i have been trying to use a filter to test if the squid log is in native form or not? its not working at all the awk command does not execute the if statement within... i dont know what's wrong? can some one help! echo `awk ' { if($0 ~ "%g %e %a %w/%s %b %m %i %u %h/%d %c") (echo "file in native squid format!") else (echo "not in native form") } fi {print FNR OFS"," $3 $1 $6 $7} ' < $filename > out` ================================================= Is there any other way i can check the format? am i on the right track even??? thanks guys ===== deepak oberoi __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 50x more storage than other providers! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail