12.3.3 Checking for Readable Data Files

Normally, if you give awk a data file that isn't readable, it stops with a fatal error. There are times when you might want to just ignore such files and keep going. You can do this by prepending the following program to your awk program:

     
     # readable.awk --- library file to skip over unreadable files
     
     
     BEGIN {
         for (i = 1; i < ARGC; i++) {
             if (ARGV[i] ~ /^[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*=.*/ \
                 || ARGV[i] == "-")
                 continue    # assignment or standard input
             else if ((getline junk < ARGV[i]) < 0) # unreadable
                 delete ARGV[i]
             else
                 close(ARGV[i])
         }
     }
     

In gawk, the getline won't be fatal (unless --posix is in force). Removing the element from ARGV with delete skips the file (since it's no longer in the list).