Debian bug report logs - #737 gawk references to `$0' in END rule give previous record Package: gawk ; Reported by: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson); 210 days old . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Message received at debian-bugs: From cus.cam.ac.uk!iwj10 Tue Apr 4 09:26:03 1995 Return-Path: Received: from pixar.com by mongo.pixar.com with smtp (Smail3.1.28.1 #15) id m0rwBQY-0006VUC; Tue, 4 Apr 95 09:26 PDT Received: from bootes.cus.cam.ac.uk by pixar.com with SMTP id AA19494 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for ); Tue, 4 Apr 1995 09:25:41 -0700 Received: by bootes.cus.cam.ac.uk (Smail-3.1.29.0 #30) id m0rw971-000C0yC; Tue, 4 Apr 95 14:57 BST Received: by chiark id m0rw7I5-0000YSZ (Debian /\oo/\ Smail3.1.29.1 #29.27); Tue, 4 Apr 95 13:01 BST Message-Id: Date: Tue, 4 Apr 95 13:01 BST From: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson) To: Debian bugs submission address Subject: gawk references to `$0' in END rule give previous record Package: gawk Version: 2.15.6-1 chiark:~/junk> cat t BEGIN { print "begin rule here >", $0, "<"; } /./ { print ". rule here >", $0, "<"; } END { print; print "end rule just done >", $0, "<"; } chiark:~/junk> /usr/bin/awk -f t < . rule here > order hosts,bind < . rule here > multi on < multi on end rule just done > multi on < chiark:~/junk> cat /etc/host.conf order hosts,bind multi on chiark:~/junk> As you can see, the `print' and `print "end rule ..."' statements are using the value of $0 for the last record. However, according to the gawk info file (node BEGIN/END, at the very bottom): `BEGIN' and `END' rules must have actions; there is no default action for these rules since there is no current record when they run. This implies that $0 should be empty. I discovered this bug when trying to build the latest version of the smail package. It contains an awk script that does a bare `print' in the END rule, expecting a blank line, but instead gets the final line of the input file. This causes the build to fail. Ian. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Acknowledgement sent to iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson) : New bug report received and forwarded. Full text available. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Report forwarded to debian-devel@pixar.com : Bug#737 ; Package gawk . Full text available. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ian Jackson / iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk , with the debian-bugs tracking mechanism This page last modified 07:43:01 GMT Wed 01 Nov