Are there any AWK syntax checkers?
If you prefix your Awk script with BEGIN { exit(0) } END { exit(0) }
, you're guaranteed that none of your of code will run. Exiting during BEGIN
and END
prevents other begin and exit blocks from running. If Awk returns 0, your script was fine; otherwise there was a syntax error.
If you put the code snippet in a separate argument, you'll get good line numbers in the error messages. This invocation...
gawk --source 'BEGIN { exit(0) } END { exit(0) }' --file syntax-test.awk
Gives error messages like this:
gawk: syntax-test.awk:3: x = f(
gawk: syntax-test.awk:3: ^ unexpected newline or end of string
GNU Awk's --lint
can spot things like global variables and undefined functions:
gawk: syntax-test.awk:5: warning: function `g': parameter `x' shadows global variable
gawk: warning: function `f' called but never defined
And GNU Awk's --posix
option can spot some compatibility problems:
gawk: syntax-test.awk:2: error: `delete array' is a gawk extension
Update: BEGIN
and END
Although the END { exit(0) }
block seems redundant, compare the subtle differences between these three invocations:
$ echo | awk '
BEGIN { print("at begin") }
/.*/ { print("found match") }
END { print("at end") }'
at begin
found match
at end
$ echo | awk '
BEGIN { exit(0) }
BEGIN { print("at begin") }
/.*/ { print("found match") }
END { print("at end") }'
at end
$ echo | awk '
BEGIN { exit(0) } END { exit(0) }
BEGIN { print("at begin") }
/.*/ { print("found match") }
END { print("at end") }'
In Awk, exiting during BEGIN
will cancel all other begin blocks, and will prevent matching against any input. Exiting during END
is the only way to prevent all other event blocks from running; that's why the third invocation above shows that no print statements were executed. The GNU Awk User's Guide has a section on the exit
statement.
GNU awk appears to have a --lint
option.