AWK string conditional not working

Question

I am trying to run through a directory and ensure that root it not the owner of any of the files. With awk, I am having an issue where comparing a field to a string does not yield an accurate result.

ls -d -l /path/to/file/**/* | awk '{ if ( "$3" == "root" ); print "File has wrong permissions: " $9;}'

What is generated is a list of files, and when double checked, whose owner and groups are not root.

-rw-rw-r-- 1 foobar foobar 78828 Dec 4 11:15 /p/t/f/xyz/abc.jpg

Ideally, the end result would be something like:

ls -d -l /path/to/file/**/* | awk '{ if ("$3" != "deploy" || "$4" != "deploy") [...]

What is wrong?

Thank you.

awk is not like shell: replace "$3" != "deploy" with $3 != "deploy" — John1024
– John1024, Commented Dec 4, 2015 at 21:33

F. Knorr · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-04 21:37:26Z

1

The problem in your statement is the ; after the if-condition. This means the if-block is empty.
Remove the ; or better put the if-block in {...} and everything will work as you expect it. Moreover, you should not put fields in "..." ("$3" -> $3)

ls -d -l / | awk '{ if ( $3 == "root" ) print "File has wrong permissions: "$9;}'

or

ls -d -l / | awk '{ if ( $3 == "root" ){print "File has wrong permissions: " $9}}'

answered Dec 4, 2015 at 21:37

F. Knorr

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1 Comment

A.C Over a year ago

I knew had to be something small. Thanks!

Brian · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-04 21:34:55Z

0

You don't want to put $3 in quotes. If you do it becomes a string. In addition, you don't want a semicolon after the if condition - if you have it, then the if does nothing. It's likely you want to make those two changes:

ls -d -l /path/to/file/**/* | awk '{ if ( $3 == "root" ) print "File has wrong permissions: " $9;}'

answered Dec 4, 2015 at 21:34

Brian

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