This chapter is proof that not everything has its place. Some things just don’t seem to fit, no matter how you organize them. This chapter is a collection of such things. It is tempting to label it “Advanced Topics,” as if to explain its organization (or lack thereof), but some readers might feel they need to make more progress before reading it. We have therefore called it “The Bottom Drawer,” thinking of the organization of a chest of drawers, with underwear, socks, and other day-to-day things in the top drawers and heavier things that are less frequently used, like sweaters, in the bottom drawers. All of it is equally accessible, but you have to bend over to get things in the bottom drawer. It requires a little more effort to get something, that’s all.
In this chapter we cover a number of topics, including the following:
The getline function
The system( ) function
Directing output to files and pipes
Debugging awk scripts