When I run the following script under Red Hat Linux 4.4:

#!/bin/ksh

if [ $# -ne 1 ]
then
echo "USAGE: $0 filename"
exit 1
else
FileName=$1
fi

cat $FileName | awk ' BEGIN { FS = " "; len = 0; }
{
len = length($0);
printf("%d <%s> %s %s %s\n", len, $0, $3, $2, $1);
printf("<%s> %s %s %s\n", $0, $3, $2, $1);
printf("%s %s %s\n", $3, $2, $1);
printf("<%s>\n", $0);
print "<"$0">";
}'

with the file whose 1 line entry is:

/qed/data/dbgen/Clones M backup.sys.sup.ksh

I get the result as:

M /qed/data/dbgen/Cloness M backup.sys.sup.ksh
M /qed/data/dbgen/Clones backup.sys.sup.ksh
M /qed/data/dbgen/Clones
>/qed/data/dbgen/Clones M backup.sys.sup.ksh
>/qed/data/dbgen/Clones M backup.sys.sup.ksh

Has anyone struck this problem before ???

Hi,

This is not an awk bug, but an infile that has CRLF line terminators (probably a dos/windows generated file). Try: file <infile>.

Unix style infile:
Dos/Windows style infile:
Your editor may have an option to change the way the file is saved, or use vi to do it (:set ff=unix and save file), or use dos2unix, or tr or.......

Hope this helps.

PS: Sorry for the late reply, only noticed it today