That said, I find the initial "appetizer" example a bit contrived. To print all users from /etc/password from the command-line would probably not be done by writing a C program, by most (sane) people.
I would just do "cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd", which feels simpler than the awk example.
I used to work with a guy who would have done it that way. I do admit he was not entirely sane.
Personally I'd do it with two or three lines of python rather than awk, even though I theoretically know awk, because it's quicker for me to type the Python than to remember the syntax for the awk (wait, which brackets are which again?).
That's not an argument against learning awk, of course, that's an argument for why I should learn awk slightly better.
With C example I just wanted to illustrate how long the C program would be compared to Awk, and that it makes sense to learn a scripting language.
Yeah, the `cut -d: -f1 /etc/passwd` works.
CommandLineAlternative.to
Shows several ways to accomplish the same thing with those closest to the minimum amount of characters and intended command line tool.
http://www.catonmat.net/blog/top-ten-one-liners-from-command...