Awk in Linux

###Awk###

Features:

1. Field/Column processor

2. Supports egrep-compatible (POSIX) RegExes

3. Can return full lines like grep

4. Awk runs 3 steps:

a. BEGIN - optional

b. Body, where the main action(s) take place

c. END - optional

5. Multiple body actions can be executed by separating them using semicolons. e.g.

'{ print $1; print $2 }'

6. Awk, auto-loops through input stream, regardless of the source of the stream.

e.g. STDIN, Pipe, File

Usage:

1. awk '/optional_match/ { action }' file_name | Pipe

2. awk '{ print $1 }' grep1.txt

Note: Use single quotes with awk, to avoid shell interpolation of awk's variables

3. awk '{ print $1,$2 }' grep1.txt

Note: Default input and output field separators is whitespace

4. awk '/linux/ { print } ' grep1.txt - this will print ALL lines containing

'linux'

5. awk '{ if ($2 ~ /Linux/) print}' grep1.txt

6. awk '{ if ($2 ~ /8/) print }' /var/log/messages - this will print the entire

line for log items for the 8th

7. awk '{ print $3 }' /var/log/messages | awk -F: '{ print $1}'