Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!phri!marob!daveh From: daveh@marob.MASA.COM (Dave Hammond) Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix Subject: Xenix 2.3 awk rejects "-e" argument Message-ID: <418@marob.MASA.COM> Date: 20 Sep 88 13:56:41 GMT Reply-To: daveh@marob.masa.com (Dave Hammond) Organization: ESCC New York City Lines: 22 I've just loaded version 2.3 Xenix and found that all of my shell scripts which invoke `awk -e' are broken! Awk dies with a syntax error complaining about the illegal -e. Sure, the -e is not true System V syntax, and sure, I could simply remove -e from the command line -- but, how would YOU love to go find every shell script (and C system() call) where `awk -e' is specified? Since the -e convention has been in every Xenix awk since at least 2.1, I consider this a flagrant point of backward incompatibility. Why doesn't awk just ignore the unnecessary -e arg and continue on with its business? I believe ignoring old syntax is a fairly standard way of maintaining backward compatibility, and doesn't cause nearly the headaches as requiring each script to be modified. Is this going to affect anyone else's life, or am I the only soul in the world who made use of `awk -e'? Dave Hammond UUCP: uunet!masa.com!{marob|dsix2}!daveh DOMAIN: daveh@marob.masa.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------