UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi All,

I am new to unix.

In this forum some days back, I have read something like below:

1) Do not use perl if awk can do your work.
2) Do not use awk if sed can do your work.
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.
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I do not re-collect the whole thing. I think it is good to know the precedence of using these commands both from performance perspective and simplicity of the program.

Can somebody please provide me the link or suggest what should be the precedence of these commands.

Thanks for your help in advance.

There is no hard and fast rule. But from my experience:

Learn head and tail first, and use them preferably. They are simple and well suited to specific task. uniq, grep and tr are also quite useful and powerful.

Use sed and awk next. These are more difficult to understand, and both can do a lot. Usually prefer awk if the data has fields. sed is particularly good for find and replace.

Use perl if a very large program.

It is often more powerful if you can combine commands within a shell script.

Try to use something that you understand well, and try to write in a simple manner where the logic is clear.

As hanson44 said, there is no hard and fast rule. Just use the utility that you are most familiar with so that you get the task completed in the shortest amount of time.