awk is used to filter and manipulate output from other programs by applying rules with patterns and actions. awk can print specific fields from text, modify separators between fields, and perform various actions using built-in functions.
Short for "Aho, Weinberger, and Kernighan," AWK is an interpreted programming language which focuses on processing text. AWK was developed in the 1970s at Bell Labs by Alfred Aho, Peter Weinberger, and Brian Kernighan.