File: gawk.info,  Node: Names,  Next: This Manual,  Prev: History,  Up: Preface

A Rose by Any Other Name
========================

The 'awk' language has evolved over the years.  Full details are
provided in *note Language History::.  The language described in this
Info file is often referred to as "new 'awk'."  By analogy, the original
version of 'awk' is referred to as "old 'awk'."

   On most current systems, when you run the 'awk' utility you get some
version of new 'awk'.(1)  If your system's standard 'awk' is the old
one, you will see something like this if you try the following test
program:

     $ awk 1 /dev/null
     error-> awk: syntax error near line 1
     error-> awk: bailing out near line 1

In this case, you should find a version of new 'awk', or just install
'gawk'!

   Throughout this Info file, whenever we refer to a language feature
that should be available in any complete implementation of POSIX 'awk',
we simply use the term 'awk'.  When referring to a feature that is
specific to the GNU implementation, we use the term 'gawk'.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) Only Solaris systems still use an old 'awk' for the default 'awk'
utility.  A more modern 'awk' lives in '/usr/xpg6/bin' on these systems.