gawk: Awk Debugging

 
 14.1.3 'awk' Debugging
 ----------------------
 
 Debugging an 'awk' program has some specific aspects that are not shared
 with programs written in other languages.
 
    First of all, the fact that 'awk' programs usually take input line by
 line from a file or files and operate on those lines using specific
 rules makes it especially useful to organize viewing the execution of
 the program in terms of these rules.  As we will see, each 'awk' rule is
 treated almost like a function call, with its own specific block of
 instructions.
 
    In addition, because 'awk' is by design a very concise language, it
 is easy to lose sight of everything that is going on "inside" each line
 of 'awk' code.  The debugger provides the opportunity to look at the
 individual primitive instructions carried out by the higher-level 'awk'
 commands.