One-Shot Throw-Away `awk' Programs
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Once you are familiar with `awk', you will often type in simple
programs the moment you want to use them. Then you can write the
program as the first argument of the `awk' command, like this:
awk 'PROGRAM' INPUT-FILE1 INPUT-FILE2 ...
where PROGRAM consists of a series of PATTERNS and ACTIONS, as
described earlier.
This command format instructs the "shell", or command interpreter,
to start `awk' and use the PROGRAM to process records in the input
file(s). There are single quotes around PROGRAM so the shell won't
interpret any `awk' characters as special shell characters. The quotes
also cause the shell to treat all of PROGRAM as a single argument for
`awk', and allow PROGRAM to be more than one line long.
This format is also useful for running short or medium-sized `awk'
programs from shell scripts, because it avoids the need for a separate
file for the `awk' program. A self-contained shell script is more
reliable because there are no other files to misplace.
Note:Some Simple Examples, presents several short,
self-contained programs.