Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Important gawk Options

Besides the standard command line options, gawk has a large number of additional options. This section lists those of most value in day-to-day use. Any unique abbreviation of these options is acceptable.

--dump-variables[=file]

When the program has finished running, print a sorted list of global variables, their types, and their final values to file. The default file is awkvars.out.

--gen-po

Read the awk program and print all strings marked as translatable to standard output in the form of a GNU gettext Portable Object file. See the section Internationalization in Internationalization for more information.

--help

Print a usage message to standard error and exit.

--lint[=fatal]

Enable checking of nonportable or dubious constructs, both when the program is read and as it runs. With an argument of fatal, lint warnings become fatal errors.

--non-decimal-data

Allow octal and hexadecimal data in the input to be recognized as such. This option is not recommended; use strtonum( ) in your program, instead.

--profile[=file]

With gawk, put a “prettyprinted” version of the program in file. Default is awkprof.out. With pgawk (see Profiling in Profiling), put the profiled listing of the program in file.

--posix

Turn on strict POSIX compatibility, in which all common and gawk-specific extensions are disabled.

--source='program text'

Use program text as the awk source code. Use this option with -f to mix command-line programs with awk library files.

--traditional

Disable all gawk-specific ...