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Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!randvax!segue!jim
From: jim@segue.segue.com (Jim Balter)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.shell,comp.unix.programmer
Subject: Re: printing from awk into the stderr
Keywords: awk
Message-ID: <6189@segue.segue.com>
Date: 11 Feb 91 02:20:51 GMT
References: <728@mlacus.oz> <785@rubikon.UUCP>
Reply-To: jim@segue.segue.com (Jim Balter)
Organization: Segue Software, Inc. - Santa Monica, CA. +1-213-453-2161
Lines: 15

In article <785@rubikon.UUCP> toad@rubikon.UUCP (Peter Cleve) writes:
|The standart (and portable) solution is :
|
|	print "foo bar" | "cat 1>&2"
|
|In nawk (comes with newer unix releases) or with gawk you can try :
|
|	print "foo bar" > /dev/stderr
|
|This solution does not have the overhead of starting a new process for
|every burst of output.

Nor does the "standard solution".  Try awk '{print | "wc"}' somefile.
awk keeps a table of the filenames and commands it has opened and only does the
open/popen the first time a particular filename or command is encountered.