RECLEN(3am)

NAME
reclen - fixed-length record input parser for gawk

SYNOPSIS
@load "reclen"
...
RECLEN = 42
...
reclen::drop("/some/file")

DESCRIPTION
The reclen extension adds an input parser for reading fixed-length records, and a function that can be used to stop reading fixed-length records.

If the RECLEN variable exists and has a value greater than zero when gawk goes to open a data file, this extension takes over and returns records of length RECLEN. The variable is checked before reading each record, so the AWK program can change how much will be read as it goes along.

Setting RECLEN to zero causes any subsequent read of the file to return end of file to gawk.

In order to permanently stop reading fixed-length records and restore gawk's normal reading mechanism, call reclen::drop() with the name of the file. This is a one-way operation; going back to using RECLEN is then not possible without first closing the file.

EXAMPLE
@load "reclen"
...
BEGIN { RECLEN = 42 }
...

SEE ALSO
GAWK: Effective AWK Programming,

AUTHOR
Arnold Robbins, arnold@skeeve.com.

COPYING PERMISSIONS
Copyright © 2020, Free Software Foundation, Inc.

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