Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!gatech!emcard!stiatl!meo
From: meo@stiatl.UUCP (Miles O'Neal)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: accessing shell variables from within awk?
Summary: an example
Message-ID: <342@stiatl.UUCP>
Date: 21 Sep 88 12:35:25 GMT
References: <473@diamond.unix.ETA.COM>
Distribution: na
Organization: Sales Technologies Inc., Atlanta, GA
Lines: 13

In article <473@diamond.unix.ETA.COM>, rscott@eta.unix.ETA.COM (Rich Scott) writes:
> 
> 	How can I access a shell variable (to wit, a few environment
> variables) from within "awk"? ...

As a matter of fact, this is from a Sun 386i running 4.0,
but should work with any real awk. We use it also under System V on
a Convergent.

usernum=`awk -F: '/^'$1'/ { print $3 }' /etc/passwd

This is from a Bourne shell script we use. The $1 could just as
easily be $fred or any variable name.