To add one or more 'awk' commands to a Unix or Linux shell script, using the newer version of 'awk', called 'nawk' in some Unix operating systems.
'awk' is a programming language created by Al Aho, Peter Weinberger and Brian Kernighan of Bell Laboratories (hence the name 'awk') and released with Unix Version 7 (circa 1978). The new version, 'called 'nawk', was released c irca 1985.
Usually done to either improve the perfomance of a shell script or to allow the script to perform something that the shell itself is not capable of, such as floating point arithmatic.
'awk' is a programming language created by Al Aho, Peter Weinberger and Brian Kernighan of Bell Laboratories (hence the name 'awk') and released with Unix Version 7 (circa 1978). The new version, 'called 'nawk', was released c irca 1985.
Usually done to either improve the perfomance of a shell script or to allow the script to perform something that the shell itself is not capable of, such as floating point arithmatic.
I need to get a floating point answer to division in my new shell script, so I'm going to awkify it. I'm also going to use awk's 'while' loop construct, and I'm working on a SUN Solaris 8 OS, so I'll need to call the newer version of 'awk', called 'nawk'. I'm actually going to nawkify it.
by The Perl Guy May 31, 2010