gawk: Conventions
1
1 Typographical Conventions
1 =========================
1
1 This Info file is written in Texinfo
1 (https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/), the GNU documentation
1 formatting language. A single Texinfo source file is used to produce
1 both the printed and online versions of the documentation. This minor
1 node briefly documents the typographical conventions used in Texinfo.
1
1 Examples you would type at the command line are preceded by the
1 common shell primary and secondary prompts, '$' and '>'. Input that you
1 type is shown 'like this'. Output from the command is preceded by the
1 glyph "-|". This typically represents the command's standard output.
1 Error messages and other output on the command's standard error are
1 preceded by the glyph "error->". For example:
1
1 $ echo hi on stdout
1 -| hi on stdout
1 $ echo hello on stderr 1>&2
1 error-> hello on stderr
1
1 Characters that you type at the keyboard look 'like this'. In
1 particular, there are special characters called "control characters."
1 These are characters that you type by holding down both the 'CONTROL'
1 key and another key, at the same time. For example, a 'Ctrl-d' is typed
1 by first pressing and holding the 'CONTROL' key, next pressing the 'd'
1 key, and finally releasing both keys.
1
1 For the sake of brevity, throughout this Info file, we refer to Brian
1 Kernighan's version of 'awk' as "BWK 'awk'." (⇒Other Versions
1 for information on his and other versions.)
1
1 Dark Corners
1 ------------
1
1 Dark corners are basically fractal--no matter how much you
1 illuminate, there's always a smaller but darker one.
1 -- _Brian Kernighan_
1
1 Until the POSIX standard (and 'GAWK: Effective AWK Programming'),
1 many features of 'awk' were either poorly documented or not documented
1 at all. Descriptions of such features (often called "dark corners") are
1 noted in this Info file with "(d.c.)." They also appear in the index
1 under the heading "dark corner."
1
1 But, as noted by the opening quote, any coverage of dark corners is
1 by definition incomplete.
1
1 Extensions to the standard 'awk' language that are supported by more
1 than one 'awk' implementation are marked "(c.e.)," and listed in the
1 index under "common extensions" and "extensions, common."
1