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From: dcm@moria.UUCP (David C. Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.wizards,comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: Awk with reg. exp. question
Message-ID: <111@moria.UUCP>
Date: 28 Mar 90 11:49:52 GMT
References: <1031@fiver.UUCP>
Followup-To: comp.unix.questions
Organization: The Black Chasm
Lines: 28

>And now for the script of the error.
>
>awk: illegal primary in regular expression ^(|REPLY-TO|FROM|SENDER)[ \t]*: at REPLY-TO|FROM|SENDER)[ \t]*:
> source line number 2
> context is
>        /^(|REPLY-TO|FROM|SENDER)[ >>>  \t]*:/ <<<  {
>                                         ^
>                                         |
>                                         Is this the error?


No, awk got seriously confused by the start of the statement and flagged
the spot where it finally realized it was lost.  The pattern being
used is the first one, /^($FIELD)[ \t]*:/.

So the problem is with the arguments that this program is being called
with, in particular, one that reads "|reply-to|from|sender".  The case
of that may vary.  That argument should read "reply-to|from|sender".

Note the absence of the leading vertical bar.


>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>---Bob

---David
...!att!tsdiag!ka2qhd!moria!dcm