On Sat, 27 Jun 2020 06:50:39 +0100, Jason McIntyre wrote: > i'm not sure it reads better when we switch the emphasis from whitespace > to FS. i think it's better that people see how it normally works, then > the gories about FS. so i'd have kept the first part of the sentence, > but maybe reworked the FS bit.
I wasn't sure that was an improvement either. Does this seem better? - 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 12:29:21 -0000 @@ -130,26 +130,24 @@ and newlines are used as field separator 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 . +or by 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 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
