How to use multiple arguments for awk with a shebang (i.e. #!)?

Question

I\'d like to execute an gawk script with --re-interval using a shebang. The \"naive\" approach of

#!/usr/bin/gawk --re-interval -f
... awk scri         


        

Answer 1

This seems to work for me with (g)awk.

#!/bin/sh
arbitrary_long_name==0 "exec" "/usr/bin/gawk" "--re-interval" "-f" "$0" "$@"


# The real awk program starts here
{ print $0 }

Note the #! runs /bin/sh, so this script is first interpreted as a shell script.

At first, I simply tried "exec" "/usr/bin/gawk" "--re-interval" "-f" "$0" "$@", but awk treated that as a command and printed out every line of input unconditionally. That is why I put in the arbitrary_long_name==0 - it's supposed to fail all the time. You could replace it with some gibberish string. Basically, I was looking for a false-condition in awk that would not adversely affect the shell script.

In the shell script, the arbitrary_long_name==0 defines a variable called arbitrary_long_name and sets it equal to =0.