk all allow you to set
FS = "" and use "" as the third argument of split.

so, split("chars",anarray,"") results in the array anarray containing
5 elements -- "c", "h", "a", "r", "s".

if you don't have any ^As in your string, you could try:

        string=$0;
        gsub(".", "&\001", string)
        n=split(string, anarray, "\001")
        for (i=1;i<=n;i++)
            print "character " i "is '" anarray[i] "'";


========================================================================

19. Why does SunOS/Solaris awk behave oddly?

I want to use the tolower() function with SunOS nawk, but all I get is

        nawk: calling undefined function tolower

The SunOS nawk is from a time before awk acquired the tolower() and
toupper() functions.  Either use one of the freely available awks, or
or use /usr/xpg4/bin/awk (if you have it), or write your own function
to do it using index, substr, and gsub.

An example of such a function is in O'Reilly's _Sed & Awk_.

Patrick TJ McPhee writes:

> SunOS includes three versions of awk. /usr/bin/awk is the old
> (pre-1989) version. /usr/bin/nawk is the new awk which appeared
> in 1989, and /usr/xpg4/bin/awk is supposed to conform to the single
> unix specification. No one knows why Sun continues to ship old awk.


========================================================================

20. How do I have dynamic-width printf strings, like C?

with modern awks, you can just do it like you would in C (though the
justification is less clear; C doesn't have the trivial in-line string
concatenation that awk does), like so:

        maxlen=0

        for (i in arr)
          if (maxlen<length(arr[i]))
            maxlen=length(arr[i])

        for (i in arr)
          printf("%-*s %s\n",maxlen,arr[i],i)

with old awks, just do it like you would do if you didn't know about %*
(this would be much more painful to do in C), like so:

        maxlen=0

        for (i in arr)
          if (maxlen<length(arr[i]))
            maxlen=length(arr[i])

        printfstring="%-" maxlen "s %s\n";
        for (i in arr)
          printf(printfstring,arr[i],i)


========================================================================

21. Why doesn't "\\$" behave like /\\$/ ?  Why don't parentheses match?

because "\\$" is a string and /\\$/ is not; in strings, some of the
escape characters get eaten up (like \" to escape a double-quote within
the string).

/\\$/ => regular expression:  literal backslash at end-of-expression

"\\$" => string: \$ => regular expression:  literal dollar sign

to get behavior like the first case in a string, use "\\\\$" .

there are other, less obvious characters which need the same attention;
under-quoting or over-quoting should be avoided:

parentheses are special for alternation:

/\(test\)/ => 6 characters `(test)'
"\(test\)" => /(test)/ => 4 characters `test' (with unused grouping)

an example of trying to match some diagonal compass directions:

/(N|S)(E|W)/ => `NE' or `NW' or `SE' or `SW' (correct)
"(N|S)(E|W)" => /(N|S)(E|W)/ (correct)
"\(N|S\)\(E|W\)" => /(N|S)(E|W)/ (correct) (NOTE:  all \ had no effect)
"\(N\|S\)\(E\|W\)" => /(N|S)(E|W)/ (correct) (NOTE:  all \ had no effect)

expressions that look similar but behave totally differently:

/\(N|S\)\(E|W\)/ => `(N' or `S)(E' or `W)'
/\(N\|S\)\(E\|W\)/ => `(N|S)(E|W)' only

There is also confusion regarding different forms of special characters;
POSIX requires that `\052' be treated as any other `*', even though it
is written with 4 bytes instead of 1.  In compatibility mode, gawk will
treat it as though it were escaped , namely `\*'.


========================================================================

22. What is awk's exit code?

normally, the `exit' command exits with a value of zero.

you can supply an optional numeric value to the `exit' command to
make it exit with a value:

    if (whatever)
        exit 12;

if you have an END block, control first transfers there.  within
the END block, an `exit' command exits immediately; if you had
previously supplied a value, that value is used.  but, if you
give a new value to `exit' within the END block, the new value is
used.  this is documented in the GNU Awk User's Guide (gawk.texi).

if you have an END block you want to be able to skip sometimes,
you may have to do something like this:

BEGIN \
{
  exitcode=0;
  ...
}

# normal rules processing...
{
  ...
  if (fatal)
  {
    exitcode=12;
    exit(exitcode);
  }
  ...
}

END {
  if (exitcode!=0)
    exit(exitcode);
  ...
}


========================================================================

23. How can I get awk to be case-insensitive?

  23.1. use tolower()
    - portable
    - must be explicitly used for each comparison

    instead of:
      if (avar=="a" || avar=="A") { ... }
    use:
      if (tolower(avar)=="a") { ... }

    or at the beginning of your code, add a line like
      { for (i=0;i<=NF;i++) $i=tolower($i) }
      { $0=tolower($0); }   # modern awks will rebuild $1..$NF also

  23.2. use IGNORECASE=1;
    - gawk only
    - used for all comparisons, regex comparisons, index() function
    - not used for array indexing


========================================================================

24. How can I force a numeric/non-numeric comparison?

these are the canonical, work-in-all-versions snippets.  there are
many others, most longer, some shorter (but possibly less portable).

to compare two variables as numbers ONLY, use
  if (0+var1 == 0+var2)

to compare two variables as non-numeric strings ONLY, use
  if ("" var1 == "" var2)


========================================================================

25. Why does { FS=":"; print $1 } not split the first record?

basically, you should set FS before it may be called upon to split $0
into fields.  once awk encounters a `{', it is probably too late.

some awk implementations set the fields at the beginning of the
block, and don't re-parse just because you changed FS.  to get
the desired behavior, you must set FS _before_ reading in a line.

e.g.,
  BEGIN { FS=":" }
  { print $1 }

e.g.,
  awk -F: '{ print $1 }'

if you run code like this
  { FS=":"; print $1 }

on this data:
  first:second:third but not last:fourth
  First:Second:Third But Not Last:Fourth
  FIRST:SECOND:THIRD BUT NOT LAST:FOURTH

you may get either
  this:       or this:
  ----        -------
  first       first:second:third
  First       First
  FIRST       FIRST

perhaps more surprisingly, code like
  { FS=":"; }
  { print $1; }

will also behave in the same way.


========================================================================

26. Did ^ and $ and . change in gawk?

yes.  early versions cared about \n (newlines) and treated them
specially.  version 3.* and later are more POSIX-compliant here.


========================================================================

27. Why doesn't awk 'begin {...}' work?

it needs to be `BEGIN' (i.e., it's case-sensitive).


========================================================================

28. Why does awk 'BEGIN { print 6 " " -22 }' lose the space?

You'd expect `6 -22', but you get `6-22'.  It's because the `" " -22'
is grouped first, as a substraction instead of a concatenation, resulting
in the numeric value `-22'; then it is concatenated with `6', giving the
string `6-22'.  Gentle application of parentheses will avoid this.


========================================================================

29. How do I take advantage of gawk's networking support?

(I expect this will become removed from the FAQ as people become more
aware of the new gawk documentation covering this.  But it's new and
cool and deserves attention.)

Network interfacing in gawk is easier than in many other languages.
Networking connections are made available like files in gawk.  You can
open, read, write and close them.  This script opens a connection to
the machine you are working on (localhost).  Then it reads the answer
and closes the connection.

    BEGIN \
    {
      NetService = "/inet/tcp/0/localhost/finger";
      print "name" |& NetService;
      while ((NetService |& getline) > 0)
        print $0;
      close(NetService);
    }

It tells you which users are currently logged into your system.
Note the similarity to ordinary file reading.

With gawk 3.1.0, this networking support can not be used on
Microsoft Windows unless you are using the Cygwin environment.
If you have Cygwin installed, configure and compile gawk as if you
were using a Unix system:

   tar -xvpzf gawk-3.1.x.tar.gz   # x is patch number
   cd gawk-3.1.x
   ./configure && make

The configure step takes a llloooonnngggg time.


========================================================================

98. Miscellaneous


========================================================================

99. Credits

I expect most of the information in this FAQ to be supplied by people
other than myself -- it's just going to work better that way.  The
newsgroup readers have a LOT more awk experience than I ever will
(unless I multiply myself by a few thousand, which is not legal with
today's tax laws).


These people have contributed to the well-being of the FAQ:

  arnold [at] skeeve.com (Arnold D. Robbins)
  walkerj [at] compuserve.com (James G. Walker)
  jland [at] worldnet.att.net (Jim Land)
  yuli.barcohen [at] telrad.co.il (Yuli Barcohen)
  johnd [at] mozart.inet.co.th (John DeHaven)
  amnonc [at] mercury.co.il (Amnon Cohen)
  saguyami [at] post.tau.ac.il (Shay)
  hankedr [at] mail.auburn.edu (Darrel Hankerson)
  mark [at] ispc001.demon.co.uk (Mark Katz)
  brennan [at] whidbey.com (Michael D. Brennan)
  neitzel [at] gaertner.de (Martin Neitzel)
  pjf [at] osiris.cs.uoguelph.ca (Peter Jaspers-Fayer)
  dmckeon [at] swcp.com (Denis McKeon)
  neil_mahoney [at] il.us.swissbank.com (Neil Mahoney)
  dzubera [at] CS.ColoState.EDU (Zube)
  allen [at] gateway.grumman.com (John L. Allen)
  jerabek [at] rm6208.gud.siemens.co.at (Martin Jerabek)
  thull [at] ocston.org (Tom Hull)
  bmarcum [at] iglou.com (Bill Marcum)
  thobe [at] lafn.org (Glenn Thobe)
  boffi [at] rachele.stru.polimi.it (giacomo boffi)
  hastinga [at] tarim.dialogic.com (Austin Hastings)
  konrad [at] netcom.com (Konrad Hambrick)
  jmccann [at] WOLFENET.com (James McCann)
  eia018 [at] comp.lancs.ac.uk (Dr Andrew Wilson)
  Alex.Schoenmakers [at] lhs.be
  rwab1 [at] cl.cam.ac.uk (Ralph Becket)
  jesusmc [at] scripps.edu (Jesus M. Castagnetto)
  monty [at] primenet.com (Jim Monty)
  epement [at] ripco.com (Eric Pement)
  gavin [at] wraith.u-net.com (Gavin Wraith)
  pierre [at] mail.asianet.it (Gianni Rondinini)
  lothar [at] u-aizu.ac.jp (Lothar M. Schmitt)
  morrisl [at] scn.org (Larry D. Morris)
  Juergen.Kahrs [at] t-online.de
  kahrs [at] iSenseIt.de (Juergen Kahrs)
  tim [at] consultix-inc.com (Tim Maher/CONSULTIX)
  phil [at] bolthole.com (Philip Brown)
  andrew_sumner [at] bigfoot.com (Andrew Sumner)
  jblaine [at] shore.net (Jeff Blaine)
  dmeier.esperanto [at] gmx.de (Detlef Meier)
  heiner.steven [at] nexgo.de (Heiner Steven)
  joe [at] plaguesplace.dyndns.org
  hstein [at] airmail.net (Harry Stein)
  ptjm [at] interlog.com (Patrick TJ McPhee)
  db21 [at] ih4ess.ih.lucent.com (David Beyerl)
  art [at] pove.com (Art Povelones)
  jari.aalto [at] ntc.nokia.com (Jari Aalto)
  jlaiho [at] ichaos.nullnet.fi (Juha Laiho)
  walter [at] wbriscoe.demon.co.uk (Walter Briscoe)
  SimonN [at] draeger.com (Nicole Simon)
  peter.tillier [at] btinternet.com (Peter S Tillier)
  churchyh [at] ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Henry Churchyard)
  Ferran.Jorba [at] uab.es (Ferran Jorba)
  Kalle.Tuulos [at] nmp.nokia.com (Kalle Tuulos)
  rms [at] friko.onet.pl (Rafal Sulejman)
  pjfarley [at] banet.net (Peter J. Farley III)
  neel [at] gnu.org
  afu [at] wta.att.ne.jp
  pez68 [at] netscape.net (Peter Stromberg)
  edgar.j.ramirez [at] lmco.com (Edgar J. Ramirez)
  pholzleitner [at] unido.org (Peter HOLZLEITNER)
  bps03z [at] email.mot.com (Peter Saffrey)
  jidanni [at] kimo.com.tw (Dan Jacobson)
  lehalle [at] earthling.net (Charles-Albert Lehalle)
  robin.moffatt [at] ntlworld.com (Robin Moffatt)
  markus [at] biewer.com (Markus B. Biewer)
  vincent [at] delau.nl (Vincent de Lau)
  vjpnreddy [at] hotmail.com (Jaya Reddy)
  David.Billinghurst [at] riotinto.com (David Billinghurst)
  j-korsv [at] online.no (Jon-Egil Korsvold)

Thanks.

========================================================================

thus endeth the awk FAQ.