> when would one choose to use an awk script over something more general purpose such as a python or ruby script?
When the others are not around. Sometimes you need to work on weird old or stripped-down boxes that don't have python or even perl - but awk is (almost) always there. Like vi.
When the others are not around. Sometimes you need to work on weird old or stripped-down boxes that don't have python or even perl - but awk is (almost) always there. Like vi.