AWK multiple line fields sorting

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

I have a bash script which takes a log file with each record separated by a #. The records have multiple fields but field $1 is always the date and time. When the script is run it prints the record just fine from oldest to newest. I need to have records print out from newest first.
Here is the part of the code:

LOGFILE=`if [ $MONTH = "" ] && [ $uid = "" ] && [ $ROUTER = "" ] ; then
nawk 'BEGIN {FS="\n"}{RS="#"}{print $0;}' tmp/file.log
echo "$LOGFILE"

Here is a sample of the output:

03-31-2010 00:13:51
ab1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: tool.cgi
show mem 
#
03-31-2010 00:15:35
bc1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: tool.cgi
show mem 
sh ip access-list PROTECT_RE
#
03-31-2010 12:51:20
de1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: ncg.cgi
vi aaa 
sho subscribers username 
#
03-31-2010 12:51:39
fg1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: config_ncg.cgi
vi bbb 
sho subscribers username 
#

Needs to be printed out like this:

03-31-2010 12:51:39
fg1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: config_ncg.cgi
vi bbb 
sho subscribers username 
#
03-31-2010 12:51:20
de1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: ncg.cgi
vi aaa 
sho subscribers username 
#
03-31-2010 00:15:35
bc1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: tool.cgi
show mem 
sh ip access-list PROTECT_RE
#
03-31-2010 00:13:51
ab1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: tool.cgi
show mem 
#
2

Could you post some small representative sample input (from your original data) and the output you'd like to get given that input.

3

The idea behind this is to display the log content via a browser. I have some filters to only print records that have a match. But mostly, I just need it to dispay from newest record first.

The orginal data file looks like:

#
03-31-2010 00:13:51
ab1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: tool.cgi
show mem 
#
03-31-2010 00:15:35
bc1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: tool.cgi
show mem 
sh ip access-list PROTECT_RE
#
03-31-2010 12:51:20
de1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: ncg.cgi
vi aaa 
sho subscribers username 
#
03-31-2010 12:51:39
fg1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: config_ncg.cgi
vi bbb 
sho subscribers username 
#

The output looks the same but without the #

03-31-2010 00:13:51
ab1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: tool.cgi
show mem 

03-31-2010 00:15:35
bc1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: tool.cgi
show mem 
sh ip access-list PROTECT_RE

03-31-2010 12:51:20
de1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: ncg.cgi
vi aaa 
sho subscribers username 

03-31-2010 12:51:39
fg1234
SUBMITTED FROM URL: config_ncg.cgi
vi bbb 
sho subscribers username
4 
nawk '{a[FNR]=$0;fnr=FNR}END{for(i=fnr;i--;) print a}' RS='#' myFile
5

Thank you vgersh99, works like a charm!

6

One more obstacle for me to over come. I need to put an if statement in the nawk statement. I only want it to print if field2 starts with my date variable and of course in reverse order.

I tried this but it is a no go.

nawk '{a[FNR]=$0;fnr=FNR} END {for(i=fnr;i--;) && if($2 ~ /^'$date'/) print a}' RS='#' myFile
7

How about:

nawk '{a[NR]=$0} END{for(i=NR;i--;) if(a~d) print a}' RS='#' d="$date"  myFile
8

Perfect! Thank you!