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Is anyone using awk? (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago by netwren@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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Studying and awk came up.

Spent about an hour and I see some useful commands that extend past what "cut" can do. But really when dealing with printf() format statements is anyone using awk scripts for this?

Or is everyone just using their familiar scripting language. I'd reach for Python for the problems being presented as useful for awk.

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[-] bizdelnick@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yes, but for a very specific case. I used to write highly portable scripts that could be executed in different environments (various linux distros, including minimal containers, freebsd and even solaris 10). I couldn't use bash, perl, python and even gawk. Only POSIX shell (I always tested my scripts with dash and ksh93, for solaris 10 compatibility - with its jsh), portable awk (tested with original-awk, gawk and mawk) and portable sed (better forget it if you need to support solaris).

Before that I didn't understand why should I need awk if I know perl. And awk really sucks. Once I had to replace a perl one-liner with an awk script of ~30 lines for portability.

P.S. I never use awk just for print $1 as many do. It's an overkill.

[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago

P.S. I never use awk just for print $1 as many do. It's an overkill.

cut is better for this use-case IMO. Awk is good for when cut won't cut it.

this post was submitted on 30 Dec 2023
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