AWK(1)

📦 version 1.053, in alpine 3.24

💖 NAME 💖

okay bestie, you clicked into AWK(1) — specifically the User Contributed Perl Documentation one — and the official name line is: awk — pattern-directed scanning and processing language. that's the whole vibe: patterns, scanning, processing, language. iconic. ✨

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

like, here's the exact shape of the command, no cap:

awk [ -F fs ] [ [-v] var=value ] [ 'prog' | -f~ progfile ] [ file ...  ]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so this is the tea: this version of the standard awk utility is nothing more than a wrapper. it just massages its arguments and calls the a2p translator to do the real conversion into Perl, and then that Perl gets compiled and executed. so it's giving middle-manager energy, but make it Perl. 💅

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

  • a2p(1) — the actual translator bestie, go look.
  • A. V. Aho, B. W. Kernighan, P. J. Weinberger, The AWK Programming Language, Addison-Wesley, 1988. ISBN 0-201-07981-X — the classic text, periodt.
  • The One True Awk can be found at Brian Kernighan's http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/awkbook/index.html page.

🎀 RESTRICTIONS 🎀

real talk: a2p does not attempt to translate the myriad splinter versions of awk, nor follow the arguments there to. so don't come for it with your weird awk cousin, okay? 😭

💀 BUGS 💀

  • This manpage should probably include the entire awk manpage, and perhaps that of a2p as well. like, the whole thing, not just the appetizer. 🙈
  • It is not clear that a2p has tracked Brian's work in the last few years. ngl, that's a little sus.

👑 AUTHOR 👑

This front-end written by Tom Christiansen, tchrist@perl.com. The a2p translator was written by Larry Wall, larry@wall.org, author of Perl. two legends, one wrapper. 🫶

This program is copyright (c) Tom Christiansen 1999.

This program is free and open software. You may use, modify, distribute, and sell this program (and any modified variants) in any way you wish, provided you do not restrict others from doing the same.

and that's the whole page, bestie. it came from perl v5.42.2, dated 2026-02-15, and it's the AWK(1) page. mwah 💋✨

📦 where this page comes from