---
name: "goawk"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "goawk"
version: "1.29.0-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/goawk"
---

# goawk(1)

POSIX-compliant AWK interpreter with CSV support

## NAME

goawk - POSIX-compliant AWK interpreter with CSV support

## SYNOPSIS

**goawk** \[**-F** *fs*\] \[**-v** *var*=*value*\] \[**-f** *progfile* \| *'prog'*\] \[*file* ...\]

## DESCRIPTION

**goawk** is a POSIX-compliant AWK interpreter written in Go. Additionally, it has some features not provided by POSIX AWK:

- •

  Code coverage.

- •

  Proper CSV and TSV support.

- •

  Negative field indexes to access fields from the right.

- •

  Single-quoted strings.

## OPTIONS

Standard AWK arguments:

- **--csv**

  Enable CSV input mode. Equivalent to **-i** *csv*.

- **-F** *fs*

  Use *fs* for the input field separator.

- **-F** *progfile*

  Read the AWK program source from *progfile*. Multiple **-f** options may be used.

- **-v** *var*=*val*

  Assign the value *val* to the variable *var* before the execution of the program begins.

Additional GoAWK features:

- **-c**

  Use Unicode characters for index, length, match, substr, and %c.

- **-E** *progfile*

  Load program from *progfile*, disable *var*=*val* arguments, stop processing arguments, parse header row and enable @"field" in CSV input mode.

- **-H**

  Parse header row and enable @"field" in CSV input mode.

- **-h**,**--help**

  Show the help message and exit.

- **-i** *mode*

  Parse input into fields using CSV format, ignoring *FS* and *RS*.

- **-o** *mode*

  Use CSV output, ignoring *OFS* and *ORS*.

- **-version**

  Show GoAWK version and exit.

GoAWK debugging arguments:

- **-coverappend**

  Append to coverage file instead of overwriting.

- **-covermode** *mode*

  Set coverage mode, where *mode* is *set* or *count* (default: *set*).

- **-coverprofile** *file*

  Write coverage profile to *file*.

- **-cpuprofile** *file*

  Write cpu profile to *file*.

- **-d**

  Print parsed syntax tree to stdout and exit.

- **-da**

  Print VM assembly instructions to stdout and exit.

- **-dt**

  Print variable type information to stdout and exit.

- **-memprofile** *file*

  Write memory profile to *file*.

## SEE ALSO

[**gawk**(1)](/gawk/1.md), [**mawk**(1)](/mawk/1.md)