Treating Assignments as File Names
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Occasionally, you might not want `awk' to process command-line
variable assignments (*note Assigning Variables on the Command Line:
Assignment Options.). In particular, if you have file names that
contain an `=' character, `awk' treats the file name as an assignment,
and does not process it.
Some users have suggested an additional command-line option for
`gawk' to disable command-line assignments. However, some simple
programming with a library file does the trick:
# noassign.awk --- library file to avoid the need for a
# special option that disables command-line assignments
function disable_assigns(argc, argv, i)
{
for (i = 1; i < argc; i++)
if (argv[i] ~ /^[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z_0-9]*=.*/)
argv[i] = ("./" argv[i])
}
BEGIN {
if (No_command_assign)
disable_assigns(ARGC, ARGV)
}
You then run your program this way:
awk -v No_command_assign=1 -f noassign.awk -f yourprog.awk *
The function works by looping through the arguments. It prepends
`./' to any argument that matches the form of a variable assignment,
turning that argument into a file name.
The use of `No_command_assign' allows you to disable command-line
assignments at invocation time, by giving the variable a true value.
When not set, it is initially zero (i.e., false), so the command-line
arguments are left alone.