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-rw-r--r--doc/gawktexi.in12
1 files changed, 9 insertions, 3 deletions
diff --git a/doc/gawktexi.in b/doc/gawktexi.in
index 8ed19cbf..a9a670db 100644
--- a/doc/gawktexi.in
+++ b/doc/gawktexi.in
@@ -6244,6 +6244,12 @@ Another predefined variable, @code{NR}, records the total number of input
records read so far from all @value{DF}s. It starts at zero, but is
never automatically reset to zero.
+Normally, records are separated by newline characters. You can control how
+records are separated by assigning values to the built-in variable @code{RS}.
+If @code{RS} is any single character, that character separates records.
+Otherwise (in @command{gawk}), @code{RS} is treated as a regular expression.
+This mechanism is explained in greater detail shortly.
+
@menu
* awk split records:: How standard @command{awk} splits records.
* gawk split records:: How @command{gawk} splits records.
@@ -6430,9 +6436,9 @@ sets the variable @code{RT} to the text in the input that matched
@cindex common extensions, @code{RS} as a regexp
@cindex extensions, common@comma{} @code{RS} as a regexp
-When using @command{gawk},
-the value of @code{RS} is not limited to a one-character
-string. It can be any regular expression
+When using @command{gawk}, the value of @code{RS} is not limited to a
+one-character string. If it contains more than one character, it is
+treated as a regular expression
(@pxref{Regexp}). @value{COMMONEXT}
In general, each record
ends at the next string that matches the regular expression; the next