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  • awk has regexp pattern matching built-in. you don't need grep here. anywhere that you do grep pattern | awk '{...}' you can (and should) do awk '/pattern/ {...}' Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 21:52
  • @cas,what version of awk can handle the full power of perl-compatible regex that GNU grep can with grep -P? Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 21:56
  • perl -a :). more seriously, grep -P is merely a convenience....there's nothing grep can do with PCRE that it, or awk, can't also do with basic or extended regexp. Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 22:16
  • @cas, pcre grep can handle lookahead and lookbehind assertions among other things, I'm pretty sure these don't exist in BRE and ERE. Not saying one can't get by without these for the most part but when one needs them, one really needs them Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 22:24
  • true. i'm guilty of grep | awk sometimes like most people but in most cases it's not necessary. when it is, i'm likely to just write it in perl. Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 22:28