Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 (MC840302); site mcvax.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!decvax!mcvax!guido From: guido@mcvax.UUCP (Guido van Rossum) Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: Awk bug+fix -- Do Not Install This "Fix"! Message-ID: <5730@mcvax.UUCP> Date: Mon, 5-Mar-84 10:17:07 EST Article-I.D.: mcvax.5730 Posted: Mon Mar 5 10:17:07 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 7-Mar-84 08:11:29 EST References: <2389@hplabs.UUCP> Organization: CWI, Amsterdam Lines: 14 Eh, excuse me, but I don't think it is a bug in Awk that files are not closed after they have been written. It is a *feature*. Maybe the documentation doesn't state it well, but the idea is that something like awk '/pattern/ { print > "file" }' is equivalent to grep pattern >file and similar for the pipe (|) notation. So there is more to it than just efficiency. (Note that the 'w' command of Sed has the same semantics -- different from Ed but much more useful in a stream editing environment.) I think this is a nice feature, wouldn't want to miss it, and it shouldn't be disabled by the "fix" suggested by Ken Greer. (Actually, I think I've seen exactly the same problem reported before in this newsgroup.) Guido (not too awkward) van Rossum, CWI, Amsterdam guido @ mcvax