awk syntax doubt - trailing 1 value - Shell Programming and Scripting

royalibrahim · #3 (**permalink**) 10-28-2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by danmero

awk evaluates the 1 as true and the prints the entire line by default, including a newline.

Code:

echo 'foo' | awk '/foo/{print}1'

Take a look here: The GNU Awk User's Guide: Table of Contents

But, what does 1 serve here or what is the role/purpose of 1?
Anyway, the default action of awk is to print the record right, even if the 'print' statement is missing?