Paul Eggert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> That part of autoconf.texi seems to be incorrect.
I installed this patch to improve things in this area:
2006-11-21 Paul Eggert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
* doc/autoconf.texi (Limitations of Usual Tools): Don't claim
that traditional Awk lacks 3-arg "split". It has it.
Mention that FS must be a single character, and a few other
99-byte limits of traditional Awk.
--- doc/autoconf.texi 17 Nov 2006 00:16:27 -0000 1.1107
+++ doc/autoconf.texi 21 Nov 2006 17:28:46 -0000
@@ -13046,12 +13046,22 @@
Traditional Awk @code{getline} is not at all compatible with Posix;
avoid it.
-Traditional Awk @code{split} supports only two arguments.
+In traditional Awk, @code{FS} must be a string containing just one
+ordinary character, and similarly for the field-separator argument to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Traditional Awk has a limit of 99
fields in a record. You may be able to circumvent this problem by using
@code{split}.
+The original version of Awk had a limit of at most 99 bytes per
[EMAIL PROTECTED] field, 99 bytes per @code{substr} substring, and 99 bytes
+per run of non-special characters in a @code{printf} format, but these
+bugs have been fixed on all practical hosts that we know of.
+
+Traditional Awk has a limit of at most 99 bytes in a number formatted by
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; for example, @code{OFMT="%.300e"; print 0.1;} will dump
+core.
@item @command{basename}
@c ---------------------
