Awk Argument Parser

This week I’ve published a function for argument parsing within Awk scripts. Check the documentation for detailed getting started and usage instructions, the source code is available on GitHub; the TLDR (quick-start) is as follows…

Clone

cd /usr/local/etc

sudo git clone https://github.com/awk-utilities/includes-argument-parser.git

Install

cd /usr/local/etc/includes-argument-parser

sudo make install

include-installed.awk

#!/usr/bin/gawk -f


## For updates see -> https://github.com/awk-utilities/includes-argument-parser
@include "argument-parser"


BEGIN {
  delete parsed_arguments
  delete acceptable_arguments

  acceptable_arguments["string"] = "--string|-s:value"
  acceptable_arguments["boolean"] = "--boolean|-B:bool"
  acceptable_arguments["usage"] = "--usage:bool"
  acceptable_arguments["increment"] = "--increment|-I:increment"
  acceptable_arguments["array"] = "--array:array"

  argument_parser(acceptable_arguments, parsed_arguments)
  for (k in parsed_arguments) {
    if (k == "array") {
      for (i in parsed_arguments[k]) {
        print "parsed_arguments[\"" k "\"][" i "] ->", parsed_arguments[k][i]
      }
    } else {
      print "parsed_arguments[\"" k "\"] ->", parsed_arguments[k]
    }
  }
}

Provide executable permissions…

chmod u+x include-installed.awk

Then run the Awk script…

./include-installed.awk -t 'string like value' -f --increment -I -I
#> parsed_arguments["flag"] -> 1
#> parsed_arguments["increment"] -> 3
#> parsed_arguments["test"] -> string like value