Re: feature request: only set RT when RS is found

[Ed Morton]

On 9/15/2021 1:52 PM, Ole Petter R?nningen wrote:
> Hi
>
> I am sure this has been discussed many times, yet my google-fu has failed to 
> come up with some rationale.
>
> As you know, gawk sets the variable RT to whatever matches RS, if RS is a regex. If EOF 
> is reached mid-line and RS is therefore not matched, the record is terminated but RT is 
> NOT set. This is a good way to detect possible "partial lines", for example 
> when processing through a live log-file.
>
> My proposal is that this behaviour is extended to include the case when RS is a 
> single character such as '\n'. If RS is not found, it should IMHO not be 
> signalled as found by setting RT.
>
> Thank you,
> Ole

Do you have an example of the problem? I can't reproduce what I think 
you're saying happens:

$ printf 'foo' | awk '{print "<" RT ">"}'
<>

$ printf 'foo' | awk -v RS='x' '{print "<" RT ">"}'
<>

In all cases RT is not set.

Regards,

    Ed.