Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2003 01:01:54 +0200
From: "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
Sender: halo1 AT zahav DOT net DOT il
To: abc AT anchorageinternet DOT org
Message-Id: <2950-Sat08Feb2003010153+0200-eliz@is.elta.co.il>
X-Mailer: emacs 21.3.50 (via feedmail 8 I) and Blat ver 1.8.9
CC: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to: <200302072036.h17KaAHw096385@en26.groggy.anc.acsalaska.net>
	(abc AT anchorageinternet DOT org)
Subject: Re: Bug: bash? date? awk?
References:  <200302072036 DOT h17KaAHw096385 AT en26 DOT groggy DOT anc DOT acsalaska DOT net>
Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Errors-To: nobody AT delorie DOT com
X-Mailing-List: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
X-Unsubscribes-To: listserv AT delorie DOT com
Precedence: bulk

> Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 20:36:10 GMT
> From: abc AT anchorageinternet DOT org
> 
> DJGPP v2.03/Windows98
> 
> $ awk 'BEGIN { system("date '+%y'`echo $$`") }'
> 
> the line above crashes with the message:
> 
> date.exe: too many non-option arguments
> 
> however, it shouldn't crash according to RH Linux/FreeBSD.

That's because the command you pas to the `system' function is
executed by the shell, not by Gawk.  On Windows, the stock shell
doesn't understand the `echo $$` part, so you get the error message.
On GNU/Linux, the shell is Bash, which does support `command`
substitution.

Solution: install the DJGPP port of Bash, set the SHELL environment
variable to point to it, and then the above AWK command will work on
Windows as well.

> $ awk 'BEGIN { system("echo $$") }'
> 
> outputs: $$
> 
> the (g)awk system call doesn't do $variable expansion,
> as it should ....

For the same reason: $$ is expanded by the shell, not by Gawk.  Same
solution.