`awk` command

Process columns of text: print fields, filter rows and do sums.

Text processing
Package gawk / mawk
6 options · 8 examples

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Syntax
Common options
Examples
Guides
Related commands

Syntax

awk [options] 'pattern { action }' [file…]

Provided by the gawk / mawk package. Run man awk for the full manual.

Common options

Option	What it does
`-F SEP`	Field separator, e.g. -F: or -F,
`-v VAR=VAL`	Pass a variable into the program
`$1, $2 …`	Fields; $0 is the whole line
`$NF`	The last field
`NR`	Current line number
`NF`	Number of fields on the line

Examples

Print the first column
```
awk '{print $1}' access.log
```
Use a different separator
```
awk -F: '{print $1}' /etc/passwd
```
Print the last column
```
awk '{print $NF}' file.txt
```
Rows where column 3 is above 100
```
awk '$3 > 100' data.txt
```

Sum a column

awk '{sum += $5} END {print sum}' sizes.txt

Count requests per IP

awk '{print $1}' access.log | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head

Print lines 5 to 10
```
awk 'NR>=5 && NR<=10' file.txt
```

Print fields with a custom format

awk -F, '{printf "%-20s %s\n", $1, $2}' users.csv

awk guides

AWK Arithmetic Operations: A Beginner’s Guide to Basic Calculation Methods Linux Commands · Updated Apr 2025
Getting Started with AWK Linux Commands · Updated Apr 2025
Awk – Advanced features Linux Commands · Updated Apr 2025
Conditional Statements in Awk Linux Commands · Updated Apr 2025
Understand String functions in AWK Linux Commands · Updated Apr 2025
Understanding Regular Expressions in Awk Linux · Updated Apr 2025
Using awk, bc and expr to perform Math calculations in Bash Shell Scripting · Updated Apr 2025

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