Re: bin/53507: awk doesn't properly compare "numeric strings"

["K. Schreiner" <ks%ub.uni-mainz.de@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR bin/53507; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: "K. Schreiner" <ks%ub.uni-mainz.de@localhost>
To: <gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost>
Cc: <kre%NetBSD.org@localhost>, <gnats-admin%netbsd.org@localhost>, <netbsd-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost>,
	<paul%whooppee.com@localhost>
Subject: Re: bin/53507: awk doesn't properly compare "numeric strings"
Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2018 16:58:45 +0200

 On Wed, Aug 08, 2018 at 10:30:01AM +0000, Robert Elz wrote:
 > The following reply was made to PR bin/53507; it has been noted by GNATS.
 > 
 > From: Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>
 > To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
 > Cc: 
 > Subject: Re: bin/53507: awk doesn't properly compare "numeric strings"
 > Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2018 17:24:42 +0700
 > 
 >      Date:        Wed,  8 Aug 2018 09:30:02 +0000 (UTC)
 >      From:        Valery Ushakov <uwe%stderr.spb.ru@localhost>
 >      Message-ID:  <20180808093002.4D38E7A1FA%mollari.NetBSD.org@localhost>
 >  
 >    |  Check the definition  of "numeric string".
 >  
 >  Yes, that is exactly right.   This is not an awk bug [...]
 
 >-6: uname -a
 NetBSD nbt-8 7.99.18 NetBSD 7.99.18 (vNBx64) #3: Tue May 26 06:17:19 CEST 2015  ks@iws35-07:/u/NetBSD/arch/amd64/obj/sys/arch/amd64/compile/vNBx64 amd64
 
 >-2: awk 'BEGIN { max="10"+0 ; for (i=0; i<max; i++) {print i}; exit}' | wc -l
       10
 ok, if you want nummeric, add 0
 
 >-3: awk 'BEGIN { max="10" ; for (i=0; i<max; i++) {print i}; exit}' | wc -l
        2
 what others observed...
 
 >-4: awk 'BEGIN { max="80" ; for (i=0; i<max; i++) {print i}; exit}' | wc -l
        9
 hm, why 9? Maybe counts 0 to 8?
 
 >-5: awk 'BEGIN { max="90" ; for (i=0; i<max; i++) {print i}; exit}' | wc -l
       90
 And now? 90 is ok - or not?
 
 Seems that 1-8 are "special" and 9 is handled as expectet?
 
 
 FWIW: on an oldish Solaris-VM (SunOS ip8vms9 5.9 Generic_Virtual sun4v sparc sun4v)
 
 >-269: which awk
 /usr/xpg4/bin/awk
 >-270: awk 'BEGIN { max="10" ; for (i=0; i<max; i++) {print i}; exit}' | wc -l
       10
 
 >-271: /bin/awk 'BEGIN { max="10" ; for (i=0; i<max; i++) {print i}; exit}' | wc -l
        2
 and so on, same as on NetBSD above
 
 Kurt