REVOUTPUT(3am)

📦
version 5.4.1 · 2 versions
, in arch rolling, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable

✨ revoutput — the manual, but make it a vibe ✨

okay bestie, pull up a chair, we're reading the revoutput(3am) page from the GNU Awk Extension Modules and it's literally so silly. it's a 3am section page, it's cute, it's unserious, and it's going to reverse your strings. no cap. 💅

🎀 NAME 🎀

revoutput</purpose> — the Reverse output strings sample extension. yes that's really the whole personality. iconic of her honestly. 🌸

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

@load "revoutput"

BEGIN { REVOUT = 1 }    # Reverse all output strings

that's it. two lines. she's low maintenance. ✨

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

so the revoutput extension adds a simple output wrapper that reverses the characters in each output line.

her main purpose — and she will tell you this herself — is to show you how to write an output wrapper. the "may be mildly amusing for the unwary" part is a bonus. she's a demo, she's a teaching moment, and she's also gonna flip your text backwards and giggle about it. 🫶

🌈 EXAMPLE 🌈

okay here's the whole thing, copy it, run it, live your truth:

@load "revoutput"

BEGIN {
    REVOUT = 1
    print "hello, world" > "/dev/stdout"
}

and the output from this program is:

dlrow ,olleh

THE WAY SHE JUST DID THAT 😭💀 it's giving mirror universe. obsessed. 👑

💀 BUGS 💀

ngl there's a catch bestie: this extension does not affect the default standard output. fr fr. so don't come for her when your normal prints stay normal. 🙈

🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

  • GAWK: Effective AWK Programming
  • and the man pages for the other extensions shipped with gawk 🌟

go read the siblings, they're all in the same friend group. iykyk.

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Arnold Robbins, arnold@skeeve.com. legend behavior. thank you for your service. 🫡

📜 COPYING PERMISSIONS 📜

Copyright © 2012, 2013, 2018, 2026, Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual page provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual page under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.

Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual page into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the Foundation.

and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 brought to you by the Free Software Foundation, dated Feb 25 2026, from the REVOUTPUT(3am) page. stay reversed, stay slay. 🎀✨🦋

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