{{implementation|AWK}} ''gawk'' is [[GNU]] awk, the first free AWK implementation. ''gawk'' is compatible with [[nawk]]. ''gawk'' also adds several extensions to its language.

Many systems, and most GNU/[[Linux]] distros, use ''gawk'' as their default ''awk''. (Older [[BSD]] systems also used ''gawk'' as their default ''awk'', until newer BSD systems switched to ''[[nawk]]''.) ''gawk'' was the only free ''awk'', until the 1991 release of ''[[mawk]]''.

== Gawkisms == A "gawkism" is an extension that works with ''gawk'', but not with other AWK variants. Gawk's own manual identifies GNU extensions, so programmers know which features require ''gawk''.

Some gawkisms are

• GNU-style regular expressions.
• extra built-in functions, like asort() and gensub().
• [[Korn Shell|Korn]]-style coprocesses.
• TCP and UDP networking with "/inet/".
• ''(since gawk 4.0.0)'' arrays of arrays, like ary[2][3] = 4.
• ''(since gawk 4.0.0)'' indirect function calls, like str = "foo"; @str() # calls foo().
• other GNU extensions in the manual.

== Links ==

• Home page: [http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/ gawk]
• Manual: [http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk/manual/ ''Gawk: Effective AWK Programming'']