awk
Pattern scanning and processing language for structured text data.
Synopsis
awk [OPTION]... 'PROGRAM' [FILE]...
Examples
awk '{print $1}' file.txtawk -F',' '{print $2, $4}' data.csvawk '/error/ {count++} END {print count}' log.txtawk '{sum+=$1} END {print sum}' numbers.txtawk 'NR==10,NR==20' file.txt
Common options
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
| -F | Set field separator |
| -v | Assign variable before execution |
| -f | Read program from file |
| -i | Include awk source library |
About awk
The `awk` command pattern scanning and processing language for structured text data. Text viewing and editing commands are fundamental tools in any Linux user's toolkit.
Linux treats almost everything as a file, so the ability to quickly inspect, filter, transform, and edit file contents from the command line is critical. These commands are regularly combined with pipes and redirects to build powerful data-processing pipelines.
The command accepts 4 commonly used flags shown above, though the full set of options is available in the man page (`man awk`). The 5 examples on this page cover typical real-world usage patterns that you can copy and adapt for your own workflows.
Related commands
More File Viewing & Editing Commands
Other commands in the File Viewing & Editing category