UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I am trying to figure awk.

I have a file in my home directory called testawk.sh, have made it executable, and have run it... But don't see any output.

This is the contents of the file:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/awk -f
{ print " - HI -" }

I enter ./testawk.sh in the prompt, press enter, and watch as the cursor blinks. And blinks. And blinks some more....

When I change the file to read:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/awk -f
BEGIN {print "a" }
{ print " - HI -" }

and run, it prints an 'a', a new line, and then the cursor starts to blink again.

What am I doing wrong?

It is waiting for input on stdin since you did not specify any on the command line. You can put the 2nd print statement in the begin section and then it will work.

OK, thanks.

So I have another question:

I going through a tutorial on awk, and it keeps mentioning fields. (I would give a link, but apparently I need 5 posts to do so.)
What is a field? I think I know, just want to make sure though...

If I do this:

Code:

$ ls
Bin\tDesktop\tDocuments

And in awk, $1 would be equal to 'Bin', $2 would be 'Desktop', and $3 would be 'Documents'. is that correct?

---------- Post updated at 06:33 PM ---------- Previous update was at 06:01 PM ----------

never mind, i figured it out.