On Fri, 26 Jun 2020 23:56:23 +0200, Klemens Nanni wrote: > How about adding something like "Therefore, FS should be set with -F or > in a BEGIN block before input is read." as second sentence in this > paragraph?
That whole section is missing important details. I've tried to add the missing info without being too repetitive. - todd Index: usr.bin/awk/awk.1 =================================================================== RCS file: /cvs/src/usr.bin/awk/awk.1,v retrieving revision 1.54 diff -u -p -u -r1.54 awk.1 --- usr.bin/awk/awk.1 26 Jun 2020 21:50:06 -0000 1.54 +++ usr.bin/awk/awk.1 27 Jun 2020 03:25:48 -0000 @@ -129,27 +129,25 @@ and newlines are used as field separator .Va FS ) . This is convenient when working with multi-line records. .Pp -An input line is normally made up of fields separated by whitespace, -or by the regular expression -.Va FS . +An input line is normally made up of fields split based on the value +of the field separator +.Va FS +at the time the line is read. The fields are denoted .Va $1 , $2 , ... , while .Va $0 refers to the entire line. -If .Va FS -is null, the input line is split into one field per character. -Lines are split into fields using the value of +may be set to either a single character or a regular expression. +As as special case, if .Va FS -at the time the line is read. -Because of this, +is a single space +.Pq the default , +fields will be split by one or more whitespace characters. +If .Va FS -is usually set via the -.Fl F -option or inside of a -.Ic BEGIN -block. +is null, the input line is split into one field per character. .Pp Normally, any number of blanks separate fields. In order to set the field separator to a single blank, use the @@ -171,6 +169,11 @@ as the field separator, use the .Fl F option with a value of .Sq [t] . +The field separator is usually set via the +.Fl F +option or from inside of a +.Ic BEGIN +block so that it takes effect before the input is read. .Pp A pattern-action statement has the form: .Pp @@ -407,9 +410,9 @@ The name of the current input file. .It Va FNR Ordinal number of the current record in the current file. .It Va FS -Regular expression used to separate fields; also settable -by option -.Fl F Ar fs . +Regular expression used to separate fields (default whitespace); +also settable by option +.Fl F Ar fs .It Va NF Number of fields in the current record. .Va $NF
