Redirecting output from printf to /dev/tty in awk

Logan Lee

12/10/22, 7:46 AM

I have a question on awk.

#!/usr/bin/nawk -f
{
    if (NF != 4) {
        error("Expected 4 fields");
    } else {
        print;
    }
}
function error ( message ) {
    if (FILENAME != "-") {
        printf("%s: ", FILENAME) > "/dev/tty";
    }
    printf("line # %d, %s, line: %s\n", NR, message, $0) >> "/dev/tty";
}

What does >"/dev/tty" and >>"/dev/tty" do?

It's from https://www.grymoire.com/Unix/Awk.html under User Defined Functions.

0 + 2

tty

awk

steeldriver

12/10/22, 7:56 AM

It's for gawk rather than nawk, but see [5.7 Special Files for Standard Preopened Data Streams](https://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/gawk.html#Special-FD)

Logan Lee

12/10/22, 8:04 AM

@steeldriver thx. i guess it is to redirect error message to stderr. the document you gave says it's better to do print "error!" >"/dev/stderr".

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Redirecting output from printf to /dev/tty in awk

TH: เปลี่ยนทิศทางเอาต์พุตจาก printf เป็น /dev/tty ใน awk

RO: Redirecționarea ieșirii de la printf la /dev/tty în awk

RU: Перенаправление вывода из printf в /dev/tty в awk

VI: Chuyển hướng đầu ra từ printf sang/dev/tty trong awk

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